I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order—respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

But almost every stage of the panicked response, and of everybody’s push to get him to understand the urgency here, prompted the same reactions from him: Denial—this wasn’t on him; he couldn’t control what people did; why couldn’t his people protest; it was mostly Antifa. Begrudging capitulation—he shouldn’t be blamed, but, okay, he’d say something. Fighting back—why should he say anything? People were upset. The election had been stolen from him and them.

The entire election narrative was quickly being transformed: the Capitol was under siege; the “steal” was moot. But Trump remained fixed in his obsession: the election had been taken from him, and whatever happened, someone had to give it back; he could not see or think or imagine beyond this.

By 3:30 p.m., he was telling callers that, yes, he had decided to say something. He was going to speak. But he was still repeating that the election had been stolen and was seeking assurances from each caller that the protests were overblown—that it was mostly a peaceful protest, wasn’t it?

A video became the plan, the safest sort of statement, with everyone in agreement: the president couldn’t go live.

But back in his overcoat out on the portico, even with a script in hand, he mostly defaulted to his worst instincts:

I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it. Especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us. From me. From you. From our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So, go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You’ve seen the way others are treated. They are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.

Kushner, having landed at about 4 p.m., back from the Middle East, concurred on the statement.

At 4:17 p.m., now with little question that the singular event of the Trump administration was unfolding, the president tweeted out his video with his begrudging call that the rioters go home.

Who were these people?