By Aaron Miller-
The U.S. House Jan. 6 committee will hold its final hearing of the summer to show that Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election fuelled the U.S. Capitol attack, which he “gleefully” watched on television at the White House, instead of trying to stop it.
The Committee will closely examine the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas for help from aides, allies and even his family. The panel intends to show how the defeated president refused to accept he had lost the elections, but rather, sought to have the results overturned by manipulating the vulnerabilities of his blind army of followers who wanted him to remain in power by all means necessary.
Trump’s defiance against the election result was supported by Trump’s former adviser and strategist, Steve Bannon, who was caught on tape in October 2020 stating that the ex-president would declare victory on election night – even if he did not necessarily win.
Bannon accurately predicted the events that transpired on election night 2020 to a group of Chinese associates, according to the report by Mother Jones.
He also said Trump would ‘do some crazy s***’ if President Joe Biden had an early lead in the polls.
Bannon, now faces two counts of contempt- as well as submit relevant documents – about his efforts to challenge the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election and organise the protests that led to the infamous insurrection in Capitol Hill.
His defiance of a legal summons to testify about last year’s riot at the US Capitol Hill, has now landed him in hot water.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, described the hearings as “A profound moment of reckoning for America.”
The hearing will include live testimony from two former White House aides, and excerpts from its trove of more than 1,000 interviews.
The committee will state that the former president reluctantly posted a tweet in the afternoon of January 6, hours after his top advisors at the White House and Republicans allies in Congress repeatedly implored him to intervene.
“You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help,” Cheney said.
“He did not call the military. His Secretary of Defense received no order. He did not call his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security,” Cheney said. “Mike Pence did all of those things; Donald Trump did not.”
Matt Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, then press aide, both submitted their resignations on Jan. 6, 2021, after what they saw that day. Trump has dismissed the hearings on social media and regarded much of the testimony as fake.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and will attend by video. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer who will lead the session with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, said she expects the testimony from the White House aides will “just be really compelling.”
“These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didn’t believe in the stolen election,” Luria said.
The White House aides were not alone in calling it quits that day. The panel is expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and even Cabinet members who resigned after Trump failed to call off the attack.
As the panel continues to collect evidence and prepares to issue a preliminary report of findings, it has amassed the most substantial public record to date of what led up to Americans attacking the seat of democracy..
Over 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanours. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”
“We have to get this right,” Garland said. “For people who are concerned, as I think every American should be, we have to do two things: We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”
Timeline
In delving into the timeline, the panel aims to show what happened between the time Trump left the stage at his “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after 1:10 p.m., after telling supporters to march to the Capitol, and some three hours later, when he issued a video address from the Rose Garden in which he told the rioters to “go home” but also told them ”we love you, and you are “very special.”
Those words have haunted the former president ever since the insurrection at Capitol Hill because they indicate his approval for a barbaric attack that instilled fear at the heart of congress and caused deaths. Trump supporters battled the police to storm the Capitol. One officer’s testimony revealed she was “slipping in other people’s blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.
“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said.
Previous text messages and testimonies revealed how the former polarising U.S president ignored countless pleas from Trump’s aides and allies, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help,” Cheney has said, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who she said indicated he was “’scared’ and called multiple members of President Trump’s family after he could not persuade the President himself.”
The panel has said its investigation is ongoing and other hearings are possible. It expects to compile a preliminary report this fall, and a final report by the end of this session of Congress.