Kaitlan Collins Shuts Down Trump Attorney Who Repeats Debunked Claim His Client Authorized National Guard to Prevent Riot – Mediaite
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins shot down an already debunked Republican talking point that claims Donald Trump authorized thousands of National Guardsmen to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Pentagon has no record of any such National Guard order.
According to MAGA mythology, Trump authorized 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers – depending on who’s telling the fable – in anticipation of protests at the Capitol. Trump spent nearly two months telling his supporters the election was rigged against him, and on Jan. 6, he held a rally in Washington, D.C. in which he urged attendees to march to the Capitol. They subsequently stormed the building and delayed certification of the election for several hours.
During this time, the then-president reportedly watched the chaos unfold on television while ignoring calls for help.
On Friday’s edition of The Source, Collins interviewed former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who is also an attorney for Trump and just scored a win for his client hours earlier. A group of voters in the state sued to keep Trump off the presidential primary ballot by claiming he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from various offices those who have engaged in “insurrection.”
While the judge found that Trump’s actions do “easily satisfy” the definition of “insurrection,” she noted that the amendment omits the presidency and vice presidency from its list of prohibited offices. She said this is “odd,” but added, “Under traditional rules of statutory construction, when a list includes specific positions but then fails to include others, courts assume the exclusion was intentional.”
During his appearance, Gessler claimed Trump authorized the National Guard:
COLLINS: Is there anything, I guess, in the facts that [the judge] is laying out here in the statements she’s laying out here that you dispute about Trump’s behavior on that day?
GESSLER: Absolutely. He did not act with intent or specific intent at all. We thought the evidence was very clear, that he made efforts to ensure he authorized the National Guard, to make sure that they were available to prevent this type of violence. If you look at his actual tweets–
COLLINS: He didn’t authorize the National Guard that day.
GESSLER: He did. He did.
[CROSSTALK]
COLLINS: Kash Patel, his former aide testified that as one of your witnesses here. But when he was asked for any documentation or any evidence that Trump had done that, he didn’t provide any.
[Author’s note: in her ruling, the judge said Patel’s testimony was not credible (p. 14, n5) and said the claim is “devoid of any evidence in the record,” (p. 21)]
GESSLER: Yeah, well, there were two other– there was a second corroborative witness, Katrina Pierson. And in fact, the plaintiffs, they’re called petitioners brought it–
COLLINS: Katrina Pierson didn’t work in the White House.
GESSLER: Let me finish. Allow me to finish. A tweet from an adviser to President Trump who, that actually referenced President Trump’s efforts to make sure– to authorize the National Guard. I mean, it was their own evidence that they brought in that referenced that.
So, I don’t think it’s appropriate to say that he never authorized. That’s just not fair. And I don’t think the evidence leans in that direction. I thought we put out pretty strong evidence. And she can say she doesn’t believe people. But just because there’s not a specific written document doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
And frankly, part of the problem with this entire hearing was that we didn’t even have the time or the ability to send out subpoenas and get this type of witness testimony and look at other type of documents to be able to make our case. So, we were very limited on what we were able to do. So, to be able to say, “Well, you didn’t have enough or enough documents,” part of that was the truncated or compressed process, the lack of our ability to compel people to talk to us, the lack of our ability to get documents unless someone volunteered them to us. So, there were problems along those lines of the process itself. We thought there was very strong evidence.
COLLINS: This has been investigated time and time again, including by [the Jan. 6] committee. Donald Trump himself did not testify here. He blames Nancy Pelosi for [not] calling the National Guard that day, even though it was in his authority.
Watch above via CNN.
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