“President Trump called the mob together, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
During the seventh hearing, the committee presented new information about the “out of joint” Oval Office meeting that took place on December 18, 2020, prompting then-President Donald Trump to tweet what Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) described as ” explosive invitation,” prompted supporters to come to DC on Jan. 6. During his speech that day, Trump told the crowd to “march” to the Capitol and that they had to “fight like hell.” The calls to action followed weeks of Trump making false claims about the election results.
“Well, basically the president got everyone upset and told everyone to go downstairs,” said Ayres, who lost his home and job. “So we basically just followed what he said.”
“While the violence was ongoing, President Trump failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and to direct his supporters to leave the Capitol.”
Witnesses testified that despite watching the violence spread to Fox and receiving numerous pleas from aides and Republican allies, Trump disregarded the safety of his own vice president, responding officials and the joint session of Congress for over three hours to withdraw the mob .
And according to previously unseen video testimony played during Thursday’s hearing, Trump did not call any of his law enforcement or national security officials during the unfolding of the insurgency.
“You will see that Donald Trump and his advisors knew he had indeed lost the election… President Trump corruptly pressured legislators and state election officials to change the election results.”
Several former Trump advisers told the committee that they tried to tell the then-president that there was no credible evidence of significant voter fraud and refused to go along with his plan to overturn the election.
“President Trump went to massive lengths to spread false and fraudulent information… and expended millions of dollars in campaign funds to deliberately spread false information…”
Some theories have included accusing Dominion Voting Systems of converting Trump votes into Biden votes in bulk, a truckload of ballots being shipped from New York to Pennsylvania, and poll workers in Georgia scanning tens of thousands of ballots for Biden who came from a suitcase. (All of these claims have been disproved.)
“You will see that President Trump has corruptly planned to replace the United States Attorney General to have the US Department of Justice propagate his false claims about the stolen election.”
Richard Donoghue, Rosen’s deputy, testified that during the transition to President, he and another senior Justice Department official were told by the then-President to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to them.” [him] and the Republican congressmen.”
“…we will focus on President Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count the January 6 electoral vote…privately and publicly.”
Trump has been repeatedly told by advisers that his plan for Pence to overturn the Jan. 6 election was illegal, but he tried anyway, and the committee showed video of Capitol rioters expressing their anger at Pence , because he had not fulfilled Trump’s wish.
The committee also learned through testimony from former Trump White House adviser Cassidy Hutchinson that she heard her boss, Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, say that Trump appeared to agree with a suggestion by some rioters, taped that day, that Pence should be hanged.
On Thursday, the committee revealed just how dire the security situation got for Pence during the riots, and a White House security official testified that members of Pence’s security detail began saying goodbye to loved ones.