Mississippi Democrat Benny Thompson opened the hearing, calling the actions of former President Donald J. Trump’s “coup attempt”, making clear the threat the country faced on January 6, 2021.
A clip was shown of the testimony of Bill Barr, Mr Trump’s last Senate-approved Attorney General, in which Mr Barr rejected Mr Trump’s repeated allegations of fraud and recalled how he had told the president he considered him a “Nonsense” and wants no part of it.
Mr Thompson went on to describe the continuing threat to democracy from the anger Mr Trump had sparked the day before.
Finally, spokeswoman Liz Cheney described testimony that would be reproduced, showing that Mr. Trump applauded the rebels as they stormed the building, including telling his aides that Vice President Mike Pence may “deserve” to be hanged, as the rebels insist.
All the testimonies came together to show how Mr Trump was trying to “destroy” the US government, Ms Cheney said.
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