Prior to Donald Trump's appearance at the Jan 6. "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol, close aides to Donald Trump begged him to not allow multiple far-right extremists to share the stage with him -- and he ignored them.
According to a report from the Daily Beast's Zachary Petrizzo, based upon transcripts released by the House select committee that investigated the insurrection that sent lawmakers from both sides of the aisle fleeing for their lives, behind his back some of Trump's advisers were furious with him for not heeding their warnings.
At issue, the Daily Beast report notes, was Trump's insistence on letting "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander and Infowars founder Alex Jones address that crowd -- two people one Trump aide dismissed as "crazies."
Despite their pleas, Trump "overruled" his advisers which set off a flurry of messages raging at the now-former president.
According to Petrizzo, "Republican operative—and Donald Trump Jr. friend—Arthur Schwartz asked senior Trump adviser Katrina Pierson, 'Why are we letting our people share a stage with Ali Akbar and people like that?'" to which she reportedly replied, "I’m so f*cking pissed. Such bullsh*t,” she replied.
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Schwartz then reportedly replied, "This is f*cking retarded."
Complaints about the inclusion moved up the line to Deputy Chief of Staff of Communications Dan Scavino who batted away the complaints and "wrote in a subsequent text message that Trump had 'brought up' Alexander by name and instructed that he be 'on stage not associated with POTUS or main event.'"
"Pierson wasn’t deterred," The Daily Beast report states. "She gave it one last shot by going to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, writing in a text message, according to the committee: 'Things have gotten crazy, and I desperately need some direction.' Moving the cast of controversial characters didn’t work, and she had to make the case to Trump himself at a Jan. 4 meeting, to 'keep the fringe on the fringe' and prohibit 'convicted felons'—a not-so-veiled dig at Alexander—from damaging the reputation of other pro-Trump speakers."
The report adds that Trump dismissed her concerns and "demanded that Alexander be issued a speaking slot, according to the committee," Petrizzo wrote.
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