Very possible. My question was about what was the practical import of Trump wanting to remove the magnetometers, meaning, did this result in an increase in - or really have anything to do with - the number of armed people attacking the Capitol?
Looking at the transcript of the testimony:
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: When we were in the offstage announce area tent behind the stage he was very concerned about the shot, meaning the photograph that we would get, because the rally space wasn’t full. One of the reasons which I’ve previously stated was because he wanted it to be full and for people to not feel excluded because they had come far to watch him at the rally.
And he felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in. But another leading reason and likely the primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons, what the Secret Service deemed as weapons and are — are weapons.
But when we were in the offstage announce tent, I was part of a conversation — I was in — I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the President say something to the effect of, you know, I - - I don’t effing care that they have weapons.
They’re not here to hurt me. Take that effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away. [End Videotape]
LIZ CHENEY: Just to be clear, Ms. Hutchinson, is it your understanding that the President wanted to take the mags away and said that the armed individuals were not there to hurt him?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: That’s a fair assessment.
LIZ CHENEY: The issue wasn’t with the amount of space available in the official rally area only, but instead that people did not want to have to go through the mags. Let’s listen to a portion of what you told us about that. [Begin Videotape]
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: In this particular instance, it wasn’t the capacity of our space. It was the mags and the people that didn’t want to come through. And that’s what Tony had been trying to relay to him that morning. You know, it’s not the issues that we encounter on the campaign. We have enough space, Sir. They don’t want to come in right now.
They — they have weapons that they don’t want confiscated by the Secret Service. And they’re fine on the mall. They can see you on the mall and they’re — they want to march straight to the Capitol from the mall. [End Videotape]
LIZ CHENEY: The President apparently wanted all attendees inside the official rally space and repeatedly said, quote, “They’re not here to hurt me.” [Begin Videotape] And — and just to — to be clear. So he was told again in — in that conversation — or was he told again in that conversation that people couldn’t come through the mags because they had weapons?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: Correct.
LIZ CHENEY: And that people — and he — his response was to say they can march to the Capitol from — is it from the ellipse?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON: Something to the effect of take the effing mags away. They’re not here to hurt me. Let them in. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rallies are over. They can march from — they can march from the ellipse. Take the effing mags away. Then they can march to the Capitol. [End Videotape]
Transcript of the sixth Jan. 6 committee hearing on its investigation : NPR
Based on all this, it looks to me like all the armed people were there anyway. They were hanging out on the Mall and not going into the rally because of the magnetometers. They intended to march from the Mall directly to the Capitol. So whether they were or weren’t let in to the rally had nothing to do with their participation in the attack on the Capitol.
Trump’s issue, as has been his wont, was his obsession with crowd size. He needed to have a huge crowd show up in photos of the event, and he was concerned that if these people watched the rally from the Mall and went directly from the Mall to the Capitol, then they wouldn’t show up in the pictures of the rally. So he wanted them in.