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      January 6 hearings: Trump ‘chose not to act’ during Capitol attack, Kinzinger says – live

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      Today, the Republican party remains by and large the domain of Donald Trump. He still leads in polls of potential candidates in the next election, and House Republican leadership routinely criticizes the January 6 committee.Last night’s hearing was however full of reminders that top Republicans appeared ready to break with Trump during and immediately after the insurrection – or at least were terrified by it. Case in point: the much-mocked video footage of rightwing senator Josh Hawley fleeing through the halls of the Capitol as the protesters he greeted as he walked in overwhelmed police.Then there was Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the party in the House of Representatives who could be the chamber’s next speaker, should Republicans gain seats in November’s midterms. The committee last night showed that he pleaded with Trump as the insurrection was ongoing to call off the mob – which the president refused to do. Viewers also saw a repeat of his floor speech seven days after the attack, where he pinned the blame squarely on Trump.Days later, McCarthy went to Florida, where he met with the former president and appeared in a picture beside him that is now seen as having been key to reviving Trump’s standing among the party.“The mob was accomplishing president Trump’s purpose. So of course he didn’t intervene.”That was how Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee, summed up what the panel uncovered last night. His statement near the start of the hearing was followed by testimony from two former White House officials present in the room and video clips from the lawmakers’ interviews with former White House officials, including attorney Pat Cipollone.“What explains President Trump’s behavior. Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis?” Kinzinger asked. “Because president Trump’s plan for January 6 was to halt or delay Congress’s official proceeding to count the votes. The mob… attacking the Capitol quickly caused the evacuation of both the House and the Senate. The count ground to an absolute halt and was ultimately delayed for hours.”The committee won’t host another hearing until sometime in September, and plans to use the coming weeks to continue their investigation. As the committee vice-chair Liz Cheney put it last night: “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break.”As the January 6 committee was airing evidence, Andrew Lawrence entered an alternate universe, just by watching Fox News:On Thursday night as the Congressional hearings into the January 6 Capitol riot drew to a close, Tucker Carlson directed his outrage at a president he felt had lied and was not being held accountable for falsehoods that shook popular faith in the American democratic system. But he wasn’t talking about Donald Trump inciting rioters to storm the Capitol. He was talking about Joe Biden getting Covid.Whilemillions of people last night tuned into America’s other TV news channels and heard testimony about what Trump did, or rather did not do, during the hours when the rioters stormed the Capitol, Fox News viewers saw the network’s primetime stars Carlson and Sean Hannity chide the “twice jabbed, double-boosted” president for contracting the virus they say he alleged couldn’t be caught with a vaccine.As the US watched the January 6 hearing, Fox News showed outrage – at Biden getting CovidRead moreSteve Bannon is one of the many Trump associates whose comments were shown by the January 6 committee last night, but he may be the only one currently embroiled in active criminal trial.In fact, the charges he’s facing center around his defiance of a subpoena from the committee, and both sides are today expected to finish making their cases before a jury. Politico reports that Bannon’s legal team wants to question the jury about whether they watched last night’s hearing.HAPPENING SOON: Bannon returns to court just hours after the Jan. 6 select committee featured him prominently at the close of their hearing. The case is expected to go to the jury today but I’m anticipating some discussion about whether jurors may have watched.— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
      As expected, BANNON team raises his mention in last night’s hearing as a potential problem for the jury. Here’s a filing that just arrived: pic.twitter.com/5WdvxXPzM1— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
      BANNON wants judge to question jury:”The Defendant respectfully requests…that there should be some inquiry, while assuring the jurors of the importance of candor and that they will not suffer negative consequences if they acknowledge exposure to the broadcast or its subject.”— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
      Closing arguments in the case are now underway:UPDATE: Closing arguments are now underway. Judge Nichols has already instructed the jurors, so they’ll begin deliberating as soon as this is over. Expect they’ll be deliberating by 11-11:30 a.m.— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
      Steve Bannon appears in court as contempt-of-Congress trial beginsRead moreThe Guardian’s David Smith was in the room last night as the January 6 committee conducted what some are calling its “season finale”:They did it. They pulled it off. Anyone who feared that the January 6 committee’s season finale would turn into an anti-climax – more Game of Thrones than M*A*S*H – need not have worried. There were shocks, horrors and even laughs.The eight “episodes” have exceeded all expectations with their crisp narrative and sharp editing, a far cry from the usual dry proceedings on Capitol Hill. Each has recapped what came before, teased what is to come and compellingly joined the dots against Donald Trump.Much of the credit must go to James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, who was brought in to help produce the hearings like a true crime series. Give that man an Emmy (if only to infuriate Trump, a TV obsessive).Hearing delivers gripping ‘finale’ full of damning details about TrumpRead moreToday, the Republican party remains by and large the domain of Donald Trump. He still leads in polls of potential candidates in the next election, and House Republican leadership routinely criticizes the January 6 committee.Last night’s hearing was however full of reminders that top Republicans appeared ready to break with Trump during and immediately after the insurrection – or at least were terrified by it. Case in point: the much-mocked video footage of rightwing senator Josh Hawley fleeing through the halls of the Capitol as the protesters he greeted as he walked in overwhelmed police.Then there was Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the party in the House of Representatives who could be the chamber’s next speaker, should Republicans gain seats in November’s midterms. The committee last night showed that he pleaded with Trump as the insurrection was ongoing to call off the mob – which the president refused to do. Viewers also saw a repeat of his floor speech seven days after the attack, where he pinned the blame squarely on Trump.Days later, McCarthy went to Florida, where he met with the former president and appeared in a picture beside him that is now seen as having been key to reviving Trump’s standing among the party.Good morning, US politics blog readers. Last night, the January 6 committee wrapped up its first weeks of hearings by airing evidence that showed Donald Trump resisted efforts to forcefully condemn the rioters who broke into the Capitol that day, despite the pleas of top White House officials and his own family members to do so. As Congressman Adam Kinzinger put it: “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.” Expect the aftershocks from those revelations to wash through Washington today.Here’s what else is happening today:
      Trump speaks at an Arizona rally for candidates in the state he has endorsed, which kicks off at 4 pm eastern time.
      The trial of Steve Bannon, a former top advisor to Trump who featured in last night’s hearing, continues over contempt of Congress charges.
      Congress is still negotiating over a bunch of legislation, including measures to boost American competitiveness, codify same-sex marriage rights and lower prescription drug and health care costs. More

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      House panel showed Trump conspired to seize the election – but was it illegal?

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      House panel showed Trump conspired to seize the election – but was it illegal?Panel lays out its case that the 45th president orchestrated a plot to keep himself in office, but its work is not done During the course of its landmark summer of hearings, the House select committee investigating the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has sought to show that Donald Trump was at the center of a multi-layer conspiracy to seize a second term in office, accusing him of having “summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack”.Then, for 187 minutes on 6 January, the president let the firestorm he ignited burn, the panel argued in a gripping capstone presentation on Thursday.In its final midsummer hearing, one of its most dramatic of the series of eight, the panel argued that Trump betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty when he refused to condemn the violence as rioters carrying poles, bear spray and the banners of his campaign, led a bloody assault on the US Capitol.House panel says Trump ‘chose not to act’ during attack on US CapitolRead moreThe primetime session recounted in harrowing, minute-by-minute detail the siege of the Capitol, while simultaneously laying out the actions Trump did – but mostly deliberately did not – take during those excruciating hours when “lives and our democracy hung in the balance,” as Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a Democrat of Virginia and a member of the committee, described it on Thursday.Amid the chaos at the Capitol, Trump was idle in the White House, watching it all unfold on a television tuned to Fox News. Even 24 hours later, Trump refused to say the election was over.Trump’s abdication of leadership on 6 January was a “stain on our history”, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois and a committee member, said Thursday.But were his actions illegal? It’s a question at the heart of the committee’s yearlong inquiry.Over the course of the public hearings, the panel has sought to lay out the case that Trump orchestrated a multilayered plot to seize another term in office despite being told repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that his myth of a stolen election was baseless.07:50Culling from hundreds of thousands of documents and hundreds of interviews, the committee showed that Trump, having been turned back by the courts at every level, became increasingly desperate in his bid to overturn the results of an election his own attorney general deemed free and fair.The panel has sought to offer a full public accounting of the events of 6 January for the American people and for the historical record.Its work, however, is not done. The vice-chair, Liz Cheney, a Republican of Wyoming, said that the committee will spend August “pursuing and merging information”, which continues to come in, before reconvening for more hearings in September.While the committee originally set a September deadline for releasing a final report on their investigation, lawmakers now say it will only release a preliminary report by then, and a full report by the end of the year. The committee must release a full report before it disbands, which it is set to do with the start of a new Congress in early January.The committee’s report is already getting treatment similar to other major investigations such as Watergate and 9/11. Multiple publishers, including Hachette and MacMillan, have books coming out in September related to the committee’s findings.But already, the committee has presented evidence that lawmakers and aides have suggested could be used as a foundation for bringing a criminal case against the former president. Among the possible charges that have been discussed are conspiracy to defraud the American people and obstructing an official proceeding of Congress. The committee has also raised the prospect of witness tampering, announcing at its last hearing that Trump had attempted to contact a witness cooperating with its investigation.“The facts are clear and unambiguous,” Thompson said on Thursday.The Justice Department is pursuing a separate investigation into the breach of the Capitol.A federal judge has said Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in his efforts to delay or disrupt the congressional count of electoral college votes on January 6.But legal experts are divided over whether the evidence shown during the hearings is enough to charge Trump. No former president has ever been prosecuted by the justice department. And in this era of polarization, there are risks that both charging Trump – or declining to do so – could further undermine Americans faith in their system of justice.The attorney general, Merrick Garland, under immense pressure by Democrats to act, has not said whether he is considering a case against Trump.“No person is above the law in this country,” he said Wednesday. “I can’t say it any more clearly than that.”Trump has dismissed the panel’s inquiry as politically motivated and a witch hunt. Perhaps the panel’s most urgent work is to show Americans that the “forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away”, Kinzinger said. “The militant, intolerant ideologies. The militias. The alienation and the disaffection. The weird fantasies and disinformation. They’re all still out there, ready to go.”Millions of voters still believe the conspiracy that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. It has galvanized a new wave of Republican candidates, who openly embrace the lie that the 2020 election was illegitimate. Many are now their party’s nominee for critical positions such as governor and secretary of state.Trump was impeached for actions on 6 January, but the Senate acquitted and never attempted to bar him from holding future public office. Cheney suggested Thursday that if what was known now about Trump’s role in the tangled, brazen plot to keep him in office, the Senate may have voted differently. But the opportunity for political accountability is not presently available – Trump is out of office, for now.That is why many, including members of the committee, believe Trump must face consequences for his actions.“If there’s no accountability for January 6, for every part of this scheme, I fear we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy,” Thompson warned. “There must be stiff consequences for those responsible.”
      This article was amended on 22 July 2022. Liz Cheney is a Republican member for Wyoming, not Wisconsin as an earlier version said.
      TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesanalysisReuse this content More

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      The January 6 panel put on a gripping ‘finale’ full of damning details about Trump

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      The January 6 panel put on a gripping ‘finale’ full of damning details about TrumpWhereas the first seven hearings set out unforgivingly what Trump had done, this one told a gripping story about what he did not do They did it. They pulled it off. Anyone who feared that the January 6 committee’s season finale would turn into an anti-climax – more Game of Thrones than M*A*S*H – need not have worried. There were shocks, horrors and even laughs.The eight “episodes” have exceeded all expectations with their crisp narrative and sharp editing, a far cry from the usual dry proceedings on Capitol Hill. Each has recapped what came before, teased what is to come and compellingly joined the dots against Donald Trump.Much of the credit must go to James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, who was brought in to help produce the hearings like a true crime series. Give that man an Emmy (if only to infuriate Trump, a TV obsessive).Some viewers might have been disappointed on Thursday by the absence of chairman Bennie Thompson due to coronavirus (though he did join to open and close the hearing via video link). Yet with Liz Cheney in the chair and Goldston in the editing suite, a Grand Guignol was guaranteed.There were chilling details of a US vice-president’s staff calling their families because they feared death as the rioters closed in, having breached the Capitol that January 6 afternoon; there were damning stories about Trump watching an insurrection for hours on live TV and resisting pressure from senior staff to intervene; there were comical glimpses of a rightwing senator fleeing the mob he had emboldened.And from outtakes on 7 January there was the defining image of Trump struggling to read a teleprompter, stumbling over simple words such as “yesterday”, and especially those that acknowledged he was a loser, and banging the presidential lectern like a frustrated child. “This election is now over. Congress has certified the results – I don’t want to say the election’s over.”02:07To be in the Cannon Caucus Room as it all unfolded was to feel electricity in the air. It buzzed with the anticipation of reporters, photographers, TV camera operators, police officers, congressional aides and spectators. Once proceedings were under way beneath two giant chandeliers and the high, ornately-carved ceiling, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal – who had been trapped in the House balcony on January 6 – could be seen fighting back tears as the scenes of carnage were replayed on a big screen.Whereas the first seven hearings set out unforgivingly what Trump had done, this one told a gripping story about what he did not do, for 187 minutes on 6 January 2021. As his enraged supporters stormed the US Capitol, the president did not call them off or contact senior law enforcement or military officials who could have curbed the violence as the US Capitol Police and city police were vastly outnumbered.What he did do was watch TV in his dining room next to the Oval Office, phone senators in a bid to make them delay the certification of his election defeat byJoe Biden, and call his unhinged lawyer and fellow coup-plotter Rudy Giuliani. It was not so much Nero fiddling while Rome burns as Nero dancing maniacally in the flames.The details were set out with the committee’s now customary slick and pacy presentation, cutting seamlessly from video deposition to 3D graphic, from archive footage to document excerpt, from Trump tweet to live witness.Thompson and Cheney delivered pithy statements about Trump’s dereliction of duty. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the panel, summed up: “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”Congresswoman Elaine Luria noted that Trump was told that the Capitol was under attack within 15 minutes of leaving the stage at the Ellipse near the White House. He had just held a rally, demanding that heavily-armed supporters, who later marched to the Capitol, be allowed in. A photo of Trump in the Oval Office had the caption: “Minute 11.”Luria said: “At 1.25pm President Trump went to the private dining room off the Oval Office. From 1.25 until 4:00 the president stayed in his dining room … There was no official record of what President Trump did while in the dining room.”The dining room TV, she added, “was tuned to Fox News all afternoon” in perhaps the least surprising revelation of the hearings so far.Indeed, 3D computer graphics showed the Oval Office and dining room, which had a TV above its fireplace, showing Fox News as it was on January 6 – a neat touch. Then there was a display of call logs and the presidential diary from that afternoon, both blank. And the presidential photographer was told “no photographs”.Then came another pivot to video of a deposition by Pat Cipollone, the former White House counsel. He was asked if he was aware of Trump calling the defence secretary, or the homeland security secretary, or the attorney general. He was not.The drama continued to build. There was more footage from the riot at the Capitol, which never diminishes in power, and a reminder of how the mob was just feet away from Mike Pence. A member of the crowd said: ““Mike Pence has screwed us!”There was video testimony from an unnamed and unseen White House security official whose voice, borrowing more TV grammar, had been distorted to protect his identity: “The members of the VP [Secret Service] detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives… There were calls to say goodbye to family members… For whatever reason on the ground the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.”Did Trump call his devoutly righthand man to check if he was OK? He did not. At 2.24pm, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election in his favour. Everyone agreed it was appalling timing.Could Trump have addressed the nation? Again, the hearing was a model of clarity. A graphic showed how close he was to the White House briefing room. Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, testified in person: “It would take probably less than 60 seconds to get from the Oval Office dining room to the press briefing room. There’s a camera that is on in there at all times. If the president wanted to address people, he could have done so.”Then, something extraordinary happened. A burst of laughter echoing in the cavernous caucus room. How could it be? The answer was Republican Senator Josh Hawley. The big screen showed a photo of him with fist raised in support of the insurrectionists earlier on January 6 – haughty, preening, self-satisfied – and cut to a video of Hawley running for his life from the rioters as if auditioning for Chariots of Fire. Priceless.01:08Cheney remained po-faced on the dais, maintaining gravitas on this solemn occasion. Was she roaring with laughter inside? We shall never know. But it was another brilliant piece of choreography, guaranteed to provide fodder to late-night TV hosts and go viral on social media.Kinzinger and Luria, both military veterans, formed an effective double act. Kinzinger delivered a barnstorming ending. “Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonour to all those who have sacrificed and died in the service of our democracy.”Luria concluded: “President Trump did not then and does not now have the character or courage to say to the American people what his own people know to be true. He is responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6.”And yet the door was left open for more. Thompson and Cheney announced that more evidence is being gathered and hearings will resume in September. Will this be a sequel that lives up to expectations, like The Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2 or Top Gun: Maverick? Or will it be Jaws 2? One way to settle the matter would be get Pence here to testify.American politics has been a gruelling horror show for at least seven years now. The House committee hearings have shone an unforgiving light into every crevice with some master storytelling. The substance always matters but, for the power of persuasion, they have shown that style matters too.TopicsUS newsThe US politics sketchDonald TrumpHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsUS Capitol attackanalysisReuse this content More

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      Republican congressman condemns Trump's 'dishonor and dereliction of duty' – video

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      Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republican lawmakers on the January 6 committee and an Air Force veteran, said Donald Trump ‘did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act’. Kinzinger added Trump violated his oath of office during the attack on the US Capitol 

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      Jan 6 hearing: Trump said ‘I don’t want to say the election is over’ in speech outtake one day after riot

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      One of the most revelatory parts of this hearing are the outtakes from Trump’s video message on 7 January. “I don’t want to say the election is over,” he says in one clip. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results.”Here’s the clip:02:07One point Cheney made tonight was that it was often Donald Trump’s own appointees who spoke up against his actions on and leading up to January 6. “The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies. It is instead a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials … his own family,” she said. But she also noted that the women who testified have had to brave especially vicious personal attacks. Of Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who testified earlier, Cheney said: “She knew all along she would be attacked by President Trump, and by the 50-, 60-, 70-year-old men who themselves hide behind executive privilege.” Similarly, Sarah Matthews, was attacked on the House Republican conference Twitter account – despite the fact that she has worked for the House Republican conference – in a post that has since been taken down. – MSThe January 6 committee has just concluded its final scheduled hearing, but its work is far from over. The committee will hold more hearings in September, and vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on the details of what happened that day.Here’s more about what took place at tonight’s hearing:
      A Democratic congresswoman who led the day’s presentation said Trump “was derelict in his duty” before and during the storming of the Capitol.
      Secret Service agents feared for their lives during the attack.
      Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who raised his fist in solidarity with the protesters that would go on to attack the Capitol, was shown fleeing through its halls.
      Republican Adam Kinzinger said Trump “kept resisting” actions demanded by his staff to end the violence.
      In speech outtakes, Trump struggled to say that the 2020 election was “over”.
      Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows called for the president’s daughter Ivanka to help convince him to stop the attack.
      House Republicans attacked the committee on Twitter, including one of their own staffers who was a witness. (They later deleted the tweet).
      The video of Josh Hawley running away not long after he cheered on the January 6 mob is a moment that’s likely to endure for a while after this hearing. There was audible laughter in the room after the clip played. And now online it’s being set to various soundtracks:Josh Hawley running away to a variety of soundtracks. Pt. 1: Chariots of Fire #January6thCommitteeHearing pic.twitter.com/tVCf2R5tUD— Mallory Nees (@The_Mal_Gallery) July 22, 2022
      – Maanvi SinghBennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, who lead the committee, are now delivering closing remarks. Cheney ended with this thought: “Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”– Maanvi Singh“Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this: Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation,” Kinzinger said.It’s unclear whether these hearings will break through and convince many fellow Republicans. Polls prior to this hearing finale found that while the majority of Americans think Trump is responsible for the deadly insurrection, stark party divisions remain. A Monmouth poll found that fewer Republicans now see January 6 as an insurrection than did last year. – Maanvi SinghOne of the most revelatory parts of this hearing are the outtakes from Trump’s video message on 7 January. “I don’t want to say the election is over,” he says in one clip. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results.”Here’s the clip:02:07The day after the attack, White House staff pressed Trump to give another speech to the nation condemning the attack on the Capitol, which committee member Elaine Luria said Trump was motivated to do “because of concerns he might be removed from power under the 25th amendment, or by impeachment”.The committee just showed video of him recording that speech and struggling to accept that the election was finished.“But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results,” Trump said in the speech, before saying to his staff: “I don’t want to say the election’s over. I just want to say Congress has certified the results, without saying the election’s over, okay?”“One day after he incited an insurrection based on a lie, President Trump still could not say that the election was over,” Luria said.“Mike Pence let me down.” According to an unnamed White House employee, that’s what Trump said in the Oval Office following the attack, congressman Adam Kinzinger said.Meanwhile, administration officials were condemning the day’s events and planning to resign.“What happened at the Capitol cannot be justified in any form or fashion. It was wrong and it was tragic. And it was a terrible day. It was a terrible day for this country,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee.As the hearing resumed, congressman Adam Kinzinger asked viewers to put themselves in the shoes of the president on the day of the attack.“What would you have done if you had the opportunity to end the violence?” the Illinois Republican asked. “You would’ve told the rioters to leave. As you heard, that’s exactly what the senior staff had been urging him to do. But he resisted, and he kept resisting for almost another two hours.”Much of this hearing has focused on the efforts of various Trump administration official to get the president to act as the situation got ever more desperate at the Capitol.Once again tonight, we’re being reminded of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s 180 flip after January 6. Multiple witnesses have now recounted that. McCarthy first asked Donald Trump, and then Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, asking the president to call off the mob.. “Think about that. Leader McCarthy, who was one of the president’s strongest supporters, was scared and begging for help. President Trump turned him down,” Adam Kinzinger said. A week later, McCarthy went to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago. – Maanvi SinghThe hearing is now focusing on the tweets Trump sent as the Capitol was being stormed, which his former officials are testifying that they didn’t feel were strong enough to stop the violence.The committee has played voice clips from the Oath Keepers militia groups, apparently between members who took part in the attack and those who were elsewhere.After Trump tweeted, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”, one of the Oath Keepers remarked, “That’s saying a lot, but what he didn’t say, he didn’t say not to do anything to the congressman.” The speaker then laughed.The committee showed Josh Hawley, the right-wing senator of Missouri, raising his fist in solidarity with the crowds on January 6 – and later fleeing as rioters breached the Capitol. Here’s that video: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) — who raised his fist in support of the Capitol insurrectionists earlier in the day — runs for his life from the rioters inside the building in never-before-seen video. pic.twitter.com/GU1L8ttN8u— The Recount (@therecount) July 22, 2022
      Reporters in the room said there was audible laughter after the video of Hawley running played. Hawley was the first senator to declare he would object to certifying the election. – Maanvi SinghThe hearing has restarted with more from Pat Cipollone’s interview. He is describing White House officials as near-unanimous in wanting the rioters out of the Capitol as it was being attacked.“I can’t think of anybody, you know, on that day, who didn’t want people to get out of the Capitol,” Cipollone said.Asked what the president wanted, Cipollone appeared to invoke executive privilege.“Get Ivanka down here”. That’s what chief of staff Mark Meadows said as White House officials tried to figure out how to get Trump to stop the rioters at the Capitol, according to testimony from then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone.“I remember him getting Ivanka involved, said ‘get Ivanka down here.’ He felt that would be important”, Cipollone said.Ivanka Trump is, of course, the president’s daughter, who was an adviser in the White House and told the committee she never believed Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen.Ivanka Trump says she does not believe father’s claim 2020 election was stolenRead moreIt seems the House GOP twitter account has deleted tweets attacking Sarah Matthews and describing tonight’s testimony was “heresy”. Matthews, who has described herself as a “lifelong Republican” and has worked as a staffer for the House GOP, was previously derided as a “pawn” in Nancy Pelosi’s “witch hunt.”The Twitter account is run by Representative Elise Stefanik’s staff.– Maanvi SinghThe January 6 committee is now taking a 10-minute recess.Just before they broke, several former top officials confirmed that they believed ensuring a peaceful transfer of power was among the president’s duties, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Ivanka Trump’s husband Jared Kushner and Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser.“Rather than uphold his duty to the Constitution, president Trump allowed the mob to achieve the delay that he hoped with keep him in power,” congresswoman Elaine Luria said as the hearing’s first half concluded.Secret Service agents feared for their lives as the Capitol was stormed, an unnamed White House security official testified to the committee.“There’s a lot of yelling, a lot of… very personal phone calls over the radio,” the official said. Others “called to say goodbye to a family member”.“I think there were discussions of reinforcements coming, but again, it is just chaos. They’re just yelling”, the official continued. “It sounds like that we came very close to either the service having to use lethal options, or worse.” More

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      Pence’s security detail wanted to call family, feared for their lives during Capitol riot

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      Pence’s security detail wanted to call family, feared for their lives during Capitol riotA White House national security official said, ‘for whatever reason … the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly’ In chilling new testimony about the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the investigating House committee showed that members of the Secret Service detail for the vice-president, Mike Pence, so feared for his and their safety that they “screamed” that other officials should say goodbye to their families.Jan 6 hearing live updates: Trump ‘was derelict in his duty’, Republican Kinzinger saysRead moreA White House national security official whose identity and voice was obscured described the calls in testimony played by the January 6 committee in a public hearing on Thursday night.The official was asked why, after a mob that Donald Trump sent to the Capitol attacked Congress in an attempt to stop Pence certifying Joe Biden’s election win, staff at the White House officially recorded that, “Service at the Capitol does not sound good right now”.The official said: “The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. There was a lot of yelling. There were a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing. I don’t like talking about it.“There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth … for whatever reason it was on the ground, the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.”Such terrified and panicked messages were relayed from the Capitol around the time Trump tweeted to his supporters a now infamous 2.24pm message in which he did nothing to calm the riot.The then president said: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary.”News that members of the Secret Service thought they were going to be killed by the pro-Trump mob comes amid considerable tension between the Secret Service and the January 6 committee.The committee served the agency with a subpoena for all text communications on the day before the Capitol attack and the day itself. The Secret Service said the messages had been wiped. It subsequently delivered just one message to the committee.Nine deaths have been linked to the Capitol riot, including law enforcement officers who died by suicide. Nearly 900 people have been charged, some with seditious conspiracy. The committee is attempting to show grounds for criminal charges against Trump himself. The Department of Justice would have to bring any charges.In the primetime Thursday hearing about events on January 6, the national security official said: “I think there were discussions of reinforcements coming but again it was just chaos, they were just yelling.“If they’re getting nervous and they’re running out of options, it sounds like we came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.“At that point I don’t know? Is the VP compromised? I don’t know. We didn’t have visibility. But if they’re screaming and saying things like ‘Say goodbye to the family’, the floor needs to know this is going to whole ’nother level soon.”Referring to controversy over the missing Secret Service texts, the presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted: “For all of those Secret Service agents who seem to love and venerate Trump, look at how he did nothing to defend Mike Pence’s agents on January 6 as they called their frightened families to say goodbye forever.”TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsSecret ServiceMike PenceUS Capitol attackUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Jan 6 hearing live updates: panel to show Trump broke the law by refusing to stop riot

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      Good afternoon, US politics blog readers. In a few hours, the January 6 committee will hold its final scheduled hearing, in which House lawmakers will make the case that former president Donald Trump may have violated the law by not stopping the assault on the Capitol. As if that wasn’t a packed news agenda by itself, president Joe Biden announced earlier today he had tested positive for Covid-19 – joining his vice president Kamala Harris, much of Congress’s Democratic leadership and yes, Trump, in contracting the virus.Here’s what else has happened today:
      The House of Representatives passed a bill to guarantee access to contraception after supreme court justice Clarence Thomas mulled revisiting a decades-old ruling concerning the right. All Democrats voted for it, along with eight Republicans.
      Much of America is facing extreme heat. Some Democrats have called on Biden to declare a climate emergency, but he has yet to do so.
      Biden’s Covid-19 diagnosis has delayed the announcement of a plan to fight crime.
      Democratic senators have introduced a bill to legalize cannabis nationwide. More

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      in Elections

      Pence Backs Trump Loyalists and Skeptics in House Elections

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      WASHINGTON — As Representative Darin LaHood, Republican of Illinois, prepared to campaign with Mike Pence, the former vice president, in his district last month, he braced for a backlash from his party’s right-wing base.Just days before, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had re-created in chilling detail how Mr. Pence had resisted President Donald J. Trump’s orders to overturn his defeat in Congress — and how Mr. Trump’s demands had put the vice president’s life at risk.Mr. LaHood’s fears of MAGA protesters and hostility to Mr. Pence never materialized; the former vice president received a warm welcome from the crowd at a Lincoln Day dinner in Peoria and at a closed-door fund-raising lunch with the congressman in Chicago, according to people who attended. But the concerns about how Mr. Pence would be received highlighted the awkward dynamic that has taken hold as the former vice president quietly campaigns for Republican members of Congress ahead of the midterm elections.House Republicans helped Mr. Trump spread the election lies that brought Mr. Pence within 40 feet of a mob that stormed the Capitol clamoring for his execution, and the vast majority of them remain publicly loyal to Mr. Trump, still the biggest draw and the most coveted endorsement on the campaign trail.But privately, many of them hope their party might soon return to some version of its pre-2016 identity — when Mr. Pence was regarded on the right as a symbol of conservative strength, not cowardice — and want to preserve a relationship with him in that case.Mr. Pence, who served six terms as a congressman from Indiana, has been eager to campaign for congressional candidates, particularly in the Midwest. He is seeking to carve out a viable lane of his own for a potential presidential run in 2024, even if it means helping some lawmakers who continue to spout the election lies that imperiled him.Mr. Pence spoke at an event for Representative Darin LaHood, right, in Peoria, Ill., last month.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesOver the past year, Mr. Pence has appeared at campaign events for more than a dozen members of Congress, happily attending steak fries, picnics and fund-raisers that have at times brought in half a million dollars apiece for candidates.Overall, his aides said, he has helped to raise millions of dollars for House Republicans, many of whom still see him as a well-liked former colleague who often played the role of Trump administration emissary to Congress. On Wednesday, his alliance with congressional Republicans will be on display when he speaks on Capitol Hill as a guest of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus.That followed an appearance Tuesday night at a “Young Guns” fund-raising dinner hosted by Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Washington. Mr. Pence’s appearance there was described by an attendee as akin to a homecoming for him. Mr. Trump was mentioned only in the context of discussing the “Trump-Pence accomplishments.”Key Themes From the 2022 Midterm Elections So FarCard 1 of 5The state of the midterms. More