Castro highlights how Trump's advisers 'begged' him to 'stop the attack'
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, continued to present the House impeachment managers' detailed timeline of the events at the Capitol and White House on Jan. 6, and said Trump did nothing to quell the protests even as those close to him asked for him to do so, suggesting Trump was the only one who could stop the siege. Instead, Castro said, Trump continued to incite the mob with tweets as violence was already underway.
"As this was unfolding and the crowd grew more violent, the president, of course, was not alone at the White House. And the people closest to him, his family, his advisers who saw this unfolding in real time, begged him -- implored him to stop the attack," Castro said, showing tweets and playing media appearances of both former and current Trump officials and lawmakers as they called on Trump, during the attack, to ask his supporters to go home.

Castro highlighted how Trump tweeted -- over an hour and a half into the attack at 2:24 p.m., while Pence was still sheltered inside the Senate chamber -- that Pence did not have "courage" to overturn the results as some rioters repeated the tweets on megaphones outside like marching orders. He then recounted how Trump tweeted at 3:13 p.m. to his supporters, still storming the Capitol, to "remain peaceful" and ended his tweet with a "Thank you!"
"Thank you for what? Thank you for shattering the windows and destroying property? Thank you for injuring more than 140 police officers?" Castro said.
The Texas representative also drew a clear distinction between Trump and Pence, despite his personal politics not matching to either.
"Mike Pence is not a traitor to this country. He is a patriot. And he and his family, who was with him that day, didn't deserve this, didn't deserve a president unleashing a mob on them. Especially because he was just doing his job," Castro said.





