WASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol plans to chronicle at its Thursday hearing all that was happening in Congress and at the White House during the 187 minutes between then-President Donald Trump’s fiery speech and his video encouraging the mob to go home.
Committee members have argued that Trump’s lack of response was a dereliction of duty under the Constitution to protect Congress.
- Thompson by remote: Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, who is the chairman of the committee, is attending Thursday’s hearing remotely after testing positive for Covid-19 this week.
Who will testify? The committee will hear from former Trump aides Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, who each resigned in protest soon after Jan. 6. In addition, the panel will show videotaped depositions from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone; former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and Greg Jacob, former Vice President Mike Pence’s counsel; who will describe that day in detail.
Why is this important and what will be said?: While snippets of what happened behind-the-scenes have been revealed through testimony and evidence, there are still large gaps of the day we don’t know about, and the committee has promised more details which could be revealed in Thursday’s “minute by minute” account.- Taking the lead: The primetime hearing led by two lawmakers who are military veterans — Democrat Elaine Luria, of Virginia, and Republican Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois.
Live timeline of Trump’s actions during the Capitol attack:On Jan. 6, Trump was out of public view as aides urged him to act. A breakdown of those 187 minutes.
Committee: Trump didn’t call law enforcement or the military about the insurrection
Luria and other committee members have listed a number of things Trump could have done during the Jan. 6 riot, but didn’t – including calling law enforcement or the military to ask them to help stop the mayhem.
Trump didn’t contact anybody “to offer assistance” or to “quell the attack,” Luria said.
Noting that Trump did not reach out to the National Guard, the FBI, the Pentagon, the Justice Department, or homeland security, Luria said: “He did not call to issue orders or call for assistance.”
— David Jackson
Trump spent close to three hours in dining room with Fox News playing
Former President Donald Trump spent more than two and a half hours in the presidential dining room sitting at the head of the table with the television tuned to Fox News, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. said witnesses have told the committee.
During that time period from approximately 1:25 p.m. to about 4:00 p.m., official records at the White House do not document the former president’s actions, Luria said. The official call logs and the presidential diary do not contain entries from those times.
“There are also no photos of President between this critical period between 1:21 p.m. in the Oval Office and when he went outside to the Rose Garden” to record a message to the rioters, Luria said. The White House photographer wanted to take pictures for historical purposes but was not allowed, she said.
— Erin Mansfield
Trump called senators to stop the vote count during the riot
While in the White House dining room watching the Capitol being breached, former President Donald Trump called multiple senators, encouraging them to delay the certification of electoral votes.
The Jan. 6 Committee isn’t aware of which senators Trump called because the White House call logs are empty for hours during the insurrection, Rep. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said in the hearing.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed that Trump wanted a list of senators to call, but was not aware of who Trump called that afternoon.
– Katherine Swartz
Trump ‘didn’t want anything done’
As the Capitol attack unfolded, the Pentagon had a pending call with the White House to coordinate a response to the riot. Former Senior Advisor Eric Herschmann told former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump “didn’t want anything done.”
Cipollone ended up having to take the call from the Pentagon himself, he said in video played Thursday.
— Kenneth Tran
White House security “in a state of shock” long before Capitol was breached
A White House security official, who spoke anonymously to the Jan. 6 Committee out of fear of retribution, said security knew that the crowd gathered at Jan. 6 moved from being a “normal, democratic public event” into a security threat.
The security official said that White House security became concerned long before rioters breached the Capitol, as they were aware of multiple reports of weapons in the crowd at the Ellipse for former President Donald Trump’s rally.
“The President wanted to lead tens of thousands of people to the Capitol. I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed.”
– Katherine Swartz
Trump ‘chose not to act’ as violent rioters entered the Capitol
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Trump deliberately “chose not to act” as rioters breached the Capitol building because the mob was doing his bidding.
“Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis?” Kinzinger said. “Because President Trump’s plan for January 6 was to halt or delay Congress’ official proceedings to count the votes.”
