Christopher Miller, who served as the acting Secretary of Defense during former President Donald Trump’s last days in office, says he believes that the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol would not have happened if Trump did not deliver his now-infamous speech that day.
In an excerpt of an interview with Vice News that was released on Thursday, Miller was asked if he believed Trump was responsible for the violence.
“I don’t know, but it seems cause and effect,” Miller responded. “The question is, would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and tried to overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech?”
He continued, “I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened…So, uh, yes.”
However, he said, there is another question that needs to be answered, “Did he know that he was enraging the crowd to do that?”
Miller said he does not know if Trump knew that his comments would stir up the crowd and lead to violence.
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Trump was impeached by the House on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” for what lawmakers allege was his role in provoking a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Congressional Democrats argued that by claiming the election was stolen, Trump paved the way for the violence.
Additionally, they pointed to a speech he gave at a rally, before the riot, where he told his supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
He added, “We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”
We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
The Senate voted 57-43 to convict Trump on the charge. However, that number fell short of the required 67 votes to convict him.