Key takeaways
- The committee made the case that the attack on January 6 was the “culmination of an attempted coup.” Presenting an overview of this hearing and the ones to come, House select committee chair Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney presented their finding that the violent mob that descended on the Capitol was no spontaneous occurrence. Video testimony from Donald Trump’s attorney general, his daughter, and other allies make the case that the former president was working to undermine the election results and foment backlash. “The central question is whether the attack on the Capitol was coordinated and plan that you witnessed this what a coordinated and planned effort would look like,” Thompson said. “It was the culmination of months long effort spearheaded by President Trump.”
- Even as Trump carried on his lies that victory was stolen from him, his own administration and allies agreed there the election was legitimate. Former attorney general William Barr testified that he expressed that Trump’s claims of a stolen election were “bullshit”. A Trump campaign lawyer told Mark Meadows in November “there’s no there there” to support Trump’s claims of widespread fraud. Even Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, said she was convinced by Barr that the election was legitimate.
- Graphic footage and harrowing testimony from officer Caroline Edwards, who on the first line of defense against the attacking mob, reiterated the terror of the insurrection. Edwards compared the scene to a war zone, saying she was slipping on others’ blood as she fought off insurrectionists. “It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw,” she said. The officer sustained burns from a chemical spray deployed against her, and a concussion after a bike rack was heaved on top of her. Officers and lawmakers watching the hearings teared up as they relived the violence of that day.
- As the attack was being carried out, and the mob was threatening vice president Mike Pence’s life, Trump and his team working to undermine the election carried on their work. After Pence refused to block the election certification, Trump and his supporters turned against him, and Trump fomented resentment in his tweets. As the mob cried “Hang Mike Pence!” the committee presented evidence that Trump suggested that might not be a bad idea.“Mike Pence deserves it,” the president then said. As violence ensued, “the Trump legal team in the Willard Hotel war room,” continuing attempts to subvert the election results, Cheney said.
- Footage and testimony from film-maker Nick Quested, one of two witnesses at the hearing, suggested that the Proud Boys had planned to attack. On the morning of January 6, Quested testified that he was confused to see “a couple of hundred” Proud Boys walking away from Trump’s speech and toward the Capitol. The committee implied that this might have allowed them to scope out the defenses and weak spots at the Capitol.
Updated
Following the harrowing video and testimony, Lila, a Capitol police therapy dog, is there to provide support.
Lila, the USCP therapy dog, is on the scene providing comfort after the hearing wrapped.
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) June 10, 2022
Family members of the officers who died after the 1/6 attack are finding comfort in this sweet pup. pic.twitter.com/Kb6pWRLzbQ
Key revelations from the second half of the hearing:
- Top members of both the Oath Keepers, a rightwing militia group, and the Proud Boys, another far-right group, have been charged with seditious conspiracy. Video footage of their meeting suggests they may have worked together.
- Film-maker Nick Quested, who was with the Proud Boys on January 6, said he was confused to see “a couple of hundred” Proud Boys walking away from Donald Trump’s speech that morning and toward the Capitol. The committee suggested this could be in order to scope out the Capitol before attacking.
- Officer Caroline Edwards compared the scene to a war zone, saying she was slipping on others’ blood as the attack escalated. “It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw,” she said.
Updated
The January 6 committee shared never-before-seen footage of the Capitol attack, which showed Trump supporters attacking police officers before storming the building.
In one clip, an insurrectionist with a bullhorn read aloud Trump’s tweet crticizing his vice-president, Mike Pence, for not attempting to block the certification of the 2020 election results. The next clip showed a mob chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
The alarming footage was difficult to watch for all of those who were at the Capitol on January 6, including lawmakers.
“Watching this brings back a lot of memories and emotions I haven’t experienced in a while,” Democratic congressman Brendan Boyle said on Twitter.
Updated
Committee adjourns
The hearing ended with a video compilation rioters saying they attacked the Capitol because of Donald Trump
“Trump asked me to come.”
“He personally asked us.”
Officer Edwards: 'I was slipping in people's blood'
The committee showed graphic footage Caroline Edwards getting injured during the riot.
She and four other officers were standing guard at the edge of the Capitol lawn, when the crowd began surging toward them. Edwards sustained sustained burns from chemical spray that the rioters deployed, and a concussion after a bike rack was heaved on to her and she fell to the ground.
The scene was like a “war zone” she said, and she was slipping on others’ blood. “It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw.
“I’m not combat trained,” she added. “It was hours of dealing with way beyond what any law enforcement officer is trained for.”
Updated
On the morning of January 6, film-maker Quested testified that he was confused to see “a couple of hundred” Proud Boys walking away from Donald Trump’s speech and toward the Capitol.
The committee implied that this might have allowed them to scope out the defenses and weak spots at the Capitol.
“The central question is whether the attack on the Capitol was coordinated and plan that you witnessed this what a coordinated and planned effort would look like,” Thompson said. “It was the culmination of months long effort spearheaded by President Trump.”
Updated
“There’s mutual respect there. We’re fighting the same fight,” said Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio. A videographer filmed a meeting between Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes on 5 January 2021.
Top members of both the Oath Keepers, a rightwing militia group, and the Proud Boys, another far-right group, have been charged with seditious conspiracy. But the committee may tonight lay out how the groups may have worked together.
Updated
As the committee played never-before-seen footage of the attack on the Capitol, several law enforcement officers who were there that day could be seen in tears.
Among those in attendance are Harry Dunn, a US Capitol police officer, Daniel Hodges, a Washington DC police officer who was beaten with his own baton, Sgt Aquilino Gonell of US Capitol police, and DC police officer Michael Fanone, who was nearly killed during the attack. US Capitol Officer Caroline Edwards, who sustained a brain injury during the attack is also there and currently testifying. Several family members of law enforcement who died as a result of the attack attended, including Gladys Sicknick, the mother of office Brian Sicknick.
Officers Dunn, Hodges, Gonell and Fanone, who responded to the Capitol attack, are in attendance along with the widows of the officers who died in the aftermath of 1/6.
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) June 9, 2022
Dunn is wearing a shirt that says: “insurrection: a violent apprising against an authority or government” pic.twitter.com/Bqr2ElFeEX
Updated
“I was an American, standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself … how had we gotten here,” said officer Caroline Edwards.
As was working on January 6 to protect the Capitol, she was called “Nancy Pelosi’s dog”, “incompetent”, “villain”, “traitor,” she said.
“They dared to question my honor. They dared to question my loyalty. And they dared to question my duty,” she said. “I am a proud American and I will gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come”.”
Updated
Witnesses sworn in
Nick Quested, a film-maker who was embedded with the Proud Boys, and Caroline Edwards, a Capitol police officer vowed to testified truthfully.
Both were there as Trump supporters breached the Capitol. Edwards was knocked unconscious as the mob advanced.
Updated
Key revelations so far
We’re a little under an hour into this hearing and already there have been a number of explosive revelations.
Here are some of the most notable:
- Trump supported the assasination of Mike Pence. When he learned supporters were chanting “hang Mike Pence,” Trump said “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” Liz Cheney revealed on Thursday. “Mike Pence deserves it,” the president added.
- Congressman Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, inquired about a pardon after the 6 January riot. Perry played a key role in efforts to overturning the election.
- Ivanka Trump told the committee she was persuaded by Attorney General William Barr’s statement that there was no widespread fraud in the election. “I respect attorney general Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
- Jared Kushner dismissed the White House counsel’s threats to resign on 6 January, saying it seemed more like whining to him
- Attorney General William Barr told Trump his claims of a stolen election were “bullshit”.
- A Trump campaign lawyer told Mark Meadows in November that they weren’t finding widespread fraud. “So there’s no there there,” Meadows told the campaign lawyer.
Updated
Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat of Virginia, is in the room tonight to witness the January 6 committee’s first primetime hearing.
“I was in the House Chamber on Jan. 6 as insurrectionists tried to break down doors and law enforcement bravely fought back,” Spanberger said on Twitter. “I’ll be watching the hearing tonight, because we need accountability.”
Spanberger is a member of the so-called “Gallery Group,” the House Democrats who were in the chamber as the insurrection started. The group has become close since the January 6 attack, and several of its members planned to attend tonight’s hearing together, Axios reports.
“This was no tourist visit to the Capitol,” Bennie Thompson said, introducing graphic video of the violent mob attack on the Capitol.
Trump supporters in tactical gear and body armor are seen attacking officers. Footage shows staffers running scared through the office of Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader who has tired to downplay the insurrection.
Footage of violence is spliced with Trump saying that these were “peaceful people”.
What’s happening over at Fox News at the moment? After all, they’re not carrying the January 6 hearings live (leaving them to the smaller Fox Business network).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s Tucker Carlson downplaying the attack on the Capitol, which has been connected to the deaths of at least seven people.
On Fox News, Tucker Carlson brags about being the only network not to show the Jan. 6 hearing.
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) June 10, 2022
He says that Jan. 6 was a "a forgettably minor outbreak" of violence and says "it was not even close to an insurrection."
Pence's counsel to Trump attorney John Eastman: Attack was 'thanks to your bullshit'
Cheney previewed evidence that John Eastman, a lawyer involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, who, she said “did not actually believe the legal position he was taking”.
But it revved up the mob. As the attack on the Capitol was underway, and Mike Pence’s live was being threatened, Pence’s legal counsel emailed Eastman: “Thanks to your bullshit, we are under siege.”
Email records show that Eastman showed no remorse in his response: “My “bullshit” - seriously? … The ‘siege’ is because you and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way…”
And yet, Cheney continued, “While Congress was under attack on January 6, and the hours following the violence, the Trump legal team in the Willard Hotel war room,” continuing attempts to subvert the election results.
Updated
Cheney and the committee are making the case from the start that Donald Trump’s own administration, his own allies and aides were aware that he wanted to overturn the election results.
She is also making is a focused effort to diffuse accusations that the hearings are a partisan effort. Cheney, a Republican representative of Wyoming, played a clip of testimony from Pence’s chief of staff, explaining why the former vice president ultimately resisted Trump.
For four years, Pence “I was proud to have stood beside the president,” chief of staff Marc Short said in the clip. “I think he ultimately knew that his fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost.”
Cheney said that Trump’s effort to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, to subvert the election results “wasn’t just wrong – it was illegal and it was unconstitutional.”
More clips presented show testimony from Barr saying that there wasn’t enough to overturn the election, and a preview of an interview with Ivanka Trump.
Asked what she made of Barr’s assertion that the election result was legitimate, Trump’s daughter said: “I respect Attorney General Barr so I accepted what he was saying.”
Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney led her speech with Trump’s own words: “President Trump believed his supporters at the Capitol were, and I quote, ‘doing what they should be doing’,” she said.
She referenced Trump’s reaction to rioters’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence”: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea … Mike Pence deserves it.”
“On the morning of January 6, President Donald Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States, despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power,” she said.
Updated
‘January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup,’ Thompson said.
The first video clip we are presented is of former Attorney General Bill Barr, who calls the claims of a stolen election “bullshit”. Barr testified that he repeatedly told Donald Trump that he didn’t agree with lies that the 2020 election was stolen. “Here was the attorney general of the United States, the top law enforcement official in the country, telling the president exactly what he thought about claims of a stolen election,” Thomson said.
But the big lie that the election was stolen didn’t end there, Thompson continued. “That was only the beginning of what became a sprawling, multistep conspiracy, aimed at overturning the presidential election, aimed at throwing out the votes of millions of Americans. Your vote. Your voice.”
Updated
Bennie Thompson, chair of House committee investigating the attack, began by invoking the “dark history” of Missouri, and a time when people in power justified “the actions of slavery, the Klu Klux Klan and lynching.”
“I’m reminded of that dark history, as I hear voices today, try and justify the actions of the insurrection on January 6, 2021,” he said.
January 6 hearing begins
Lawmakers who were trapped in the upper gallery of the House as rioters descended are in the audience, as are police officers who defended the Capitol.
This is the first of several hearings that are the result of a year of investigation, including interviews with 1,000 witnesses.
Updated
Nick Quested is expected to give a short opening statement about how he filmed the far-right Proud Boys group and how the crowd turned from protesters to insurrectionists.
According to sources familiar with how things are being scheduled, Quested will deliver very brief remarks before testifying about his recollections embedding with the Proud Boys through January 6.
“Thank you for the introduction. As stated in the winter of 2020/2021, I was working on a documentary. As part of that documentary, I filmed several rallies in Washington DC on December 11 and December 12, 2020,” Quested will say in his statement obtained by the Guardian.
“I learned there would be a rally on the mall on January 6, 2021, and three colleagues and I came to document the rally. According to the permit for the event there was to be a rally at the Ellipse. I arrived as a group was heading West on the Mall.
“I observed a large contingent of Proud Boys marching to the Capitol. I filmed the crowd walking toward Capitol Hill. Almost immediately I was separated from my colleagues. I documented the crowd turn from protesters to insurrectionists.
“I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger, and the profanity. I experienced pepper spray, violent surging, and I heard aggressive chanting. I shared this footage with the authorities. I am here today pursuant to a House subpoena.”
The opening statement is notably short for a congressional hearing, in large part because the select committee is keen to dive straight into his testimony, and the length of the statement was a subject of extended negotiation with the panel, the sources said.
After the hearing, Quested is expected to deliver a longer statement talking about his motivations for filming the Proud Boys as well as his motivations for testifying to the select committee, both in closed-door depositions and at the inaugural hearing.
Updated
We’re expecting to hear from who witnesses tonight:
Nick Quested, a film-maker who was embedded with the Proud Boys, saw the insurrection escalate and unroll.
Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer, was among the first to respond to the attack.
Committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice-Chair Liz Cheney will question both witnesses, focusing “particularly what they saw and heard from the rioters” according to the committee.
Updated
Setting the stage...
Ed Pilkington in New York and Lauren Gambino in Washington report:
The directors are hoping that the storyline will have all the elements of a TV smash hit: a King Lear figure ranting and raving as his power slips away from him, a glamorous couple struggling to rise above the fray, shady characters scheming sedition in hotel bedrooms, hordes of thugs in paramilitary gear chanting “hang him” as they march on the nation’s capitol.
When the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection opens its hearings on Thursday evening, it will do so in prime time and with primetime production values. The seven Democrats and two Republicans – shunned by their own party – who sit on the panel are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to seize the public’s attention.
They have brought onboard a former president of ABC News, James Goldston, a veteran of Good Morning America and other mass-market TV programmes, to tightly choreograph the six public hearings into movie-length episodes ranging from 90 minutes to two and a half hours. His task: to fulfill the prediction of one of the Democratic committee members, Jamie Raskin, that the hearings “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House”.
To amplify the event, activists are hosting dozens of public watch parties in living rooms and union halls across the country. A “flagship event” will take place at the Robert Taft Memorial and Carillon in Washington, where attendees can watch the hearing on a jumbotron while enjoying free Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream.
Read more:
Insurrection put 'centuries of constitutional democracy at risk' – committee chair
Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House January 6 select committee, will open tonight’s hearing by emphasizing that the world is watching to see whether America can continue to be the standard bearer for liberal democracy after the Capitol attack.
Just in: Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson opening statement excerpt: “January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 9, 2022
“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug. The American people deserve answers. So I come before you this evening not as a Democrat, but as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution. The Constitution doesn’t protect just Democrats or just Republicans. It protects all of us: ‘We the People.’ And this scheme was an attempt to undermine the will of the people,” Thompson will say.
He plans to continue: “So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over. There are those in this country who thirst for power but have no love or respect for what makes America great: devotion to the Constitution, allegiance to the rule of law, our shared journey to build a more perfect Union.
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here. America has long been expected to be a shining city on a hill. A beacon of hope and freedom. A model for others—when we’re at our best. How can we play that role when our own house is in such disorder?
“We must confront the truth with candor, resolve, and determination. We need to show that we are worthy of the gifts that are the birthright of every American.”
Thompson: “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve, and determination. We need to show that we are worthy of the gifts that are the birthright of every American.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 9, 2022
Updated
As the country prepares for the first primetime hearing held by the January 6 committee, some groups are already looking ahead to how those who participated in the Capitol attack can be held accountable.
The progressive group Our Revolution has sent letters to 51 state election officials, asking them to “enforce the Constitution and bar criminal insurrectionists from the ballot”.
“The American people cannot stomach any more political theater. The hearings alone won’t help Democrats win the midterms — unless it results in action,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution.
Our Revolution is staging demonstrations outside elections officials’ offices in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado, and the group has already filed legal complaints against lawmakers who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.
“The power to enforce the Constitution in this matter lies with state election officials who are obligated to bar insurrectionists from serving in government,” Geevarghese said. “The evidence is clear - former President Trump and some Members of Congress incited and assisted the insurrection.”
Key themes of US Capitol attack investigation
How deeply was Trump involved?
What Trump knew, and when he knew it, has been a driving focus for the select committee. House investigators have come to the conclusion behind closed doors, say sources familiar with the matter, that Trump was the common thread for all efforts to overturn the election.
The panel has evidence about a number of potentially unlawful schemes, including the plot to seize voting machines or the plan to send fake electors to Congress to potentially persuade the then vice-president, Mike Pence, to refusing to certify states with “duelling” slates.
But the central question has long been whether Trump had advance knowledge – through his network of political operatives – of the Capitol attack. That remains unanswered, but it appears he did know of the political plan to stop Biden’s election certification.
Did Trump violate the law?
As the investigation progressed, the select committee appeared to indicate that it had amassed enough evidence of potential criminality on the part of Trump as he sought unsuccessfully to return himself to the White House for a second term.
At a business meeting last year, the panel’s vice-chair, Liz Cheney, suggested by reading from the US criminal code that Trump, by failing to stop the Capitol attack through “inaction”, violated a federal law that prohibits obstructing a congressional proceeding.
A federal judge earlier this year ruled that Trump and a lawyer, John Eastman, who advised the former president on post-election legal strategies, on a preponderance of evidence, probably also overtly conspired to obstruct Congress and defraudthe United States.
Is the evidence enough for charges?
The question to consider at the hearings is whether the select committee appears to have the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump and his top advisers committed felonies – either for an obstruction charge, or other related crimes.
The final conclusions about the strength of the evidence will probably come after the hearings, when the panel releases its final report, currently slated for September, and whether it shows corrupt intent on the part of the former president – a key benchmark.
The select committee will also decide at that stage whether to make criminal referrals for prosecution. But regardless of the referrals, whether Trump or anyone else is charged with crimes related to January 6 remains a call for the justice department alone.
The House select committee’s first pimetime hearing on the Jan 6 insurrection will air tonight at 8pm Eastern Time. But one network won’t bee carrying the broadcast: Fox News. Rupert Murdoch’s network will stick with its usual programming of Tucker Carlson Tonight.
My colleague David Smith writes:
Trump loyalists are expected to flood the airwaves with claims that the January 6 select committee lacks credibility and Democrats are out of touch with more pressing concerns such as inflation, crime, border security and baby formula shortages.
Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday: “They are scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch-hunt instead of our pocketbooks. It will not work.”
In what amounted to an attempt at a prebuttal, Stefanik described the January 6 committee as “unconstitutional” and “illegitimate” and designed to “punish” the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s opponents. She criticised its decision to hire James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, to help make its presentation compelling.
“This further solidifies what we have known from day one: this committee is not about seeking the truth - it’s a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country.”
The comments set the template for Republican counter-programming on conservative media such as Fox News, Newsmax, the One America News Network, Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and other outlets that will seek to portray the hearings as a sinister show trial in which Trump supporters are the victims.
Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’Read more
Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, wrote on the Federalist website: “The committee’s real goal, and what it hopes to achieve with its unprecedented subpoenas and its bright-light hearings, is a repudiation of conservatism and all those who hold conservative values.”
Read more:
Today so far
We’re hours away from the January 6 committee’s first hearing, but already, there’s been a plethora of news, ranging from the negotiations in Congress over gun control legislation to President Biden’s trip to Los Angeles to the ongoing hunt for people involved in the attack on the Capitol.
Here’s a recap of what has happened so far:
- President Joe Biden called the attack on the Capitol a “flagrant violation of the constitution,” and said tonight’s hearings will show Americans details of the insurrection that they didn’t know about before.
- No deal was announced on gun control legislation demanded in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, but senators are continuing to negotiate. Earlier in the day, the top Senate Democrat sounded optimistic, though he acknowledged the measure was unlikely to contain all the provisions his party is demanding.
- NBC News reported that a bipartisan Senate deal may be near to fix legal loopholes that could exploited by a political candidate to steal an election.
- The FBI arrested a Michigan Republican candidate for the party’s gubernatorial nomination on charges related to his involvement in the January 6 attack. Ryan Kelley was charged with “disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds”.
- The average price of a gallon of gas is nearing $5 a gallon, a symbolic threshold it has never before passed. The nationwide spike is likely to only worsen Biden’s approval ratings, which a recent poll found had hit an all-time low.
The blog is now being handed over to Maanvi Singh on the west coast, who will take you through the start of Congress’s inquiry into the Capitol attack, starting at 8pm eastern.
Updated
With hours to go until the January 6 commission begins meeting, my colleague Hugo Lowell has an explainer that’s worth reading for its details into the hearing’s purpose and what comes after tonight:
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is scheduled on Thursday to hold the first of six public hearings where it will unveil new evidence collected against Donald Trump and a range of other operatives over the course of its 10-month inquiry.
The congressional investigation into the events of January 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, has said it has evidence to suggest Trump violated the law to overturn the 2020 election results.
What are the January 6 committee hearings?
Likened to the Watergate hearings, the select committee is holding six public hearings to reveal the mountain of evidence it acquired over the course of the sprawling investigation, which interviewed more than 1,000 people and reviewed more than 125,000 documents.
The first and last hearings are due to be shown in prime time in America in a move that may cement them in popular culture as a genuine and high-profile effort to warn of a past and ongoing threat to US democracy.
Speaking of the Trump administration, CNN is reporting that the two new Air Force Ones the former president commissioned are facing production delays because part of its paint scheme would interfere with its operations.
The new presidential jets have faced a host of issues since Trump ordered them in 2018, so much so that Boeing’s CEO has said taking the contract was a mistake. CNN reports that the project is late and over its budget, and has faced issues including a shortages of workers with the right security clearances and a dispute with a subcontractor.
Now there’s a problem with its paint job. Here’s how CNN puts it:
Trump had criticized the jet’s current color scheme, which has changed little since the Kennedy Administration, particularly the light blue stripe that runs the length of the plane. Trump instead wanted a red, white and dark blue palette that more closely matches the colors of the US flag.
But it turns out the darker blue — which some observers say is similar to the color scheme on one of Trump’s personal jets — poses challenges to the military planes’ sophisticated electronics system that ensures the president can stay in secure communication with officials on the ground — even in the case of a nuclear attack.
“The paint scheme in question was one of many possible livery colors proposed,” an Air Force spokesperson told CNN Thursday. “Further analysis concluded darker colors, among other factors, on the underside of the VC-25B aircraft might contribute to temperatures exceeding the current qualification limits of a small number of components.”
Donald Trump’s education secretary Betsy DeVos contemplated an effort to invoke the 25th amendment and remove him from office following the January 6 insurrection, she said in an interview.
Speaking to USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques, DeVos said she opted to resign after concluding her effort would fail:
“I spoke with the vice president and just let him know I was there to do whatever he wanted and needed me to do or help with, and he made it very clear that he was not going to go in that direction or that path,” DeVos says. “I spoke with colleagues. I wanted to get a better understanding of the law itself and see if it was applicable in this case. There were more than a few people who had those conversations internally.”
Once she understood removing the president was pretty much impossible, DeVos resigned later that day.
DeVos wasn’t alone in considering using the amendment that provides for the removal of an incapacitated president, potentially on grounds of mental as well as physical fitness, after a majority vote by the cabinet. Trump’s secretary of state and Treasury secretary reportedly pondered doing the same following the attack on the Capitol.
Neither ultimately acted. Trump was impeached by the Democrat-controlled House in the final days of his term, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him.
Biden calls January 6 'flagrant violation of the constitution'
Americans will learn new details of the January 6 insurrection at tonight’s hearings, Biden said, calling the assault on the Capitol, a “flagrant violation of the constitution.”
“I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. There’s a lot of questions, who’s responsible, who’s involved. I’m not going to make a judgment on that,” Biden said during a meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“A lot of Americans are going to be seeing for the first time some of the detail of what occurred” at the night’s hearing, the president added.
Updated
Michigan police officer charged with second-degree murder in shooting of Patrick Lyoya
A police officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan is facing second-degree murder charges for the shooting death of Patrick Lyoya, a Black man who was shot in the back of the head while on the ground.
From The New York Times:
Christopher Becker, the Kent County prosecuting attorney, said the officer, Christopher Schurr, acted unreasonably when he shot Mr. Lyoya, 26, while wrestling with the motorist, who had run away. The officer told Mr. Lyoya he pulled him over for having license plates that did not match his car.
“Patrick Lyoya immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to pursue the American dream and provide a better and safer life for himself and his family,” Ben Crump, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement when the videos were released. “Instead, what found him was a fatal bullet to the back of the head, delivered by an officer of the Grand Rapids Police Department.”
Lyoya’s father described the the killing as an “execution.” Footage of the altercation was caught on Becker’s body camera.
An unintended consequence of the recent congressional push for gun control legislation is that a bill to boost domestic semiconductor production has been put on the back burner, Bloomberg reports.
The proposed legislation would spend $52 billion to spur domestic manufacturing of the vital computer chips that ran short globally during the pandemic, exacerbating supply chain issues in the United States and driving up inflation. It would also contain provisions to help American businesses compete against China.
But with senators so focused on a bipartisan agreement to better regulate guns following recent mass shootings, and with midterms in which Democrats could lose control of one or both chambers of Congress growing nearer, Bloomberg reports that lawmakers are finding little time or use for the talks:
Supporters say that without passage, the US will fall further behind other countries in making the components of everything from fighter jets to vacuum cleaners, putting it at the mercy of overseas supply chains.
Frustration with the Biden administration looms large on Capitol Hill and among business lobbyists who have pushed for the measure. Senators and other people close to the negotiations said the White House has not pressed hard enough on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats in her chamber to finish the legislation.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat who faces a tough re-election contest, said he’d like the White House to get more involved, especially with the House.
Republican supporters of the bill, too, have been puzzled by the White House’s strategy, saying Biden’s team hadn’t pushed House Democrats more forcefully and let months go by without throwing their weight behind what was supposed to be a top priority.
Despite earlier optimism from the chamber’s top Democrat, it does not look like senators will reach a compromise on gun control today.
As CNN’s Manu Raju reports:
After a meeting in Sen. Simema’s basement hideaway, Sen. John Cornyn told a group of us there’s no deal yet on guns.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 9, 2022
”We’re meeting again tomorrow and I hope to resolve remaining differences,” Cornyn said.
That talks are taking so long may mean something, Politico’s Burgess Everett notes:
No deal yet. But they are still talking, which at this point is notable https://t.co/Z08Xz0Of07
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) June 9, 2022
Updated
Biden has started his day in Los Angeles with a speech to business leaders, where he encouraged them to focus on sustainability in the face of intensifying climate change. One state away in Arizona, The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports officials fear heat deaths as temperatures in the largest city Phoenix are expected to top 110F in the coming days:
A dangerous heatwave is due to scorch large swaths of Arizona for the rest of the week, triggering the first extreme heat warning of the year as temperatures in Phoenix are forecast to top 113F (45C) on three consecutive days.
Day and nighttime temperatures are expected to reach 7F to 10F (4C to 6C) above normal for this time of the year, which could drive a surge in medical emergencies and deaths as people struggle to stay cool amid soaring energy prices and rising homelessness.
Extreme heat is America’s leading weather-related killer, and Phoenix, in Maricopa county, is the deadliest city.
The January 6 commission will in its hearing tonight try to show that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia groups worked together on attacking the Capitol, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is expected at its first hearing on Thursday evening to connect the far-right Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia groups in the same seditious conspiracy, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The move by the panel and chief investigative counsel Tim Heaphy would likely be one of the major revelations that comes from the hearing, which is expected to focus on the militia groups and how they made plans to storm the Capitol, the sources said.
Top members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been charged separately by the justice department with seditious conspiracy, but the select committee’s intention to show that their efforts were connected would escalate the gravity of the plans to attack the Capitol.
Lowell also spoke to MSNBC’s Katie Phang about what his reporting revealed:
NEW: “The January 6th committee is expected to tie in the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups together in the same seditious conspiracy,” @hugolowell tells @KatiePhang.
— The Katie Phang Show (@katiephangshow) June 9, 2022
More to come from Katie’s interview with Hugo to preview tonight’s first public 1/6 hearing. pic.twitter.com/xSJwcMXEpu
The day so far
Thanks for sticking with us through a morning packed with news, as Washington prepares for new revelations from the January 6 committee this evening. Later this afternoon, President Joe Biden is scheduled to address the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
Here’s what’s happened in the day so far:
- Senators may be nearing a deal on gun control legislation demanded in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, the top Senate Democrat said, though he acknowledged the legislation was unlikely to contain all the provisions his party is demanding.
- NBC News reported that a bipartisan Senate deal may be near to fix legal loopholes that could exploited by a political candidate to steal an election.
- The FBI arrested a Michigan Republican candidate for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. While it is unclear what the charges are, Ryan Kelley was in Washington on January 6, 2021 and local media reports that there are signs he may have taken part in storming the capitol.
- The average price of a gallon of gas is nearing $5 a gallon, a symbolic threshold it has never before passed. The nationwide spike is likely to only worsen Biden’s approval ratings, which a recent poll found had hit an all-time low.
US average gas price nearing $5 a gallon
In a sign of the ongoing inflation threat, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is closing to surpassing $5 a gallon in the United States, an all-time high that poses implications for the wider economy and may worsen Biden’s low approval.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price of a gallon of regular gas is today at $4.97, though GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan say it has already passed the symbolic threshold.
BREAKING: According to GasBuddy, the national average has reached $5 per gallon.
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) June 9, 2022
“People are still fueling up, despite these high prices,” AAA spokesman Andrew Gross said earlier this week. “At some point, drivers may change their daily driving habits or lifestyle due to these high prices, but we are not there yet.”
The gas price spike is attributable to the US economy’s overall recovery from the pandemic downturn in 2020 as people returned to driving and traveling nationwide, but it grew markedly worse earlier this year when Russia invaded Ukraine and western nations imposed sanctions that roiled global oil markets.
Rightly or wrongly, many Americans see gas prices as a proxy for the wider economy’s health, and as they hit new heights, Biden is increasingly being blamed for the spike.
Updated
Tomorrow may be a pretty rough day for the White House. Any damning revelations that come out of the January 6 committee could be overshadowed by the latest inflation numbers from the Labor Department, which will be released at 8:30am eastern time.
The May consumer price index data may very well indicate that the worst bout of inflation the US economy has seen since the 1980s isn’t ending anytime soon, nor will its potently negative effects on the president’s support. In fact, his approval is now at an all-time low, according to Morning Consult/Politico data released yesterday.
The list of factors fueling inflation is lengthy, and ranges from the war in Ukraine’s economic ripple effects to the Biden administration’s own policies to the Federal Reserve’s decisions to keep rates low throughout last year, which were beyond the White House’s control. One thing’s for certain: the Republican opposition will no doubt seize on tomorrow’s data — whatever it shows — to argue Biden is a poor steward of the world’s largest economy.
Ahead of its release, the White House has tweeted a video highlighting Biden’s efforts to lower ocean shipping costs, which are part of the wider global supply chains snarls and indeed a factor in America’s inflation problem.
One of the reasons prices have gone up is because a handful of companies who control the market have raised shipping prices by as much as 1,000%. It’s outrageous — and I’m calling on Congress to crack down on them. pic.twitter.com/eLIdQBmskJ
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 9, 2022
Whether voters will listen is another matter.
Justice Department to probe Louisiana State Police: AP
The US Department of Justice has announced a federal civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police following a raft of brutality cases and the fatal beating of a Black motorist, Ronald Greene, in 2019.
Greene, an unarmed 49-year-old, was arrested by six white officers with body camera footage of the incident, obtained years later by the Associated Press, revealing he had been punched, tasered and placed in a chokehold and later dragged face down in handcuffs and left prone for over nine minutes.
Police initially claimed Greene had died from injuries sustained after crashing his car into a tree, and a local coroner’s report later determined the death to be accidental. It was not until a federal criminal investigation into the incident began that the finding was challenged by re-examining the autopsy.
The incident is currently being investigated in the Louisiana state legislature, which is examining an alleged cover-up instigated by senior members of the state police. Greene’s death is one of a number of recent brutality cases, uncovered by the Associated Press, which found at least a dozen cases in the past decade where troopers or their superiors are alleged to have concealed evidence of brutality or blocked investigations.
Updated
Back in the Senate, the Republican leader Mitch McConnell has renewed his attack on Democrats for creating what he says is an atmosphere that encourages people to threaten supreme court justices, following yesterday’s arrest of an armed man near conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh’s house.
“Two years ago, the Senate Democratic leader stood on the steps of the supreme court and threatened two justices by name. ‘You will pay the price,’ he shouted. ‘You won’t know what hit you,’” McConnell said on the Senate floor, adding that House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton also contributed to the tension.
McConnell accused the Biden administration of failing to take the threat to justices seriously, particularly after the leak of a draft opinion indicating conservatives were poised to end nationwide abortion access by overturning Roe v Wade. “Look, everybody saw where this climate might lead to,” he said.
The meat of his attack concerns a bipartisan bill passed by the senate that would beef up security for the justices and their families, but which hasn’t passed the House.
“I understand Democrats want to stage a big spectacle this week about what they claim is their opposition to political violence,” McConnell said in a veiled reference to the imminent start of the January 6 hearings. “But in reality, they’re going out of their way to block concrete steps to prevent political violence.”
FBI arrests Republican Michigan governor candidate who attended January 6 rally
The FBI has taken into custody Ryan Kelley, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in Michigan who attended the rallies preceding the January 6 attack on the capitol and may have taken part in the assault.
The Detroit News reported that Kelley, who is one of five candidates running for the party’s gubernatorial nomination, was arrested at his home in Allendale, near the city of Grand Rapids. Federal agents are also searching his home, but it wasn’t immediately clear what he was being charged with.
Kelley was in Washington for the rally with Donald Trump that preceded the attack on the capitol, and Michigan’s Democratic Party has released footage that appears to show Kelley encouraging people to storm the building.
Ryan Kelley:
— Michigan Tea (@MichiganTea) June 28, 2021
“Come on, let's go! This is it! This is, this is war baby!"@kelleyforgov pic.twitter.com/IrNc3Rv10M
Earlier this year, Kelley in a speech told a crowd to unplug voting machines if “you see something you don’t like happening with the machine,” according to The Detroit News.
Elections have consequences, and NBC News is reporting that one of the effects of the recent victories of Republicans who did not endorse Donald Trump’s “big lie” concerning the 2020 election is that senators may be nearing a deal on tweaking existing laws to stop future presidential candidates from trying to steal the vote.
Two sources familiar with the group’s work said it is close to a deal, having settled on a series of new provisions and working through options on one major unresolved issue.
“We’ve made a lot of major decisions,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a leader of the group, said in an interview before the meeting. “We’ve resolved a lot of issues, but we have some more work to do, which I hope we’ll finish up this week.”
The areas of consensus, Collins said, include amending the Electoral Count Act to restrain the vice president’s role, raising the congressional threshold for objecting to electoral votes, overhauling the transition process and protecting election officials from threats.
The group is trying to close loopholes in the electoral system in a flurry of activity among members and staffers in recent weeks to reach consensus on a cause that lawmakers in both parties see as urgent. It was the first face-to-face meeting of members since April. The negotiations were sparked in part by President Donald Trump’s unsuccessful effort to exploit gaps in the law to stay in power even though he lost the 2020 election.
Why the sudden momentum? Here’s NBC explanation:
Some pro-reform Republicans have privately indicated that the cause is helped by the recent primary victories of Republican lawmakers who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s victory, as well as the victories of top state officials in Georgia who defied Trump’s efforts to change the result and defeated his preferred candidates to unseat them.
The most notable triumph of a candidate who refused to endorse the “big lie” took place last month in Georgia, where Republican voters endorsed Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state who refused to embrace Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
The leaders of more than 220 top American companies are calling on the Senate to pass gun control legislation, Axio reports.
However, the petition signed by the CEOs of companies like Unilever, Levi Strauss, Bloomberg, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Lululemon as well as sports teams like the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Eagles doesn’t endorse any specific policy, and is a revised version of a letter first released in 2019, though with about 50 percent more signatories this time.
“The gun violence epidemic represents a public health crisis that continues to devastate communities — especially Black and Brown communities — and harm our national economy. All of this points to a clear need for action: the Senate must take urgent action to pass bold gun safety legislation as soon as possible in order to avoid more death and injury,” the letter reads.
Yesterday, the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed their own measure yesterday raising the age limit to buy a semi-automatic rifle and banning the sale of magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds, but it’s unlikely to win the Senate’s approval.
Schumer says 'good progress' being made on bipartisan gun deal
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer sounded optimistic about the prospects of a bipartisan gun deal in a speech Thursday, saying “good progress” is being made by negotiators from both parties on a bill that can pass the chamber.
“Yesterday, a bipartisan a group of Democrats and Republicans met again to continue working towards a bipartisan compromise. This morning, my colleague Senator Murphy reported that the group is making good progress and they hope to get something real done very soon,” Schumer said, referring to Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrats’ point man in the negotiations.
“As soon as the bipartisan group comes to agreement, I want to bring a measure to the floor for a vote as quickly as possible,” the majority leader said in a speech in the chamber.
It’s unclear what exactly the deal may contain, but the legislation is unlikely to contain all provisions that gun control advocates have called for. Democrats control the Senate by one vote, and the legislation will need at least some support from Republicans, who are far less inclined to limit gun access.
In a nod to that reality, Schumer said, “The overwhelming consensus of our caucus, of gun safety advocates and of the American people is that getting something real done on gun violence is worth pursuing, even if we cannot get everything that we know we need.”
As Ed Pilkington and Lauren Gambino report, the January 6 committee has gone to great lengths to grab the public’s attention in its hearings beginning tonight, hoping the strength of its evidence and its carefully managed presentation will counteract the enduring allure of Trump among many Americans:
The directors are hoping that the storyline will have all the elements of a TV smash hit: a King Lear figure ranting and raving as his power slips away from him, a glamorous couple struggling to rise above the fray, shady characters scheming sedition in hotel bedrooms, hordes of thugs in paramilitary gear chanting “hang him” as they march on the nation’s capitol.
When the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection opens its hearings on Thursday evening, it will do so in prime time and with primetime production values. The seven Democrats and two Republicans – shunned by their own party – who sit on the panel are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to seize the public’s attention.
They have brought onboard a former president of ABC News, James Goldston, a veteran of Good Morning America and other mass-market TV programmes, to tightly choreograph the six public hearings into movie-length episodes ranging from 90 minutes to two and a half hours. His task: to fulfill the prediction of one of the Democratic committee members, Jamie Raskin, that the hearings “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House”.
If the supreme court overturns Roe v Wade in the coming weeks, Florida could become a destination for women seeking abortions — even though a ban on the procedure past 15 weeks comes into effect on July 1. The 19th’s Shefali Luthra looks into the future of abortion in the state, which may not be as bright as it seems:
On 1 July, Florida will begin enforcing a law banning abortions for people past 15 weeks of pregnancy. The ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest, has been framed by its backers as a “moderate” compromise. The vast majority of abortions take place within the first trimester, which ends at 12 weeks, they note. The law is less stringent than the six-week bans and total prohibitions being passed across the country in anticipation of the supreme court overturning Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion, later this summer.
Still, the 15-week ban, which has no medical rationale as a particular endpoint for access, represents a tremendous shift in Florida. The ripple effects could extend far outside of the state’s borders.
Currently, abortions are legal up until 24 weeks in the state, which has more than 60 clinics. If, as expected, Roe is overturned, Florida will become a critical access point. The state, particularly its northeastern region with its cluster of clinics, will offer the most viable option for finding a safe, legal abortion for places such as South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana – all of which are poised to ban abortions, either entirely or for patients beyond six weeks of pregnancy.
With much of the conversation dealing with gun control and the perception that his administration is hamstrung by Republicans and rebellious Democrats, my colleague David Smith reports that Biden’s appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” wasn’t that funny at all:
“Our very special guest tonight is to aviator sunglasses what Tom Cruise is to aviator sunglasses,” quipped the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. “I’m proud to say I voted for him dozens of times. He is the reason we all got a cavity search tonight.”
This was how Kimmel introduced Joe Biden for his first in-person interview with a late-night host since taking office as US president.
But any hopes that Biden, whose poll ratings are plunging, might have had that the comedian would invite him to show a lighter side to his personality were soon dashed. It was a night when there were not many laughs.
Once the president had sat down, Kimmel asked: “Do you mind if I ask you some serious questions?” He then dived straight in to demand why, after a flurry of mass shootings across America, nothing had been done since Biden entered the White House.
Nation braces for primetime January 6 hearings
Morning, everybody. Much of Washington is sleeping in this morning, ahead of the January 6 committee’s primetime presentation of new evidence into the assault on the Capitol beginning at 8pm Eastern time. The idea is to tell a story that, in the words of one of the committee’s members, “will really blow the roof off the House”. We’ll see if they succeed.
Here’s what else is on the agenda for today:
- Talks on a bipartisan compromise continue in Congress, though their prospects for success remain unclear. The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed its own gun control bill, but its chances in the upper chamber appear slim.
- Joe Biden will address the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. He arrived in the city yesterday and filmed an interview with TV host Jimmy Kimmel.
- Americans are growing increasingly nervous about inflation, a survey from the Washington Post and George Mason University found, with most expecting the price increases to worsen and changing their spending habits in anticipation. On Friday, the labor department will release updated inflation numbers for May.
- An explosion at a Texas natural gas facility has raised fears of shortages in Europe, where markets are already struggling with the cutoff of Russia’s supply.
