The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol began a series of hearings on Thursday night to reveal their findings of what happened leading up to and on the day of the riots.
Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) gave his opening remarks, and said that “the American people deserve answers” to what Former President Donald Trump did in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” Thompson said. “And ultimately, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy.
“January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup,” Thompson added. “A brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after January 6th, to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident, it represents Trump’s last, and most desperate chance to hold the transfer of power.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) then gave her opening remarks at the hearing, and said that Trump’s main objective on Jan. 6, 2021 “was to remain President of the United States.”
“All Americans should keep in mind this fact, 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.
“Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power. In our hearings, you will see evidence of each element of this plan.
“In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and his advisors knew that he had in fact lost the election, but despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him. This was not true.”
Cheney went on to explain what can be expected over the hearings during the rest of the month.
"In our final hearing, you will also hear a moment-by-moment account of the hours-long attack from more than a half dozen White House staff, both live in the hearing room and via videotaped testimony," she said. "There is no doubt that President Trump was well aware of the violence as it developed.
White House staff urged President Trump to intervene and call off the mob."
Throughout the opening remarks by Thompson and Cheney, video clips were shown of former Attorney General Bill Barr and Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter. Barr testified that he told Trump “in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud.”
"And it was being laid out there," Barr said in the clip. "And I told him that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and that it was doing great, great disservice to the country.”
Ivanka Trump was asked what Barr’s statement did to her beliefs of the election, and said, “It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
The House committee went on to show a number of unseen videos of the attacks on the Capitol, before taking a 10 minute break at around 9:00 p.m. ET. The video footage showed how the Proud Boys group played a role in leading the riot, in addition to clips of the rioters' attacks on police officers.
Following the break, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards spoke as a witness, and detailed the extent of the injuries she suffered during the riots. Edwards has not returned to active duty due to these injuries, including a concussion that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.
Video footage was shown of Edwards and other police officers trying to hold back rioters, despite not having the proper gear to defend themselves. Edwards was knocked backwards and hit her head on concrete steps after rioters pushed over a barricade so they could enter the Capitol.
“Never in my wildest dream did I think as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, that I would find myself in the middle of a battle,” Edwards said.
“I’m not combat trained," Edwards added. "That day, it was just hours of hand to hand combat, hours of dealing with things that were way beyond anything any law enforcement officer is ever trained for."
Thompson then closed the first session of the hearings and explained what can be expected during next week's hearing.
"When the committee reconvenes next week, we're going to examine the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol to try to stop the transfer of power," Thompson said. "We're going to take a close look at the first part of Trump's attack on the rule of law, when he hit the fuse that ultimately resulted in the violence of January 6th."
Related
Related
