The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will examine former President Trump’s actions during the insurrection in a prime-time hearing on Thursday.
The committee plans to give a “minute-by-minute” account of what the former president was doing — or not doing — during the 187 minutes that elapsed between the start of the attack and Trump’s release of a short video telling rioters to go home.
Follow The Hill’s live coverage below:
Cheney pushes back on GOP criticism of Jan. 6 committee
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) sought to push back on Republican criticism of the Jan. 6 committee’s findings at the end of Thursday’s hearings, and she disputed that the outcome would have been different had allies of former President Trump been part of the panel.
Cheney noted the case about Trump’s actions leading up to and beyond the Jan. 6 riots was made “by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials, people who worked for him for years, and his own family.
“They have come forward, and they have told the American people the truth,” Cheney said.
“And for those of you who seemed to think the evidence would be different if Republican Leader McCarthy had not withdrawn his nominees from this committee, let me ask you this: Do you really think Bill Barr is such a delicate flower that he would wilt under cross-examinaton?” Cheney said of the former attorney general, asking the same of former Justice Department officials and White House lawyers.
“Of course they aren’t. None of our witnesses are,” Cheney said.
The congresswoman’s comments came in her closing remarks during what is expected to be the committee’s final public hearing until at least September. And they are notable for Cheney’s jab at some of her own colleagues, who have dismissed the panel as partisan because she and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the two GOP members, are both outspoken Trump critics.
— Brett Samuels
Former Trump campaign officials expressed frustration in text messages that former President Trump made no mention of the Capitol Police officer who died following the Jan. 6 attack.
“Also shitty not to have even acknowledged the death of the Capitol Police officer,” former communications director Tim Murtaugh wrote in a text on Jan. 9, 2021.
“That is enraging to me,” former rapid response director Matt Wolking responded. “Everything he said about supporting law enforcement was a lie.”
“If he acknowledged the dead cop, he’d be implicitly faulting the mob, and he won’t do that, because they’re his people,” Murtaugh wrote back.
Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died after suffering two strokes hours after the mob violence on Jan. 6.
— Brett Samuels
Committee shows outtakes of Trump recording video on Jan. 7: ‘I don’t want to say the election’s over’
The Jan. 6 select committee on Thursday presented outtakes of then-President Trump recording a video on Jan. 7, 2021, in which he recognized that Congress certified the election results and condemned the violence at the Capitol the day before.
In one clip, Trump said he did not want to say “the election’s over” while reading the script before him.
“’But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results’ — 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, OK?” Trump said.
The former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump is heard in the background drafting a new line for her father, including, “now, Congress has certified—.”
In the final cut of the video, Trump said “Congress has certified the results,” but he did not mention losing the election.
In another outtake, Trump took issue with a section that condemned the rioters.
“’And to those who broke the law, you will pay. You do not represent our movement, you do not represent our country, and if you broke the law’ — can’t say that, I’m not gonna, I already said you will pay,” he said.
The final address did not include the “you will pay” line.
Additionally, the committee showed two outtakes of Trump becoming frustrated after reading the line, “My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.”
In one clip, he put pointed his index finger down, and in the second, he slammed the podium.
— Mychael Schnell
Former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger testified Thursday that the Jan. 6 riots “harmed” U.S. national security and gave fodder to foreign adversaries.
“I think it emboldened our enemies by helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system of government doesn’t work, that the United States is in decline. China, the [Vladimir] Putin regime in Russia, Tehran, they’re fond of pushing those kinds of narrative,” Pottinger said, arguing those other leaders are “wrong” about America.
“Jan. 6 helped feed a perception that I think emboldens our adversaries,” he added.
— Brett Samuels
x-Trump campaign communications director says calling Jan. 6 rioters patriots is ‘a stretch’
Tim Murtaugh, who served as communications director on former President Trump’s 2020 campaign, told the Jan. 6 select committee that referring to the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as patriots was a “stretch,” objecting to the language Trump used in a tweet sent the night of the Capitol riot.
“I don’t think it’s a patriotic act to attack the Capitol. But I have no idea how to characterize the people other than they trespassed, destroyed property and assaulted the U.S. Capitol. I think calling them patriots is, a, let’s say, a stretch, to say the least,” Murtaugh previously told the committee, according to a clip presented at Thursday’s public hearing.
Just after 6 p.m. on Jan. 6, Trump published a tweet that called the rioters who attacked the Capitol “great patriots.”
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” he wrote on Twitter.
Asked if the tweet was a stretch or “flatly wrong,” Murtaugh said, “I don’t think it’s a patriotic act to attack the U.S. Capitol.”
Pressed on if it was unpatriotic, Murtaugh responded, “Criminal. Unpatriotic, sure.”
Greg Jacob, former counsel to then-Vice President Mike Pence, said the tweet was “inappropriate.”
“To my mind it was a day that should be remembered in infamy. That wasn’t the tenor of this tweet,” he previously told the committee.
The panel also presented a clip of testimony from former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who asserted that the events of Jan. 6 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’s a terrible day for this country,” he added.
— Mychael Schnell
Then-Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia wrote a memo encouraging former President Trump to no longer talk about the election — “no one can deny this is harmful” — and, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) says, alluding to the need to stop taking advice from Rudy Giuliani.
— Rebecca Beitsch
The committee played audio of a voicemail Rudy Giuliani left for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on the night of Jan. 6 urging him and other GOP lawmakers to slow down the election certification even after the riot had dispersed.
“I’m calling you because I wanted to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said in his message to Tuberville.
While some senators and House Republicans did still object to some election results, Congress certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election in the early morning hours of Jan. 7.
— Brett Samuels
Ex-White House advisor said staff was ’emotionally drained’ after Trump filmed video on Jan. 6
Former Trump White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann said staffers at the White House were “emotionally drained” after President Trump finished filming a video urging his supporters to leave the Capitol.
The select committee showed a video of Trump filming a message urging his supporters to leave the Capitol, which was eventually posted on Twitter at 4:17 p.m. on Jan. 6. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone previously testified that he and other White House officials were pushing for the president to issue a statement telling his supporters to leave the Capitol.
The remarks Trump eventually delivered were significantly different from the script he was given, according to evidence presented by the panel.
“When he finished his video, I think everyone was like, day’s over, people were pretty drained,” Herschmann previously testified, according to a clip shown on Thursday.
“There were people in the Capitol, but I think by this stage law enforcement — and I’d have to go back and look, but I believe law enforcement was either there or moving in or going to take charge. And I’d just say people were emotionally drained by the time that videotape was done,” he added.
– Mychael Schnell
Committee shows raw footage of Trump recording message to supporters
The House committee presented previously unseen raw footage of former President Trump recording his message to protesters after hours of pleas from staff to condemn the violence.
The footage, recorded in the Rose Garden, shows Trump ignored a script that called for him to tell protesters to “leave the Capitol Hill region now and go home in a peaceful way.”
Instead, he spoke off the cuff, delivering a meandering message to his supporters after one false start on his first attempt.
Trump expressed empathy with the rioters, saying he believed the 2020 election was “stolen from us” and “fraudulent.”
“But you have to go home now. We have to have peace, we have to have law and order, we have to respect our great people in law and order,” Trump said in the video, recorded at 4:03 p.m. on Jan. 6.
“There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you, and you’re very special.”
— Brett Samuels
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee he wasn’t aware of any White House staff who did not want the rioters to leave the Capitol, but took an extended pause when asked specifically about what former President Trump wanted.
“I can’t think of anybody on that day who didn’t want people to get out of the Capitol once, you now, particularly once the violence started,” Cipollone said.
After a lengthy pause, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked what Trump thought.
Cipollone then conferred with his lawyer before saying: “I can’t reveal communications,” relying on privilege to keep those conversations private.
“But obviously I think, you know… yeah,” Cipollone said, concluding with a final pause.
— Brett Samuels
Committee plays footage of Hawley jogging for safety amid attack
The committee played video of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) jogging to safety at the Capitol after rioters stormed the building, hours after he held up a fist in solidarity with protesters.
The committee displayed a now infamous photo of Hawley the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, where he raised his fist in the direction of protesters who had already gathered outside the building ahead of the vote certification.
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) quoted a Capitol Police officer who told the committee the gesture “riled up the crowd.”
“Later that day, Sen. Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol,” Luria said.
The committee then played footage of Hawley visibly running through the halls of the Capitol and then jogging down the stairs as lawmakers and staff sought safety from the mob.
— Brett Samuels
House GOP Conference deletes tweet attacking Sarah Matthews for testifying to Jan. 6 panel
The House Republican Conference publicly attacked Sarah Matthews, who formerly served as deputy press secretary in the Trump White House, for testifying before the Jan. 6 Committee — despite the fact that she is currently working as a communications director for the Republican staff on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
“Just another liar and pawn in Pelosi’s witch-hunt,” House Republicans tweeted during Thursday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing, quoting another tweet from Matthews on Jan. 20, 2021, thanking former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence for their service and saying that it was an honor to serve in their administration.
The tweet was quickly deleted after public blowback.
— Emily Brooks
DC police officer corroborates story that Trump got in ‘heated argument’ in vehicle on Jan. 6
A Washington, D.C., police officer on Thursday corroborated previous testimony that former President Trump got into a “heated discussion” about going to the Capitol with his supporters after his speech on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Jan. 6 panel presented clips of testimony from retired Sgt. Mark Robinson of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, who was assigned to Trump’s motorcade on Jan. 6. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), a member of the select committee, said Robinson was in the lead vehicle with the Secret Service agent overseeing the motorcade, known as the TS agent.
During previous testimony behind closed doors, Robinson, who said he had been part of the presidential motorcade more than 100 times, described what he was told about Trump’s conduct in the presidential vehicle.
“The only description I received was that the president was upset and that he was adamant about going to the Capitol and that there was a heated discussion about that,” Robinson told the committee.
He said the TS agent described it as “heated.”
“Meaning that the president was upset and he was saying there was a heated argument or discussion about going to the Capitol,” Robinson said.
— Mychael Schnell
Here’s what White House security officials were aware of in the minutes leading up to then-President Trump’s decision to send a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence.
— Rebecca Beitsch
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone said he and several other White House officials were pushing for former President Trump to issue a direct statement telling rioters to leave the Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6.
“I said people need to be told, there needs to be a public announcement fast that they need to leave the Capitol,” Cipollone said, adding that he indicated as much to Trump “almost immediately after I found out people were getting into the Capitol or approaching the Capitol in a way that was violent.”
Asked about who was pressing Trump to issue a more forceful statement, Cipollone said the officials included senior adviser Ivanka Trump, chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Eric Herschmann and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.
— Brett Samuels
Trump’s daily diary went blank during Jan. 6 riot
Former President Trump remained walled off in his personal dining room watching television for roughly 2 1/2 hours on Jan. 6, the committee said Thursday.
The president’s daily diary contained no information about Trump’s activities between 1:21 p.m. and 4:03 p.m. that day, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said.
And a White House photographer was told she could not document Trump’s behavior that afternoon.
“The chief White House photographer wanted to take pictures because it was, in her words, ‘very important for his archives and for history,'” Luria said. “But she was told ‘no photographs.'”
— Brett Samuels
An anonymous White House security official told the committee that former President Trump wanted to lead his supporters to the Capitol, triggering alarm among security staff.
“We all knew this would move from a normal, democratic, public event into something else,” the official said. “The president wanted to lead tens of thousands of people to the Capitol. I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed.”
The committee kept the official’s identity anonymous, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said, because of concerns about retribution and witness safety.
— Brett Samuels
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.): “Here’s what will be clear by end of today’s hearing: President Trump did not fail to act … He chose not to act.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), who is helping lead today’s hearing, said Trump was repeatedly advised to intervene to quell the violence.
“Virtually everyone told Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms,” she said.
“But the former president chose not to do what all of those people begged.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Cheney said McCarthy, lawmakers were ‘scared’ by rioters
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in her opening statement said lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), were “scared” by the rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Secret Service agents protecting the vice president were exceptionally concerned about his safety and their own,” Cheney said. “Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was scared, as were others in Congress. Even those who themselves helped to provoke the violence.”
Cheney and McCarthy have openly feuded over the past year, in large part because of Cheney’s vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump and his conduct after the 2020 election.
While McCarthy originally condemned Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riots, he has since made amends with the former president as he eyes the Speaker’s gavel should Republicans retake the House majority.
— Brett Samuels
Cheney says Jan. 6 panel will hold more hearings in September
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) announced on Thursday that the Jan. 6 select committee will hold additional hearings in September.
Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, announced the additional upcoming presentations at Thursday’s public hearing, asserting that the panel has “considerably more to do.”
“In the course of these hearings we have received new evidence, and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward. Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful, and those continue. Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break,” Cheney said.
“And now, even as we conduct our ninth hearing, we have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American people, and more to gather. So our committee will spend August pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts before convening further hearings this September,” she added.
— Mychael Schnell
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the committee will reconvene in September “to continue laying out our findings to the American people.”
“But as that work goes forward, a number of facts are clear. There can be no doubt that there was a coordinated, multistep effort to overturn an election, overseen and directed by Donald Trump,” Thompson said in opening remarks.
— Brett Samuels
The committee will use today’s hearing to make clear the role and power Trump had on Jan. 6.
Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) calls Trump “the only person in the world that could call off the mob.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) opened the hearing by addressing the public remotely as he recovers from COVID-19.
He previewed the evening’s hearing, saying the committee would outline how former President Trump did nothing to stop an armed mob from attacking the Capitol, building on the evidence presented in previous hearings.
“Over the last month and a half the select committee has told the story of a president who did everything in his power to overturn an election. He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” Thompson said.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) will lead Thursday night’s hearing in Thompson’s absence.
— Brett Samuels
Get caught up while you’re waiting for the hearing to begin
Thursday’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Get caught up on The Hill’s latest coverage while you are waiting:
Jan. 6 hearing to focus on Trump’s frantic 187 minutes
Ex-Trump counsel gears up for starring appearance in Jan. 6 hearing
Who is Sarah Matthews, the Trump White House aide testifying to Jan. 6 panel?
Who is Matthew Pottinger, the Trump National Security official testifying to Jan. 6 panel?