The House select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection held its prime-time hearing last night and we’ve rounded up everything you need to know. Trump’s own camp - including his daughter Ivanka Trump - turned on him, one Capitol police officer testified the gripping details of the attack, and never-before-seen footage of the pro-Trump mob invading the Capitol was played. Get the highlights inside…
On January 6, 2021,all hell literally broke loose when Trump supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol for a coup attempt as Congress was counting up the electoral votes to officially confirm President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect KamalaHarris won the election. The attack was incited by former president Donald Trump moments before the attack was carried out.
The House select committee investigating the attempted coup held its first prime-time hearing, detailing its findings of the panel’s investigation, which included never-before-seen video of the violent attack, first-hand testimony from a Capitol police officer, and new video from closed-door depositions of members of Trump's team.
The hearing was the first in a series this month that will highlight the findings of the panel's investigation, which included interviews from more than 1,000 people about how Trump and his team tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election on several fronts. The goal of the committee hearings is to tell the deadly story of January 6th to the American people.
Watch some of the never-before seen footage below:
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, called the violent attack a "culmination of an attempted coup," in opening remarks. He said Jan. 6th was a "sprawling multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the election, aimed at overturning the votes of millions of Americans.”
He even called out former president Donald Trump for being the mastermind of the election conspiracy.
"Donald Trump was at the center of that conspiracy. And ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down to the Capitol and subvert American democracy," Rep. Thompson said.
Listen to his opening remarks below:
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted video from the attack on Twitter, sharing how she was mocked when she said she felt she would get raped by the mob.
Look at this footage. @laurenboebert was tweeting the Speaker’s location as this was all happening.
When I spoke of my fear of being raped again while locked in my office bathroom, @TuckerCarlson mocked it. So did Boebert. @NancyMace insinuated to her supporters it was a lie. pic.twitter.com/I151oTFGP1
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 10, 2022
During the hearing, never-before-seen video clips showing members of Trump’s White House and campaign - as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner - were shown where they testified that Trump had indeed lost the 2020 election.
Basically, Trump’s own allies, including former Attorney General William Barr, confessed how they didn't believe his claims that the election was stolen.
”I repeatedly told the president I did not see evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election,” Barr said. “And frankly, a year-and-a-half later, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind on that.”
Barr said he told Trump his election conspiracy theories were “complete nonsense” and that they were doing a "great disservice to the country."
Ivanka Trump echoed Barr’s comments in her video testimony.
“I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying,” Ivanka said to the committee.
Peep the clip above.
In response, Trump disregarded his daughter’s testimony, saying she had "long since checked out."
”Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!)," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Of course, Trump is downplaying his daughter’s role in his administration at the time of the U.S. Capitol attack, although, she was right by his side to rally at the White House Ellipse that preceded the insurrection.
US Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was the first witness to testify, sharing horrific details about the day of the attack where she recalled “slipping in people’s blood.”
"I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days thereafter," said Edwards. "I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain. I was called a traitor to my country, my home, and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things."
”I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself how many time -- many, many times -- how we had gotten here. I had been called names before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question," she continued.
Watch the clip above.
Vice-Chair Liz Cheney described testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former President did NOT want the US Capitol attack to stop. As for his demeanor, he angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters and thought his own vice president "deserved" to be hanged.
A witness revealed Trump was well aware of chants to "Hang Mike Pence,” but he seemed to approve them.
"Aware of the rioters' chants to 'hang Mike Pence,' the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] 'Maybe our supporters have the right idea.' Mike Pence [quote] 'deserves' it," she said.
Watch her presentation below:
The investigation findings are appalling, but not surprising. Hopefully, the panel’s investigation will shed more details about the violent attack against our democracy and will wake folks up to make sure they head to the polls to VOTE!
Photos: Alex Gakos/Shutterstock