Mary Trump: Donald Trump was ‘getting off’ on the January 6 violence – Business Insider

Former President Donald Trump's niece, author Mary Trump, said this week that she thought her uncle did not intervene to stop the violence on January 6 because he was "getting off on it."

Mary Trump was responding to new information revealed by Rep. Liz Cheney from the January 6 panel's investigation into the Capitol riot. Cheney told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that the former president continued to watch the January 6 riot unfold on TV from a dining room next to the Oval Office, instead of intervening to stop the violence.

Mary Trump responded to the news in an appearance on SiriusXM's "The Dean Obeidallah Show" this week.

"We know his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence. Obviously he didn't do that. Any of this surprise you?" Obeidallah asked Trump.

"No, and what's sort of eerie is that I thought we already knew that. Like, I had a picture in my head because it makes perfect sense of course, that's what he was doing. He was getting off on it," Trump told Obeidallah. "And there was no way he was going to stop anything because he was enjoying it too much, and he probably wanted it to get worse."

Trump added that she thought the only reason Ivanka and others in Trump's orbit were telling him to stop the violence at the Capitol was that it "got out of control."

"They really thought that they could control this monster they created and were probably hoping for a bloodless coup. If they could just get Pence to do, you know, in their view, the right thing, or delay enough or get it thrown to the Supreme Court or what have you," Trump said.

She added that Trump likely had "no interest" in telling them to stand down even after the crowd turned violent. Crowds breached the Capitol at 2:11 p.m. on January 6, and Trump waited a full hour before taking to Twitter and encouraging his followers to "remain peaceful" and "respect" authorities.

"They realized that they needed Donald to tell them to stand down, which he had no interest in doing because he probably thought, one, that it was fun to watch all these people being murderous on his behalf. But two that it would be the best way for him to stay in power," Trump added.

Trump has been an outspoken critic of her uncle. This past September, she called him a "fascist" and, on a separate occasion, a "loser."

Representatives for former President Donald Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In recent weeks, the January 6 select committee revealed panicked texts sent during the Capitol riot from Donald Trump Jr. to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. In those texts, Trump Jr. begged Meadows to get his father to give a speech to stop the insurrection.

According to the January 6 committee, Fox News hosts and other lawmakers also texted Meadows, imploring him to get Trump to stop the violence at the Capitol.

The former president continues to double down on his claims that the January 6 riot was a "completely unarmed protest of the rigged election."

Earlier this week, Trump called off a press conference initially scheduled for the one-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. He blamed the abrupt cancellation of the eventon "the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6 Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media."

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Mary Trump: Donald Trump was 'getting off' on the January 6 violence - Business Insider