Former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller
Miller, who had been the director of the National Counterterrorism Center until Trump picked him to head the Pentagon after he fired Mark Esper in November 2020, said that there was seemingly a "cause-and-effect" between Trump's speech and the riot.
Miller was asked if he thought the former president was "responsible" for the riot on Jan. 6, which was preceded by Trump encouraging hundreds of supporters gathered near the White House to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol where Congress was certifying President Biden's win.
"I don't know, but it seems cause-and-effect, yeah," Miller said. "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."
"The question is, 'Did he know that he was enraging the crowd to do that?' I don't know," Miller added.
Miller, who faced criticism over the time it took for the National Guard to secure the Capitol complex, was also asked about the delay. The response "comes back to understanding how the military works," he said.
"This isn't a video game. It's not Halo. It's not Black Ops Call [of] Duty," Miller said.
The former acting Pentagon chief said he did not speak to Trump on the day of the Capitol siege.
The Capitol incursion resulted in the deaths of five people, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and wounded dozens more. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on March 2 that the bureau has arrested more than 270 people on federal charges resulting from the siege and more than 300 people total when factoring in state and local partners.
The riot led to Congress impeaching Trump for an unprecedented second time — on the charge of inciting an insurrection. Following a five-day impeachment trial, Trump was acquitted in a 57-43 vote, with seven Republicans voting to convict the former president. To reach the two-thirds majority threshold to convict, 17 GOP senators would have had to join all 50 Democrats.
The full interview with Miller is set to air Sunday.
Zachary Halaschak is a breaking news reporter at the Washington Examiner. Before moving to Washington, he worked in Alaska, covering politics, government, and crime for the Ketchikan Daily News. While there, Zach won the Alaska Press Club's second-place award for best reporting on crime or courts for his coverage of a local surgeon's alleged murder. He graduated from the University of Richmond in 2017 and is originally from Marco Island, Florida.
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