In previous hearings, the committee has tried to link Trump to violence at the Capitol, showing how his collaborators warned him that his claims about election theft were unfounded and that there was a risk of violence on Jan. 6. of 2021. The final hearing of the committee of this series will attempt to illustrate how the former president “refused to act to defend the Capitol while a violent mob stormed the Capitol,” according to the committee’s aides.
Like previous hearings, the committee is likely to rely on the testimony of witnesses from those who were around Trump on Jan. 6 or near the west wing, to explain the narrative of what happened through the words. of Trump’s inner circle.
The committee has spoken with numerous people around Trump on Jan. 6, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, Pence’s former national security adviser, retired General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former White House Trump attorney Pat Cipollone.
Two witnesses are scheduled to testify in person Thursday, and both resigned immediately after the Jan. 6 bombing: Trump’s former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows has not testified before the committee: the House voted to consider him a contempt in Congress for challenging a subpoena. But Meadows selectively delivered more than 2,300 text messages to the panel, which CNN obtained, and the texts provide key information about the frantic messages the chief of staff was receiving from Republican allies in Congress and even Trump’s son. which urged the president to act.
Here are some key questions and answers about the 187 minutes of January 6 before the final hearing:
When do the 187 minutes begin and end?
The 187 minutes began at 13:10 ET on January 6, 2021, as Trump finished his speech at the Ellipse. That’s when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol, so they could pressure lawmakers to cancel the election while they meet for a joint session of Congress to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory.
“So we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue … and go to the Capitol,” Trump said. “We will try to give our Republicans, the weak, because the strong don’t need any of our help. We will try to give them the kind of pride and audacity they need. Let’s get our country back. So let’s go to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Exactly 187 minutes later, at 4:17 p.m. ET, Trump posted a video on Twitter. In the clip, he said for the first time that his supporters should leave the Capitol. He also praised the mutineers and repeated his denied lies about the elections, which had spurred riots in the first place.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” Trump said at the time. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a spectacular election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but now you have to go home. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respecting our great people in law and order. We don’t want to hurt anyone. It’s a very hard time. “
Why does 187 minutes matter to the committee?
This period of time is critical to the committee’s mission. Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s GOP vice president, has repeatedly said the panel’s evidence on those 187 minutes provides a clear example of Trump’s “supreme lack of responsibility” during the insurgency. Democratic panel president Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said earlier this year, “The president was told, ‘You have to tell your people directly to go home and leave the Capitol. “And so it took more than 187 minutes to make that simple statement. Something’s wrong with that.”
Thursday’s hearing will be led by Virginia Democrat Elaine Luria and Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Luria told CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday that the audience “would go almost minute by minute” of what happened during the 187 minutes of the Capitol uprising.
“The president didn’t do much, but he happily watched television during that time period,” Kinzinger told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
What do we already know about the 187 minutes?
After leaving the Ellipse stage, Trump got into his caravan and tried to convince his drivers to take him to the Capitol, according to the testimony of Trump’s assistant in the White House, Cassidy Hutchinson. Officers refused, telling him the scene was too dangerous and unstable. Trump then saw television coverage of the chaos unfolding at the Capitol, according to a book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and according to White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. to say Trump was watching the news “happily.” . White House attorney Pat Cipollone told Trump’s chief of staff that Trump should intervene or else “people will die,” according to Hutchinson’s testimony. Meadows responded by telling Cipollone that Trump “doesn’t want to do anything” and that he even agreed with the rioters who were seen singing about hanging Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump posted three tweets during this critical time period. The first tweet criticized Pence for refusing to cancel the election. The second and third tweets told the mutineers to “keep the peace” and “respect the law,” but most of all Trump did not order his supporters to leave the Capitol.
He also spoke by phone with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who begged Trump to convene the mob. But during the call, Trump sided with the mutineers and said they cared more about the election than McCarthy, according to previous reports.
During the 187 minutes, a wide variety of Republican lawmakers, former Trump officials and conservative media personalities sent text messages to Meadows saying Trump should intervene, CNN reported earlier. This included Donald Trump Jr., Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, former Trump administration officials Mick Mulvaney and Reince Priebus, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia.
Who was with Trump and what did they say?
The committee has taken video testimonies from several people who were with Trump on Jan. 6 and is likely to use these interviews to try to explain what the president was doing when the mutineers raped the Capitol.
In addition to Ivanka Trump, Kellogg, Cipollone, and McEnany, the committee has played clips at previous video deposition hearings of a long list of White House aides, including Trump’s personal assistant Nick Luna, the former White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, former Trump. White House attorney Eric Herschmann, former Ivanka Trump cabinet chief Julie Radford and former Meadows MP Ben Williamson.
The testimony of many in the White House is likely to be reproduced to help tell the story of what Trump was doing on the afternoon of January 6th.
The committee has previously played clips of both Pottinger and Matthews, the two eyewitnesses Thursday, in reaction to Trump’s tweet attacking Pence.
“I remember we said this was the last thing we needed to tweet at the time,” Matthews said in a clip of his video deposition. “The situation was already bad. And so he had the feeling that he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting this.”
Pottinger told the panel that Trump’s tweet was what prompted him to resign. “I read this tweet and made the decision to resign at that time,” he said in his video statement. “That’s where I knew I would leave that day once I read this tweet.”
At the end of the committee’s last hearing, Cheney advanced what the committee had planned for its next session by playing a clip of Cipollone’s deposition, which the committee had just taken days earlier.
“Was it necessary for you to keep pushing for a statement telling people to leave for this entire period of time until it was finally achieved?” Cipollone was asked at the video deposition.
“I felt it was my obligation to continue to push for this and others also felt it was their obligation,” the former White House lawyer responded.
The committee’s testimony, along with reports from CNN, other news organizations and several books on the Trump presidency, have filled in key details about what was happening inside the west wing. Kellogg told the committee, for example, how he encouraged Ivanka Trump to speak with her father on Jan. 6 to act, and that she did so several times that day, according to committee documents.
The committee has also spoken with numerous West Wing officials who did not see Trump directly while the violence was unfolding, but who were reacting to what was happening at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Williamson, Meadows’ chief aide, told the committee how he sent a text message to Meadows encouraging Trump to tweet because things were “getting a little hairy” at the Capitol. Williamson told the panel he went to speak with Meadows in person and that the White House chief went to the Oval Office, according to court documents.
What are the big unanswered questions?
While many details are already known about Trump’s January 6 response, there are still lingering questions about what the former president did on January 6th.
For example, Trump spoke with at least two Republican lawmakers during the early stages of the insurgency: McCarthy and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. While there have been previous reports of McCarthy’s silent phone call, including that Trump told him the rioters were “more upset about the election than you,” McCarthy hasn’t spoken at length about the conversation. The committee issued a subpoena to McCarthy and four other lawmakers in an unprecedented move earlier this year, although McCarthy has refused to testify or hand over documents. There are also questions about who else …