When Steve Bannon said on his radio show on Jan. 5, 2021 that “all hell” would break loose the following day, he wasn’t speculating. The Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday revealed that Bannon’s radio prediction came shortly after a phone call with President Trump, as the former president was in the final stages of preparing for his supporters to come to Washington to protest the results of the 2020 election.
The White House phone logs obtained by the Jan. 6 committee show that Trump spoke to Bannon at least twice on Jan. 5, once for 11 minutes beginning at 8:57 a.m., and again for six minutes beginning at 9:46 p.m. “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” Bannon said on the air after speaking to Trump that morning. “It’s all converging and now we’re on the point of attack tomorrow.”
“I’ll tell you this: It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen,” he added with a wry smile. “It’s going to be quite extraordinarily different. All I can say is, strap in.”
Bannon spoke to Trump twice on January 5th according to phone logs. After the first call, Bannon went on his podcast and said all hell would break loose pic.twitter.com/Um1syirDJm
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 12, 2022
The Jan. 6 committee is focusing its seventh hearing on Trump’s insistence on overturning the election results despite a lack of evidence that any fraud took place, and how his actions led to the deadly riot at the Capitol. The committee began the hearing by highlighting Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet saying that the upcoming protest on Jan. 6 will “be wild,” and that the tweet was sent hours after the conclusion of a contentious White House meeting about the effort to overturn the election.
The committee also revealed that Trump’s Jan. 6 rally call for his supporters to march to the Capitol was premeditated. “I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House),” read a draft of a tweet obtained by the committee. “Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!”
Bannon’s advance knowledge of Trump’s authoritarian moves wasn’t limited to Jan. 6. On Oct. 31, 2020, Bannon told a group that Trump planned to declare victory in the election whether he won or not, according to audio obtained by Mother Jones. “What Trump’s gonna do, is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon told people while laughing. “He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”