A selection committee of the House of Representatives investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, revealed a new idea of what happened that day during its prime time hearing on Thursday night. This was the first in a series of scheduled public hearings.
Many of Thursday’s revelations came from recorded testimony on camera by witnesses, including former President Trump’s own daughter, who appeared before the commission in recent months. The hearing also included new testimony from witnesses who were at the Capitol that day. Although some elements of these topics may have appeared in the news reports, Thursday’s hearing set out the details of the minutes.
Here are six things that the hearing publicly confirmed for the first time on Thursday night:
1. Trump has never called on any law enforcement agency to defend the Capitol. Pence did it instead, Cheney says.
According to Vice President Liz Cheney, Trump, who was president during the uprising, has not called on a federal unit to direct law enforcement to protect the Capitol. Instead, then-Vice President Mike Pence, who effectively took over as president.
“President Trump not only refused to tell the crowd to leave the Capitol, but did not call on any element of the United States government to instruct the Capitol to be protected,” Cheney said. “He did not call his defense secretary on January 6. He did not speak to his chief prosecutor. He did not speak to the Interior Ministry. President Trump did not order the deployment of the National Guard that day. And he made no effort to work with the Ministry of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets. Vice President Pence did each of these things. ”
In an audiotape played by the commission, Mark Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had called on him to create a “story” that Trump, not Pence, controlled and took action. Millie said he saw the request as “politics, politics, politics”.
The commission is likely to elaborate on this issue in the upcoming hearings, as exactly what Trump did in these critical hours on January 6 remains unclear.
2. Ivanka Trump said she accepted Bar’s assessment of the election
Attorney General William Barr testified at the time that he had told Trump he did not agree with his belief that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
“I have made it clear that I do not agree with the idea of saying that the election was stolen and to release these things, which I told the president was nonsense **,” Bar said in a recorded statement. “And I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
When Barr found out that President Biden had actually won the election, Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and adviser, told the commission she believed him.
“I respect Attorney General Bar. So I accepted what he said, “she said.
The president’s daughter was the first member of the former first family to testify during the hearings.
3. A number of Republican lawmakers have called for a pardon from the White House after Jan. 6
Cheney also claims that many Republican members of Congress have asked for the president’s pardon in the aftermath of the Capitol uprising, including Republican Representative Scott Perry. Perry refused to comply with the commission’s summons.
“Many other Republican congressmen have also asked for the president’s pardon for his role in trying to cancel the 2020 election,” Cheney said.
She did not name other Republicans.
4. Jared Kushner accepts threats by White House councilor to resign as “whining”
The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was asked by Cheney during his recorded testimony about “multiple threats” from White House councilor Pat Chipolon and his team to resign amid what Cheney called “illegal.” activity “around Trump’s efforts to stay in office.
“Are you aware of a number of cases in which Pat Chipolone has threatened to resign?” Cheney asked Kushner in a video released during Thursday’s public hearing.
“As I said, my interest at the time was to try to get as many pardons as possible,” Kushner said. “And I know he and the team always said, we will resign, we will not be there if that happens, if that happens. So I kind of accepted whining to be honest with you. “
5. The Proud Boys began marching toward the Capitol before Trump’s speech began
The Proud Boys began marching toward the Capitol before Trump’s speech drew Trump’s supporters, even according to documentary filmmaker Nick Custed, who was in the middle of filming a January 6 documentary about the Proud Boys.
“I was somewhat confused as to why we were moving away from the president’s speech because I felt we were there to cover,” Quested said.
6. Members of Trump’s cabinet have discussed the 25th Amendment, Cheney said
Cheney said members of Trump’s cabinet had discussed “the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment,” adding that the American public would hear more about it in upcoming public hearings. The 25th Amendment gives the cabinet a way to replace the president. He was never called on or in the days after January 6.
Attack on the US Capitol
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Catherine Watson is a political reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, DC
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