Vice President Liz Cheney makes her opening remarks as the chair of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, on the left, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, observe, while the select committee of the House investigating the January holds its first public hearing at the Washington Capitol on June 9. , 2022.J. Scott Applewhite / The Associated Press
The panel of the House investigating the January 6 insurgency at the U.S. Capitol strongly blamed Donald Trump on Thursday night, saying the assault was not nearly spontaneous, but a “coup attempt” and a a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to cancel the 2020 elections.
With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of deadly violence and startling testimony from Trump’s closest circle, the House 1/6 committee provided exciting details by stating that Trump’s repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden. victory led to the attack and endangered American democracy
“Democracy remains in jeopardy,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, chair of the panel, said during the hearing, scheduled for prime time to reach as many Americans as possible.
“Gener. The 6th was the culmination of a coup attempt, a blatant attempt, as one rioter said shortly after January 6, to overthrow the government, “Thompson said.” The violence was not accidental. “
In a video clip never seen before, the panel played a joke by former Attorney General Bill Barr, who stated that he told Trump that the allegations of a rigged election were false.
David Shribman: The January 6 hearing, at prime time, was an exciting portrayal of Donald Trump as the mastermind of the election cancellation effort
Check out the committee’s first hearing on Jan. 6
In another, former president Ivanka Trump’s daughter testified before the committee that he respected Barr’s view that there was no election fraud. “I accepted what he said.”
Others showed extremist leaders Oath Keepers and Proud Boys preparing to storm the Capitol to defend Trump. One of the officers, Caroline Edwards, testified in person that she suffered serious injuries while fighting the crowd that pushed her to the Capitol.
“President Trump convened a violent crowd,” said Wyo Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice president who took the lead during much of the hearing. “When a president does not take the necessary steps to preserve our union, or worse, causes a constitutional crisis, we are at a time of greatest danger to our republic.”
There was a sigh in the courtroom when Cheney read a story saying that when Trump was told that the Capitol Mafia was singing for him to be hanged by Vice President Mike Pence, Trump replied that maybe they were right. that “he deserves it.” ”
Trump was angry because Pence, who presides over the House of Representatives, denied his order to reject certification of Biden’s victory.
Police officers who had been fighting the crowd consoled each other as they sat in the committee room reliving the violence they faced on January 6th. Officer Harry Dunn cried as camera footage showed the rioters hitting their colleagues with baseball bats and gowns.
Biden, in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, said many spectators “would go and see for the first time many of the details that came up.”
Trump, without apology, dismissed the investigation again and even declared on social media that January 6 “represented the largest movement in the history of our country.”
Republican House Judiciary Committee tweeted, “All. Old. News.”
The outcome of the next few weeks of public hearings may not change hearts or minds in politically polarized America. But the committee’s investigation with 1,000 interviews is thought to be a public record of history. A final report aims to provide an account of the most violent attack on the Capitol since it was set on fire by the British in 1814, and to ensure that this attack never happens again.
The riot left more than 100 policemen wounded, many beaten and bloodied, while the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged at the Capitol. At least nine people who were there were killed during and after the riots, including a woman who was shot dead by police.
Emotions are still raw at the Capitol and security will be tight for audiences. Law enforcement reports an increase in violent threats against members of Congress.
In this context, the committee was talking to a divided America, before the fall midterm elections, when voters decide which party controls Congress. Most TV stations brought the audience live, but Fox News Channel did not.
Among those in attendance were several lawmakers who were trapped together in the House rostrum during the attack.
“We want to remind people that we were there, we saw what happened,” said Dean Phillips, D-Minn. “We know how close we were to the first non-peaceful transition of power in this country.”
The chairman of the committee, the leader of civil rights, Thompson, opened the hearing with a tour of American history, saying that he heard in those who deny the harsh reality of January 6 his own experience of growing up in a time and a place “where people justified the action of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching.”
Republican Rep. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, summed up what the committee has learned about the events leading up to that January day when Trump sent his supporters to Congress to “fight like hell.” for his presidency as promised by the legislators. the usual task of certifying the results of the previous November.
Witnesses included documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who filmed the Proud Boys storming the Capitol, along with a keynote meeting between then-group president Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, the night before. in a nearby car park. garage.
Judicial documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were already discussing in November the need to fight to keep Trump in office. Since then, leaders of both groups and some members have been charged with rare charges of sedition for the military-style attack.
In the coming weeks, the panel is expected to detail Trump’s public campaign to “Stop the Robbery” and the private pressure he exerted on the Justice Department to reverse his electoral loss, despite dozens of failed court cases and the his own attorney general testified that he was there. no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the results in their favor.
The panel has faced obstacles since its inception. Republicans blocked the formation of an independent body that could have investigated the January 6 bombing in the same way that the 9/11 Commission investigated the 2001 bombing.
Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the creation of the 1/6 panel through Congress to the objections of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. He rejected Republican-appointed lawmakers who had voted Jan. 6 against certifying election results, and eventually nominated seven Democrats and two Republicans.
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who has been caught in the investigation and challenged the committee’s summons for an interview, echoed Trump on Thursday. He called the panel a “scam” and called the investigation a “smokescreen” for Democrats’ priorities.
Audiences are expected to present to the Americans a cast of characters, some acquaintances, others elusive, and what they said and did when Trump and his allies tried to reverse the election result.
The public will learn about the actions of Mark Meadows, the then president’s chief of staff, whose more than 2,000 text messages provided the committee with a snapshot of the real-time struggle to keep Trump in office; of John Eastman, the Conservative law professor who was the architect of the unsuccessful scheme to persuade former Vice President Pence to suspend certification on Jan. 6; of Justice Department officials who threatened to resign instead of approving Trump’s proposals.
The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence of that day, the largest drag network in its history.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, which give you a concise summary of the most important headlines of the day. Sign up today.