Closing summary
It was a big night for revelations by the January 6 committee, which described in more detail than has been known in the past what Donald Trump was doing as the Capitol was attacked.
Here’s a rundown of what happened:
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A Democratic congresswoman who led the day’s presentation said Trump “was derelict in his duty” before and during the storming of the Capitol.
- Secret Service agents feared for their lives during the attack.
- Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who raised his fist in solidarity with the protesters that would go on to attack the Capitol, was shown fleeing through its halls.
- Republican Adam Kinzinger said Trump “kept resisting” actions demanded by his staff to end the violence.
- In speech outtakes, Trump struggled to say that the 2020 election was “over”.
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Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows called for the president’s daughter Ivanka to help convince him to stop the attack.
- House Republicans attacked the committee on Twitter, including one of their own staffers who was a witness. (They later deleted the tweet).
- The committee will have its next public hearings in September, and appears particularly interested in what the Secret Service knows about that day.
January 6 committee vice chair Liz Cheney reminded the public tonight that, essentially, the most serious evidence against Donald Trump in the “dereliction of his duty” as president has been presented by erstwhile allies and supporters.
As she wraps up, Cheney says: "The case made against him is not made by his political enemies. It is instead a series of confessions by Donald Trump's own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials, people who worked for him for years and his own family."
— Patricia Zengerle (@ReutersZengerle) July 22, 2022
Cheney, herself the Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, has been unsparing in her verbal flaying of Trump and his conduct.
