House Jan. 6 committee hearing expected to focus on Trump’s mindset after 2020 election
Committee staff declined to say whether they had further discussions with Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence about the testimony. Pence said this summer that he would “consider” testifying before the committee.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, said last month that the committee plans to put together an interim report in mid-October, with a final report due before the end of the year after the midterm elections.
The committee held a series of public hearings over the summer, which were also broadcast nationally. The hearings featured never-before-seen video of the attack, but also featured video testimonies from Trump administration officials on his refusal Accept election results and plans of its allies Replace voters in battleground states that President Joe Biden also won Threatening local and state election officials.
Thompson confirmed in the summer that the committee was “talking” with the Justice Department about the wrong election plan. In which June 21 public hearingCommittee member Rep. Adam Schiff said these bogus voters eventually met on Dec. 14, 2020 in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin and signed documents claiming they were duly elected voters their state.
The committee said GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin wanted to hand over alternative, fraudulent voters to Pence before the joint session of Congress, according to texts provided by the committee.
The hearings highlighted the pressure campaigns by Trump and his allies on various branches of government to overturn the 2020 election results, including the former president’s attempt to do so Install environmental advocate Jeffrey Clark at the head of the Ministry of Justice, lawyer John Eastman’s argument Pence that he had the power to overrule the Electoral College, and Attempts to exert influence by Rudy Giuliani local and state returning officers.
The hearings also included personal testimonies from former Trump administration officials, a former political editor of Fox Newsa Capitol Police Officera Rioter who pleaded guiltyamong other.
The hearings included bombastic revelations about Trump’s response to the Jan. 6 attack.
Hutchinson and other former White House staffers testified, both in person and via video testimony, that they knew Trump had lost the election and that spreading the narrative that he had won was a lie. Sarah Matthews, Former Deputy Press Secretary, testified to this when violence broke out in the CapitolThe press office squabbled over Trump’s response, seeming perplexed that a colleague declined to condemn the riots because it would “give the media a victory.”
“I couldn’t believe we were arguing about this in the middle of the West Wing… And so I pointed to the TV and said, ‘Do you think it looks like we’re going to win? Because I don’t think it is,'” Matthews said.
In the same hearing, the committee played a never-before-seen video showing Trump rehearsing for a January 7, 2021 statement. Even after the Jan. 6 chaos and after Congress confirmed the electoral college count, Trump refused to say he lost the election.
“I want to start by addressing the heinous attack yesterday and those who broke the law will pay for it,” Trump said in the footage. “You don’t represent our movement, you don’t represent our country, and if you’ve broken the law – I can’t say. I have already said that you will pay…”
“But that election is over now. Congress has endorsed the findings,” he continued, before pausing and presumably addressing his advisers. “I don’t want to say the election is over. I just want to say that Congress confirmed the results without saying the election is over.”