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 Capitol. President Trump watched the mob of his supporters attack the Capitol on television as they occurred.

Instead of acting to stop the riot, however, President Trump continued to criticize those officials he viewed as not sufficiently supportive. He disparaged Vice President Pence, who refused to overturn the election, rightly recognizing that he did not have the authority to do so under the Constitution. At 1:49 PM—while the Capitol was under siege—President Trump tweeted a video of the rally. In the speech that he retweeted, he told the same crowd that was now storming the Capitol that “our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. [sic] … you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” In other words, just as his supporters were beginning to act, President Trump tweeted the very speech encouraging them to “be strong” and repeating the debunked lies about the election.

By 2:20 PM, the entire country saw on live television that the mob had caused both the House and the Senate to adjourn. Yet at 2:24 p.m., President Trump tweeted his anger about Vice President Pence: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” These statements occurred while the Capitol was under siege, insurrectionists roamed its halls, and Members of Congress huddled to protect themselves from the intruders.

President Trump—watching the violence unfold on television and his mob of supporters disrupt the proceedings—was “borderline enthusiastic because it meant the certification was being derailed.” His reaction “genuinely freaked people out” and he “repeatedly refused requests to get him to say something clearly rejecting the violence.” Although he tweeted twice in the mid-afternoon asking the crowd to be “peaceful,” these statements were not sufficient and were overshadowed by his other words. He told them to “stay” peaceful although he could clearly see