Jan 6 rioter blames Trump for Capitol attack: ‘We were just following what he said’

Trump supporter details how president’s words had great effects on crowd

Stephen Ayres, left, and Jason Van Tatenhove at Tuesday’s hearing (Getty Images)

A man who earlier this year pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the Capitol riot testified on Tuesday that he went to the attack at Donald Trump’s direction.

Stephen Ayres told committee members during his testimony that he had never planned to go to the Capitol itself before Donald Trump’s rhetoric during his speech directing his supporters to march to the building and “fight” for his election fraud conspiracies.

“Basically the president, he got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down, so we basically [were] just following what he said,” Mr Ayres testified.