Trump Jr. details efforts to sway father on Jan. 6 in panel deposition

Donald Trump Jr. detailed his efforts to convince his father to take a more forceful stand against the Capitol riot in his deposition with the House Jan. 6 panel, a transcript of which was released on Thursday. 

Trump Jr.’s deposition in May was among nearly 20 near transcripts released from the committee’s sprawling investigation into the events on and around the attack on the Capitol. 

Trump Jr. discussed his efforts to convince then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get his father to say something that might calm the crowd that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers set to certify the results of the 2020 election.  

“He’s got to condemn this shit. Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Trump Jr. wrote in a text to Meadows the afternoon of Jan. 6. The text has been previously reported. Former President Trump had earlier urged people in a tweet to respect the Capitol Police, who were overrun by a mob seeking to get into the Capitol to stop the counting of the Electoral College vote. 

Trump Jr. told the panel he saw little chance that former Vice President Mike Pence would not certify the results of the election, despite the urgings to not do so by the elder Trump.  

The transcript includes a number of instances of Trump Jr. saying he does not remember or recall certain questions or statements, such as why he thought the Capitol Police tweet sent by his father was not enough.  

He said he sought to reach Meadows and not his father via the telephone because his father doesn’t text and because he didn’t want to have a conversation with his father that others could hear. Trump Jr. said he was at the airport leaving Washington, D.C., for New York when he first texted Meadows. 

Trump Jr. also texted Meadows that he had to “go to the mattresses” to get his father to condemn the violence. Asked about the remark, Trump Jr. said it was a “Godfather” reference and that it meant Meadows needed to go “all in” in convincing Trump to issue a different statement.  

He also said he had pushed in texts to Meadows for his father to deliver an Oval Office address, arguing it would have matched the “gravitas” of the situation more than a series of tweets. 

Trump eventually circulated a video from the White House in which he repeated his baseless claims that the election had been stolen and argued people had “taken” a victory away from him and his supporters, though he called on people to go home because “we have to have peace.” 

“I’m not saying it didn’t come across as leadership,” Trump Jr. told the panel of his father’s leadership. “I think he needs to go further, you know.

“I wasn’t in the White House to help with that, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened. But I did think we just needed to be more forward and move out there at that point.” 

Elsewhere in the interview, Trump Jr. says he does not know if the conversation on Jan. 6 between Trump and Pence was particularly heated, as had been described by others to the panel. 

“I think, you know, by father’s default more is probably heated,” he said in the interview.