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A former top-ranking Defense Department official during the Trump administration says Democrats are losing their “narrative” about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
Kash Patel, who served as a national security adviser to the then-president and who testified before the Jan. 6 House select committee hand-picked by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said the Democrat claim that the incident was an “insurrection” is losing ground, The Epoch Times reported.
Patel also testified that ahead Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, the then-commander-in-chief verbally called for and authorized the deployment of National Guard troops, though the committee’s final report cast doubt on that claim as well as Patel’s credibility.
“Meanwhile, earlier this month, former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said that he was threatened by the panel to keep quiet after giving interviews with media outlets saying that the Guard troops were authorized by the former president,” the outlet reported.
This week, Patel told the Daily Mail that the attempt to prevent information about Trump’s apparent move to authorize the troops is primarily aimed at influencing public opinion.
“The whole point is it defeats their insurrection claim,” he said.
He added that if Trump “did not authorize the National Guard before Jan. 6, then how is it factually possible for Bowser and Pelosi to have rejected it, in writing. It’s impossible,” he said, referencing Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser as well.
According to the testimony of a former Secret Service official named Tony Ornato, the Democrat Mayor of Washington declined an offer for National Guard troops prior to the January 6th Capitol riot. Ornato testified that Bowser refused the offer, claiming that she had enough help. The day before the riot, Bowser had written a letter to the Department of Defense officials denying their offer to send Guard forces.
“So, they lose the narrative in the public sphere. Now, they’re losing it in the courts with all the litigation,” Patel said.
Asked about his conversation regarding Guard troops at the time, Patel said, quoting Trump: “Just in case there’s any security issues in D.C. or any other major city, I know you need my authorization, so I’m giving it to you. Don’t come back to me. You have it [authorization]. Don’t waste time if a governor asks for troops—you have it.”
Earlier this month, Trump did not mince words when he learned about recent findings by Republican investigators in the House involving the former Jan. 6 Committee.
Trump leveled fresh criticism at former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and the rest of the committee, which she co-chaired with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), over omissions and misrepresentations by the panel that led to false narratives about him and false allegations against him.
“She should go to jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” he wrote in response to a report from Just the News.
Trump’s comment came in response to a Just the News report indicating that Cheney attended the deposition of a Secret Service agent who provided a firsthand account of Trump’s presence in the limousine leaving the Stop the Steal rally on January 6. Instead of heading to the Capitol as promised to his supporters, the limousine took Trump to the White House.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, who was brought before the House Jan. 6 select committee at the behest of Cheney to speak out against Trump, alleged that she overheard Secret Service agents discussing an altercation involving Trump attempting to seize control of the presidential limousine’s steering wheel from the back seat.
“The driver testified that he specifically refuted the version of events as recounted by Hutchinson,” the report released by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the House Administration subcommittee on Jan. 6, noted. “The driver of the SUV testified that he ‘did not see him reach [redacted]. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel.
“I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,’” the agent testified, refuting Hutchinson’s account.
