President Donald Trump was too busy watching the Capitol insurrection violently unfold on TV to help quell it, advisors told The Washington Post.
Several lawmakers trapped in the Capitol during the siege told The Post that they tried reaching out to the president for help but that their calls went unanswered. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he called the president's daughter Ivanka Trump when the president failed to pick up the phone.
Trump was described as mesmerized by footage of his followers storming the Capitol and, perhaps, reluctant to turn away from the screen.
"It took him a while to appreciate the gravity of the situation," Graham told The Post. "The president saw these people as allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen."
"He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV," one Trump advisor told the paper. "If it's TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it's live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold."
Trump has long viewed his presidency through the lens of TV — some estimates say he watches up to five hours of cable news a day— so it's hardly surprising that he would opt to view the insurrection on-screen. He's also often used low television ratings as a means of insulting a person or organization.
For example, in August, Trump lambasted the NBA for its decision to allow athletes to kneel during the national anthem, warning that it would negatively affect the league's ratings.
"Look at the basketball ratings. They are down to a very low number,"he said. "There was a nastiness about the NBA the way it was done, too. The NBA is trouble. Big trouble. Bigger trouble than they understand."
He also regularly bragged about the ratings of his daily coronavirus briefings, once boasting that his briefings were as popular as the season finale of "The Bachelor."
Still, aides told The Post they were surprised by Trump's unwillingness to take action as events were unfolding. White House staff members alerted the president to the events at the Capitol at about 2 p.m. ET, but rather than urge his followers to remain calm he took the opportunity to send out a tweet expressing his disappointment with Vice President Mike Pence.
Read more:House Democrats introduce an article of impeachment charging Trump with incitement of insurrection
"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" Trump wrote at 2:24 p.m., as the mob was breaching the building.
A few minutes later, he followed up with a tweet urging the crowd to "support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement."
"They are truly on the side of our Country," he continued. "Stay peaceful!"
But advisors have said getting Trump to do more than tweet was difficult. At about 4 p.m. ET, they had the president film a video message in which he referred to the insurrectionists as "very special people" and told them "I know how you feel." He apparently ad-libbed at least part of it.
"We have to have peace," he said. "So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace."
Other politicians, including Rep. Kevin McCarthy and former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, said they also struggled to connect to the president on the afternoon of January 6.
"The president caused this protest to occur — he's the only one who can make it stop," Christie said on ABC News.
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