January 6 committee hearing summary
That’s it from us today. Here’s how the seventh public hearing held by the January 6 committee unfolded:
- Liz Cheney said Donald Trump attempted to contact one of the witnesses in the investigation after the committee’s last hearing. According to Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, the unnamed witness did not pick up Trump’s call. Instead, they contacted their lawyer, who in turn informed the committee about the call. The committee passed the information along to the justice department. “Let me say one more time: we will take any efforts to influence witness testimony very seriously,” Cheney said.
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The committee shared clips from Pat Cipollone’s closed-door testimony with investigators. Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, met with the committee for more than eight hours on Friday. He told the committee that he believed Trump should have conceded the election after the electoral college certified Joe Biden’s victory on 14 December. “If your question is, did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time? Yes, I did,” Cipollone said. The committee plans to show more of Cipollone’s testimony at its hearing next week.
- The committee argued Trump made a “deliberate” plan to call for a march to the Capitol on 6 January. Committee member Stephanie Murphy showed a draft tweet from Trump’s account reading, “I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!” The unsent and undated tweet, obtained from the National Archives, is stamped with the words “president has seen”.
- The committee detailed an “unhinged” meeting at the White House on 18 December. According to multiple witnesses, the meeting devolved into insults and shouting after some of Trump’s White House advisers attacked suggestions from Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Flynn to seize voting machines in battleground states. The next day, Trump sent his tweet encouraging supporters to come to Washington on 6 January for a “wild” event.
- The committee showed how Trump’s 19 December tweet led far-right groups to zero in on 6 January to protest the election. Committee member Jamie Raskin displayed a Facebook post written by Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs on 19 December, saying he he had organized an “alliance” between the Oath Keepers and two other far-right militia groups, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys. “We have decided to work together and shut this shit down,” Meggs said in the post.
- One of Trump’s former campaign advisers said his rhetoric was directly responsible for the deaths on 6 January. Brad Parscale told fellow campaign adviser Katrina Pierson he felt “guilty” about helping Trump win election in the days after the Capitol insurrection. “If I was Trump and I knew my rhetoric killed someone,” Parscale told Pierson in a text message. Pierson replied, “It wasn’t the rhetoric.” “Katrina,” Parscale said. “Yes it was.”
The blog will be back tomorrow with more analysis of the hearing and updates from Washington. See you then.
Updated
Analysis: January 6 testimony tells chilling tale of democracy hanging by a thread
Viewers learned of an “unhinged” White House meeting and rioters ready for war – but will it close the case against Trump?
“We settle our differences at the ballot box.”
Bennie Thompson, chairman of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, emphasised this article of faith in his opening remarks on Tuesday.
Trump allies “screamed” at aides who resisted seizing voting machines, January 6 panel hearsRead more
But what followed was a three-hour story about how American democracy, like a rickety old house, creaked and bent and struggled to hold itself together during a thunderstorm of political violence.
There was the tale of an Oval Office meeting that almost ended in fisticuffs. There was testimony from a former true believer in the “big lie” who joined the rampage at the Capitol. There were predictions that if Trump runs again, no one will be safe.
It was a chilling reminder that in a nation that has the genocide of Indigenous Americans, slavery, civil war and relentless gun violence in its cultural DNA, bloodshed is never far from the surface. Since white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been ascendent.
Jamie Raskin, another member of the panel, observed: “The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America.”
He quoted Abraham Lincoln: “Mobs and demagogues will put us on a path to political tyranny.”
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