Trump Pushed Back on Tweeting 'Any Sort of Mention of Peace'

Then-POTUS finally agreed to a line from Ivanka about staying 'peaceful'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2022 10:25 PM CDT
Trump Didn't Want to Tweet 'Any Sort of Mention of Peace'
This exhibit from video released by the House Select Committee, shows President Donald Trump recording a video statement on the afternoon of Jan. 6, from the Rose Garden.   (House Select Committee via AP)

Former President Trump was resistant to one word in particular, according to testimony at Thursday night's House Jan. 6 hearing: peace. Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews testified that as aides tried to convince Trump to condemn the violence at the Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6, then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told her that "the president did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet." According to McEnany and others in the room, Matthews testified, "there was a back and forth going over different phrases to find something that he was comfortable with."

She continued, per the Washington Post, “It wasn’t until Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase ‘Stay peaceful!’ that he finally agreed to include it.” The discussion occurred after Trump attacked Mike Pence in a tweet, Axios reports. Trump ultimately did send out a tweet urging rioters not to harm Capitol police and to "stay peaceful," per NBC News. Hours later, he tweeted, "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously, viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly, unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love and peace."

Along the same lines, the House panel showed previously unseen video of Trump in the Rose Garden, recording the infamous video in which he said to the still-rioting Capitol stormers, "We love you. You're very special." As the New York Times reports, the committee released the script for that video, in which Trump was supposed to say "I am asking you to leave the Capitol Hill region NOW and go home in a peaceful way." He did not include that line in the actual recorded speech, even though he'd reportedly seen the script, but did tell the rioters "I know how you feel," WRAL reports. (More Jan. 6 hearings stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X