WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – Donald Trump sat for hours watching the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unfold on live television, ignoring pleas from his sons and other close advisers to urge his supporters to stop the violence, witnesses told a congress. hearing on Thursday
The House select committee used its eighth hearing this summer to detail what members said was Trump’s refusal to act during the 187 minutes that elapsed between the end of his fiery speech at a rally that urged supporters to march on the Capitol and posted a video. telling them to go home.
“President Trump sat at his desk and watched the attack on television as his top staff, closest advisers and family members begged him to do what is expected of any president American,” said Democratic Representative Elaine Luria.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
The panel played videotaped testimony of White House aides and security personnel discussing the day’s events.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was asked question after question in taped testimony about Trump’s actions: Did he call the defense secretary? The Attorney General? The head of National Security? Cipollone answered “no” to each query.
“He needs to condemn this piece of crap ASAP,” Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., appealed in a text message to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. “They’re going to try to screw up their whole legacy with this if it gets worse.”
The attack at the Capitol, as Vice President Mike Pence met with lawmakers, left several dead, injured more than 140 police officers and delayed the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in the November election. 2020
Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, said Trump had no interest in calling off the rioters.
“The mob was serving President Trump’s purpose, so of course they didn’t step in,” Kinzinger said.
Trump remains popular among Republican voters and continues to flirt with the possibility of running for president again in 2024. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Thursday found that his standing among Republicans has weakened slightly since that the hearings began six weeks ago. About 40 percent of Republicans now say he is at least partially to blame for the unrest, up from 33 percent in a poll taken when the congressional hearings began. Read more
Trump denies wrongdoing and continues to falsely claim that he lost due to widespread fraud. “These hearings are as fake and illegitimate as Joe Biden – they can’t do anything without a teleprompter,” Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said in a post on her social media site Truth Social during the hearing.
OFFICERS FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES Scheduled overnight to reach a wide television audience, the audience was shown on most of the major American television networks. Another round of hearings will begin in September, said the panel’s Republican vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney.
The timeline between statements by former US President Donald Trump is seen on a screen during a public hearing of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, US, on July 21, 2022. REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst
Read more
Witnesses in the courtroom were Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, his White House deputy press secretary. Both resigned in the hours after the riot.
“If the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American people, he could have been on camera almost immediately,” Matthews stated. “If he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office, we could have assembled the White House press corps in minutes.”
The panel of seven House Democrats and two House Republicans has been investigating the attack for the past year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and amassing tens of thousands of documents.
He has used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Biden in 2020 constitute dereliction of duty and illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.
Audio testimony from a White House security official whose identity was protected reinforced earlier testimony that administration officials knew there were multiple reports of guns among the crowd of supporters who left gather for Trump’s rally speech.
The committee showed a video of several White House officials describing their dismay that afternoon after seeing a tweet from Trump to his supporters blaming Pence for not stopping the certification.
“Trump was pouring gasoline on the fire,” Matthews said.
The security official said some of Pence’s bodyguards began to fear for their own lives. “There were calls to say goodbye to family members,” the security official said. “The vice president’s detail thought this was about to get really ugly.”
The attack on the Capitol resulted in several deaths. More than 850 people have been accused of taking part in the riot, with more than 325 guilty pleas to date.
Toward the end of the hearing, the committee showed excerpts from a video Trump made on Jan. 7 about what he called the “heinous attack.” But he refused to say in the speech that the election was over.
Ultimately, Trump left Washington on January 20 instead of attending Biden’s inauguration that day.
Asked for his assessment of the riot, Cipollone said in testimony on Thursday that it could not be justified in any way. “It was wrong and it was tragic and it was a terrible day for this country.”
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Jason Lange, Doina Chiacu, Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.