“Gleeful” and “fondly” are words ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl used to describe former President Donald Trump’s response to the Capitol riots in “Betrayal,” Karl’s new book.
According to USA Today, the book opens with excerpts from a conversation with Trump. Through these conversations, Karl shows how Trump felt as his supporters descended up on the Capitol on Jan. 6. During the insurrection rioters damaged property, multiple people died and a mob called for the execution of former Vice President Mike Pence.
“Well, the people were very angry,” Trump said of his supporters targeting Pence.
While others were taken to Fort McNair, Pence refused to leave the Capitol and waited for hours in a garage. In one photo from that day, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short uses his phone to show him Trump’s tweet saying the vice president had no courage.
Karl said that Trump felt betrayed by his inner circle and wanted to make “his erstwhile friends and allies pay a price for their betrayal.” This was the plan that made Trump “gleeful,” said the author.
Furthermore, Karl said that Trump looks back on Jan. 6 “fondly,” and believes that if events “turned out a little bit differently,” he would still be president.
When Trump recorded a message calling off his supporters from the Capitol, he was first reluctant to tell them to go home, said Karl.
Eventually he recorded a version that ended with “We love you. You are very special.”
“He complained about the election. He empathized with their anger, but he didn’t call on them to go home,” Karl wrote.
“Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” was released Tuesday. Karl is also the author of New York Times bestseller “Front Row at the Trump Show,” published last year.
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