According to the new book, the Utah Republican and former presidential hopeful had an unnerving sensation on Jan. 2, 2021. "It begins with a text message from Angus King, the junior senator from Maine," the book explains.
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“Could you give me a call when you get a chance? Important," the text read.
King told him that he'd had a discussion with a high-ranking Pentagon official and that law enforcement had been tracking online chatter. Right-wing extremists were preparing for something on the day Donald Trump was holding his "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington.
"The president has been telling them the election was stolen; now they’re coming to steal it back," the book said. "There’s talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty. Romney’s name has been popping up in some frightening corners of the internet, which is why King needed to talk to him. He isn’t sure Romney will be safe."
The book goes on to say that Romney immediately thought to loop in McConnell.
"He’ll want to know about this, Romney thinks. He’ll want to protect his colleagues, and himself," the book explains.
“In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th," the text message read. "There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator — the President — is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”
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The report says, "McConnell never responds."
Americans watched what unfolded on that day, particularly when it came to Romney. At one point he was running through the Capitol for safety. He turned one direction and Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman shouted after him to say the attackers were in that direction. Romney thanked Goodman once the video was published, believing he saved Romney's life.
While the book focuses on the case of Romney, the details about what the Pentagon knew and was telling lawmakers is new information about the attack on the Capitol. The House Select Committee that investigated Jan. 6 and the 2020 election overthrow attempt uncovered that local law enforcement, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshal's Service, the White House and the Pentagon all were aware that violence was coming on Jan. 6.
But the book makes the first public connection between the Trump administration and a member of Congress.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday, former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann commented in passing that there still hasn't been an accounting of why all of these agencies dropped the ball on Jan. 6 and weren't prepared for the attack.
Weissmann's comments were directed at FBI Director Christopher Wray, who, he said, faces an increase in domestic terrorism, whereas in the past the FBI was focused on foreign actors.
"Many people say that one of the reasons that the FBI and other agencies really dropped the ball on Jan. 6th and were very slow to react is because they weren't thinking and correctly evaluating the problem of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers," Weissmann said.
"The internal text messages and communications. And the Secret Service is an example of that. These were white supremacy groups where they have not been traditionally viewed as posing the same kind of threat. And I think that was obviously wrong. I think there was a tinge of racism in that. And certainly comparing it to how they responded to Antifa."
Former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi similarly attacked the FBI in 2022, saying that they were suffering a "crisis of credibility" after the information uncovered about Jan. 6. It has been almost a year since he made the comment and nothing has changed.
Only a few days after the attack, Steven D’Antuono, the head of Washington's FBI field office claimed the FBI had no intelligence that suggested anything would happen on Jan. 6. It flies in the face of what the Pentagon relayed to King.
When FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, he too claimed that the FBI had no specific “intelligence indicating that hundreds and hundreds of people were going to breach the Capitol complex.”
As Figliuzzi told Wallace, not only did they all know, but they were briefing law enforcement about it on Jan. 5.
He went on to question if, "They dropped the ball because somebody at the White House told them don't take action to enhance security at the Capitol. Don't pound your fists on the table for Capitol police to do something."
