# Donald Trump — "Mike Pence didn't have the courage" > [!quote] "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" > — Donald Trump, Twitter, January 6, 2021 (2:24 p.m.) ## Context Posted at 2:24 p.m. on January 6, 2021 — after, according to testimony before the Select Committee, Trump had been told a violent mob had already breached the Capitol and was hunting for [[Mike Pence]], who was being evacuated. The Committee showed video of rioters reading the tweet aloud on the Capitol steps, their anger at Pence visibly escalating; "Hang Mike Pence" chants followed. Pence later called the tweet "reckless." ## Why this matters **1. Target-marking during an active attack.** This is the [[Stochastic Terrorism]] mechanism at its most acute: not pre-event rhetoric but real-time direction of an in-progress mob's fury toward a specific, physically present individual — the Vice President of the United States. **2. It establishes knowledge and intent.** The 2:24 p.m. timestamp, set against testimony that Trump already knew of the breach, is why this post is central to every accounting of his conduct that afternoon. The post did not call off the mob; it redirected it. ## Verification - **Wording**: full text verified via NBC Washington, TIME, CNN, and the [[J6 Committee]] record. - **Timestamp**: 2:24 p.m., January 6, 2021, after Trump was informed of the breach (Committee testimony). - **Downstream**: rioters read it aloud; escalating threats against Pence; "reckless" (Pence, 2022). ## See also - [[Donald Trump - 2021-01-06 - pence courage tweet]] — paired Social Post entry - [[Donald Trump - be there will be wild]] — the summons three weeks earlier - [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] - [[Mike Pence]] — the target