What did Donald Trump think he was even doing?
During Thursday’s public hearing, a Capitol Police officer corroborated Cassidy Hutchinson’s story about Donald Trump trying to force the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol during the January 6th attack. This helps prove Trump’s criminal intent; after he created that mob, he tried to use it to carry out criminal acts. But it also underscores just how desperate Trump was that day.
Josh Hawley helped incite that same mob. They were playing for his team. Those rioters loved Hawley. Yet when they came barreling down the Capitol corridors, Hawley ended up hauling ass for fear of getting unintentionally stampeded by them.
If Donald Trump had managed to get to the Capitol while that was going on, in his poor health and shape, he’d likely have ended up trampled by his own supporters. It’s really difficult to imagine Trump having entered that fray and survived.
Moreover, anyone watching the Capitol attack on television – particularly someone like Trump who’s elderly and frail and moves poorly – would have surely realized that going to the Capitol in that moment would have been very dangerous.
Did Trump imagine that the riotous mob would suddenly part like the Red Sea for him? Sure, they were his supporters. But they were also so violently out of their minds, even Josh Hawley – who’s only 42 years old and runs like Yosemite Sam but is at least able to run – was afraid for his safety in the chaos. Just how deluded is Donald Trump, that he thought he could successfully navigate his way through the midst of a riotous terrorist attack? This guy may be even more deranged than we all thought, which is saying something.
