Christopher Miller (left) and Donald Trump.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty; MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
“The question is: Would anybody have marched on the Capitol and overrun the Capitol without the president’s speech? I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened — so yes,” Miller, 55, says in aclip of the episodereleased Thursday. “The question is: Did he know that he was enraging the crowd to do that? I don’t know.”
Asked if he believed Trump, 74, was ultimately responsible for the Capitol riots, in which five people died, Miller says in the clip: “I don’t know, but it seems cause and effect, yeah.”
Miller tells VICE he found Trump’s language during a rally delivered the morning of Jan 6. — in which Trump implored supporters to march to the Capitol, “peacefully and patriotically,” but also to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results and prevent the country from being stolen away from them — to be “concerning.”
Not long after Trump delivered his speech, a mob of his supporters breached the Capitol building, sending lawmakers including former Vice PresidentMike Penceinto hiding. A Capitol Police officer died.
Christopher Miller.Joshua Roberts-Pool/Getty
In his upcoming appearance on VICE’s show, Miller also addresses criticism that the militarydidn’t respond rapidly enoughto the breach, ultimately leaving Capitol Police overwhelmed.
“It comes back to understanding how the military works,” Miller says. “This isn’t a video game. It’s notHalo, it’s not …Call of Duty.”
Miller pushed back on that criticism in the weeks following the insurrection, releasing astatementon Jan. 15 that the Department of Defense would launch an invention into the events, but that he was “proud of the efforts … to secure the Capitol” that day.
“The American people deserve transparency about the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2020,” the statement read. “The DoD IG Report will be but one of many efforts to provide that transparency and the Department will do everything it can to ensure that review is fulsome, thorough, and holds parties to account. We are proud of the efforts of DoD personnel to secure the Capitol on January 6th when called upon on and throughout the Presidential Inaugural events next week.”
Miller previously served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center until November 2020, when he was named acting secretary of defense following Trump’sfiringof Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
The House of Representatives charged Trump on Jan. 13 with inciting an insurrection in the Capitol riots.
source: people.com
