The House select committee investigating the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol said former president Donald Trump was at the center of a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, culminating in an “attempted coup.”
There were shocking new accounts of the worst attack on Congress in more than two centuries. The committee outlined in detail the grave threat that was posed to American democracy both then and now by Trump’s actions.
In its first televised hearing, shown last night in prime time, the committee portrayed that Trump executed a seven-part conspiracy to overturn a free, democratic presidential election.
The panel portrayed that Trump lied to the public, ignored all evidence that clearly refuted his false claims that the election was fraudulent, pressured state and federal officials to throw out the election result, and encouraged a violent mob to storm the capital. He even signaled support to hang his own vice president.
In new evidence, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) said Trump, aware of rioters chanting “hang Mike Pence,” responded by saying “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” and that Pence “deserves” it.
Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) and Cheney laid out what they described as “unconstitutional” misconduct of a former president who continues to push the lie that the presidential election was stolen from him.
Video evidence that has never been seen before was shown from the Jan. 6 insurrection, weaved together with lived testimony and videotaped depositions.
Depositions included some of Trump’s closest allies and family members including his daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump, son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, former attorney general, William Barr, and longtime aide and spokesman, Jason Miller.
It was the first of six public hearings, and showed what Thompson described as a “sprawling, multi-step conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election”.
The committee showed a clip of Barr saying that he repeatedly told Trump in no uncertain language that he had lost the election, and that his claims of it being stolen were “bullshit.”
Ivanka said she had “accepted” Barr’s determination that the election was fair.
The nearly year-long investigation included more than 100 subpoenas, 1,000 interviews, and 100,000 documents. The select committee will attempt to establish a comprehensive sequence of events that built up to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
On that day, Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” to save the country – and his presidency.
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