The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol began its seventh hearing on Tuesday with a focus on President Donald Trump and his allies' alleged roles in assembling the extremist groups that stormed the Capitol.
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) gave his opening statement, and explained how Trump "summoned a mob to Washington, D.C."
"You can't try to achieve you desired outcome through force or harassment or intimidation," Thompson said. "Any real leader who sees their supporters going down that path, approaching that line, has a responsibility to say, 'Stop, we gave it our best, we can up short, we can try again next time.' Because we settle our differences at the ballot box.
"Today, the committee will explain how as a part of his last ditch effort to overturn the election and block the transfer of power, Donald Trump summoned a mob to Washington, D.C. and ultimately spurred that mob to wage a violent attack on our democracy."
Vice chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) then went on to explain how the strategy for defending Trump has changed since the hearings started weeks ago.
"Today's hearing is our seventh, we have covered significant ground over the past several weeks," Cheney said. "And we have also seen a change in how witnesses and lawyers in the Trump orbit approach this committee. Initially, their strategy in some cases appeared to be to deny and delay.
"Today, there appears to be a general recognition that the committee has established key facts, including that virtually everyone close to President Trump... all told him the 2020 election was not stolen. This appears to have changed the strategy for defending Donald Trump. Now the argument seems to be that President Trump was manipulated by others outside of the administration. That he was persuaded to ignore his closest advisers, and that he was incapable of telling right from wrong...
"The strategy is to blame people his advisers called, 'the crazies,' for what Donald Trump did. This of course is nonsense. President Trump is a 76-year-old man, he is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his on actions and choices. As our investigation has shown, Donald Trump had access to more detailed and specific information showing that the election was not actually stolen than almost any other American. And he was told this over and over again."
The committee focused on a tweet from Trump on Dec. 19, 2020 that called people to come to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Peter Navarro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud 'more than sufficient' to swing victory to Trump https://t.co/D8KrMHnFdK. A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said that the tweet came after a meeting on Dec. 18, and Trump decided to go ahead and take matters in his own hands. The committee then showed video of Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, who was interviewed last week and said that Trump should have conceded after Dec. 14.
After the committee took a break for recess, Raskin pointed out a relationship between Roger Stone, a top Trump adviser, and extremist groups like the Oath Keepers. The committee then showed a Trump draft tweet that was going to tell people to march to the Capitol from the riot.
Video of the interview with Cipollone showed him praising former Vice President Mike Pence for not backing down to the pressure from Trump to overturn the electoral college results.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) then discussed Trump's speech on Jan. 6, in which the former president adlibbed multiple parts of the speech. Murphy said that Trump's speech "was built on a foundation of lies" and "his supporters believed him and headed towards the Capitol."
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