An investigation into the US Capitol riots has revealed that former allies of former President Donald Trump – and even his daughter – have denied his false allegations of election fraud, and one has called him a “bull.” * t “.
In the first of six days of public hearings before a select committee of the House of Representatives, a 12-minute graphic video never seen before the insurgency was shown.
In it, the rioters could be seen entering the Capitol Building at the National Mall in Washington DC, following the incendiary speech of then-President Trump in which he repeated his claims that he had been denied a second term due to a electoral fraud.
At the time, the Capitol was in session, overseeing Congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Five people were killed and more than 100 policemen were injured in the chaos.
Image: An image of Ivanka Trump is seen on a screen during the hearing
The hearing witnessed public statements by key figures in the Trump administration, such as her daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and her chief of staff, Attorney General William Barr and General Mark. Milley.
At one point, he was horrified when he told the committee that when Mr. Trump heard the Capitol crowd sing for him to be hanged by Vice President Mike Pence, he replied that maybe they were right, that “he deserves it. “.
Mr. Trump was angry. Mr Pence, who presides over the House of Representatives, had rejected his order to reject the certification of Biden’s victory.
While the facts of the January 6, 2021 bombing are well known, the committee is trying to gather the story of how it happened, to prevent it from happening again.
Image: Serena Liebengood, widow of Capitol police officer Howie Liebengood, breaks down while attending the hearing
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Audiences for television, which are shown on US network channels at prime time, included a video of beaten police officers and right-wing extremists leading the crowd to the iconic building. .
“A constitutional crisis”
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice president of the panel that led much of the hearing, said Trump had “summoned a violent mob.”
“When a president does not take the necessary measures to preserve our union – or worse, it causes a constitutional crisis – we are in a moment of maximum danger for our republic.”
The committee’s investigation comes as some have tried to downplay the violence.
“We can’t sweep away what happened under the carpet,” said Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee. “The American people deserve answers.”
Thompson described the attack as a “coup attempt” that jeopardized “two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy.”
In a video testimony, former U.S. Attorney General Mr. Barr called the election fraud allegations “bulls ** t,” an argument that seemed to have convinced Mr. Trump’s daughter as well.
“I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying,” Ivanka Trump said in her videotaped statement.
Testifying in person, it was one of the police officers of the United States Capitol, Caroline Edwards, who suffered a brain injury while fighting the crowd.
She described the insults the rioters threw at her during melee, but said she was proud to fight them, even after she was injured.
“It was slipping into people’s blood,” he said. “It was a carnage. It was chaos.
“What I saw was just a war scene.”