A video that shows Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, is played as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2022.(Al Drago/Pool via AP)

Al Drago

WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone says he supported an “immediate and forceful” response from Donald Trump to the mob gathering outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and he had pushed for a strong statement to be issued.

The committee investigating the Capitol riot played parts of a videotaped interview with Cipollone during a prime-time hearing Thursday.

Cipollone said during that interview that "I can generically say that I said that people need to be told, there needs to be a public announcement, fast, that people need to leave the Capitol.”

He said it would have been possible for Trump to issue a statement from the White House press briefing room, but Trump didn't do that.

Former press aide Sarah Matthews testified that Trump could have gotten in “less than 60 seconds” to the briefing room, where a camera is on at all times.

She said “he could have been on camera almost instantly.”