Trump January 6 rally tweet was a 'call to arms': committee

Members of right-wing militia groups and other supporters of Donald Trump staged the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol after a tweet from the former president was seen as a "call to arms," lawmakers said Tuesday.

During its seventh televised public hearing, the House committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans examined the impact of a tweet that Trump sent on December 19, 2020 urging his supporters to descend on Washington on January 6 for a rally he promised would be "wild."

The tweet was sent a little more than an hour after Trump met at the White House with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former general Mike Flynn, and Sidney Powell, another attorney, for a strategy meeting that one aide described as "unhinged."

Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers stormed Congress on January 6 along with thousands of other Trump loyalists in an attempt to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory, which Trump falsely claims was marred by fraud.

Representative Stephanie Murphy, another committee member, said the tweet "served as a call to action, and in some cases as a call to arms, for many of president Trump's most loyal supporters."

The committee said two of Trump's closest backers, Flynn and political consultant Roger Stone, had connections to the Oath Keepers.