Trump waited hours to do anything on January 6, 2021

We all know what happened on January 6, 2021 – Rioters broke into the U.S. Capital in an attempt to stop the Electoral College from being certified. The events that unfolded were shocking and concerning. They have been used by both sides to twist the truth for a political message but there is one lie that keeps repeating itself on several media outlets and that is that President Trump waited hours to do anything on January 6, 2021.

The timeline of events is an open record. It unfolded on live broadcasts and communications from different parties are a matter of public record. We’ll skip the history of why the events unfolded and focus on one event – when rioters broke into the U.S. Capital and when President Trump responded to that.

The lie that many Democrats tout is that Trump waited 187 minutes before doing anything. That’s a lie because it was 38 minutes between that even happening and Trump publicly responding to it.

Here’s some examples of media outlets reporting that Trump did nothing for 187 minutes:

• https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/what-we-learned-trump-187-minutes/index.html
  • “What we know about Trump’s inaction during the 187 minutes of January 6”
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/what-happened-trump-jan-6-insurrection/
  • “The Capitol was under siege — and the president, glued to the television, did nothing. For 187 minutes”
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-62259739
  • “Donald Trump chose not to intervene as a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol, the committee alleged”

It is a fact that rioters entered the U.S. Capital at 2:06PM. It’s also a fact that Trump responded to that at 2:38PM by telling protestors to obey Capital Police. That’s 38 minutes.

At 3:13PM he tweets again.

At 4:03PM he records a video to tell protestors and rioters to go home. The video is released at 4:17PM

Sources:

• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT.pdf
• https://web.archive.org/web/20210128140315/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/capitol-insurrection-visual-timeline/?itid=hp-top-table-main-0106

Setting aside the arguments of what he did and the merits of those actions, the fact of the matter is that he did act and do something. He didn’t sit and watch TV for over three hours.

Protests happen and have happened before at the U.S. Capital but what was different was the events that happened after 2:06PM when they breached the Capital building and that is what we focused on. Democrats and media outlets start that clock when Trump ended his speech at The White House. It’s not clear why because “marches” or walks to the Capital happen all the time. The clock really starts at the moment when protestors entered the Capital. We shouldn’t start the clock any earlier and we need to stop the clock the first time Trump did anything about it. That happens to be 38 minutes which is less than the 187 minutes that some media outlets and the Democrats tout.