Two Trump allies – former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – have also been held in criminal contempt by the House for declining to cooperate with investigators after being subpoenaed. The House Select Committee investigating January 6 has already met with several Trump allies, campaign aides and former White House staffers who were directly or tangentially involved in planning the “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump addressed his supporters hours before they stormed the Halls of Congress nearly one year ago. With every passing day your hand gets stronger,” he recalled telling Trump. “It will be an event that won’t penetrate the way you would like and focus on election reform. Graham, who maintains a close relationship with the former President, told the Wall Street Journal that he urged Trump to proceed with a cancellation because “the upside of a news conference is pretty small.” Trump reportedly floated the idea of canceling the press conference, which had left Republicans fearful of what he might say, during a golf outing with South Carolina Sen. “I think he realized this is the kind of thing that works better at a rally with his supporters,” this person said.Ī Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. “A lot of the feedback he got was negative,” said the person familiar with the situation, who added that some Trump allies told the former President that his news conference would divert attention “away from Democrats at a time when their party is becoming really unpopular with Americans.” The former President was also facing pressure from outside advisers and Republican lawmakers to cancel the news conference and instead keep a low profile on Thursday. The same source said Trump slowly realized that most, if not all, of the major news networks were not going to carry his press conference live or send their top reporters to Palm Beach to cover it. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are also slated to deliver remarks on Thursday. Had the former President gone through with the news conference, he would have been competing with a series of somber tributes organized by congressional Democrats at the US Capitol. “This is the Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit,” Trump said.Ī person familiar with the situation told CNN that Trump decided to call off the event due to the news media’s apparent lack of interest in covering it live on Thursday. Previewing those complaints, Trump blasted the House panel that is currently investigating the events leading up to the deadly January 6 riot in Washington and accused the news media of assisting congressional Democrats on the panel with “the Crime of the Century.” In a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, the former President confirmed that he would no longer be hosting the news conference at his oceanfront club and would instead air his grievances at an upcoming campaign-style rally in Arizona. Former President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a news conference late Tuesday that he was scheduled to host at Mar-a-Lago on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, but which his allies had warned would cause unnecessary problems for Republicans and himself.
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