Panel probes White House amid riot
Hearing focuses on the 187 minutes of inaction by Trump
WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee aimed to show in what could be its final hearing Thursday night that former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election fueled the grisly U.S. Capitol attack, which he did nothing to stop but instead “gleefully” watched on television at the White House.
The prime-time hearing explored the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas from aides, allies and even his family.
The panel is arguing that the defeated president’s attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory have left the United States facing enduring questions about the resiliency of its democracy.
“A profound moment of reckoning for America,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, before the hearing.
With live testimony from two former White House aides, and excerpts from over 1,000 interviews conducted by the committee, Thursday night’s session was expected to add a closing chapter to the past six weeks of hearings that at times have captivated the nation and provided a record for history.
Ahead of the hearing, the committee released a video of four former White House aides — press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, security aide Gen. Keith Kellogg, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and executive assistant to the president Molly Michael — testifying that Trump was in the private dining room with the TV on as the violence unfolded.
“Everyone was watching television,” Kellogg said.
Returning to prime time for the first time since the series of hearings began June 9, the panel sought to explain just how close the United States came to what one retired federal judge testifying this summer called a constitutional crisis.
The events of Jan. 6 will be outlined “minute by minute,” said the panel’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
“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. “(Vice President)
Mike Pence did all of those things; Donald Trump did not.”
The hearing broadcast never-before-seen outtakes of a Jan. 7, 2021, video that White House aides pleaded for Trump to make as a message of national healing for the country. The footage was to show how Trump struggled to condemn the mob of his supporters who violently breached the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it ahead of its public release.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has testified that Trump wanted to include language about pardoning the rioters in the speech, but White House lawyers advised against it. Trump reluctantly condemned the riot in a three-minute speech that night.
Testifying Thursday were two former White House aides. 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 COVID19 and attended by video. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer led the session with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didn’t believe in the stolen election,” Luria said of testimony from the White House aides.
The aides were not alone in quitting that day. The panel was expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and 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.
While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.
What remains uncertain is whether Trump or the former president’s top allies will face serious charges. No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.
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.”