U.S. House investigators presented the case to the U.S. public at a prime-time hearing Thursday that should not be forgotten about the violent uprising of supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
While the basics of the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol are well known, the committee is trying to tell the story of how it happened and how to prevent it from happening again, for history. .
Television audiences, which included videos of brutally beaten police officers and right-wing extremists leading the crowd to the Capitol, occurred when some tried to downplay the violence.
“We can’t sweep away what happened under the carpet,” said Court President Bennie Thompson as he opened the first of the series of hearings. “The American people deserve answers.”
Conclusions of the first hearing of the committee on January 6:
The role of Trump
Thompson outlined the committee’s initial findings that Trump led an “extensive, multi-step conspiracy to overturn the presidential election.”
The sun sets behind the Washington Capitol on Thursday as the committee celebrates its hearing. (Julio Cortez / The Associated Press)
Wyoming deputy chairwoman Wyoming MP Liz Cheney called it a “sophisticated seven-part plan.”
The committee plans to examine how Trump propelled his false allegations of widespread fraud and how he provoked violence at the Capitol. They argue that their lies led far-right extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers to take action.
“January 6 was the culmination of a coup attempt, a blatant attempt,” Thompson said.
The committee conducted more than 1,000 interviews with people linked to the siege and collected more than 140,000 documents. They will use these tests throughout this month’s hearings to show how the attack was coordinated by some of the rioters of the violent mob that broke into the Capitol and disrupted President Joe Biden’s victory certification, and how the Trump’s efforts. it all started.
“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot,” Cheney said.
Witness the Trump inner circle
The hearing included a never-before-seen video testimony of former Attorney General Bill Barr and others who told Trump at the time that his allegations of fraud had no merit. Barr, who said publicly at the time that the Justice Department had not found fraud, said he had told Trump it was “shit.”
TARGET | Barr and Ivanka Trump in a never-before-seen testimony:
The testimony of Ivanka Trump and William Barr was given in the hearings of the riots of the United States Capitol
The U.S. Congressional Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riots began its televised hearings Thursday with a video interview with former Attorney General Bill Barr, who testified that he told Donald Trump that his allegations of election fraud were “shit.” The panel also showed Ivanka Trump’s testimony.
The panel also showed video testimony of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who spoke with the committee in April. He said Barr’s statement “affected my perspective”.
“I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he said,” he told the committee.
Ask for attention
The committee took the unusual step of launching the audiences with a show at prime time, with the goal of gathering as many spectators as possible.
It is unclear how many will tune in, but the panel is producing the audience in hopes of becoming a must-see television, with never-before-seen video footage of the violent uprising.
The committee’s interview with former White House adviser Ivanka Trump is shown as committee members watch, Thursday evening. (J. Scott Applewhite / The Associated Press)
The courtroom was also set up for the impact, with a huge screen hanging over lawmakers.
Deputies who witnessed the attack
Lawmakers trapped together in the House during the uprising attended Thursday’s hearing after dinner together. Lawmakers were trapped in an upper gallery of the chamber while rioters knocked on doors.
Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips said members of the House, who were eventually removed without harm, are dismayed that an event that exposed the fragility of democracy could “be somehow whitewashed by the dozens.” of millions of people, including many … here in Congress. “
“We want to remind people that we were there, we saw what happened. We know how close we were to the first non-peaceful power transition in this country,” Phillips said.
Some Republican lawmakers have tried to downplay the insurgency, accusing Democrats of being too focused on trying to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.
The committee took the unusual step of launching the audiences with a show at prime time, with the goal of gathering as many spectators as possible. (J. Scott Applewhite / The Associated Press)
But Cheney said the panel would show over the next hearings that Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a leader in efforts to oppose the election results, and “several other Republican congressmen” called for presidential pardons in the weeks following the January, raising questions about why lawmakers would think it was necessary.