The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump will be front and center at today’s Jan. 6 hearing

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 10/13/22 6:30 AM ET

Former President Trump was repeatedly alerted to mounting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol and did not seek to end it, according to findings to be televised this afternoon by the House select committee investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Secret Service records show the former president was made aware of the escalation at the Capitol and continued to stoke the conflict, sources told The Washington Post.

The committee is expected to share new video footage and emails that appear to corroborate some of the most startling accounts of that day. The evidence will tie Trump directly to efforts to overturn election results, including the violence that took place at the Capitol as the official Electoral College tally was underway among lawmakers and Vice President Pence, according to committee members.

“This is not ancient history we’re talking about. This is a continuing threat,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told CNN. “I think the single most urgent question is … what is the continuing clear and present danger we face now from the forces that Donald Trump unleashed?”

The panel at 1 p.m. will delve into Trump’s state of mind on Jan. 6 as members tie up loose ends before the panel’s dissolution at the end of the year, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis report. Over the course of 16 months, House investigators presented damning evidence that revealed the extent to which the former president and his inner circle sought to keep him in office despite his election defeat.

But the panel now faces the daunting task of turning the reams of evidence — gleaned from tens of thousands of documents and more than 1,000 witness interviews — into a concise closing argument that Trump and his supporters pose an ongoing threat to democracy.

“We discovered through our work through this summer what the president’s intentions were, what he knew, what he did, what others did,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, told CNN on Tuesday.

The committee must also decide whether to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department based on its findings. The department is conducting its own investigation into the events surrounding Jan. 6.

Information about how to watch the hearing live at 1 p.m. can be found HERE.

Today’s hearing marks a return to the stage for Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who will attend her first hearing as a lame-duck lawmaker, writes The Hill’s Mychael Schnell. Cheney this summer overwhelmingly lost her primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

Cheney frequently criticized Trump and knocked her Republican colleagues for standing beside him after the Capitol riot. But today’s hearing marks the first time the committee will present that argument after one of their own lost an election to a candidate who was supported by Trump and his allies and believes the 2020 election was tainted by fraud.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Five things to watch during today’s Jan. 6 hearing.

▪ The Washington Post: Violent threats against Jan. 6 witnesses spread on fringe sites.

▪ CNN: The Secret Service recently provided Jan. 6 committee additional 1.5 million communications.

▪ Yahoo News: The number of Republicans who believe Trump’s “big lie” has fallen since the Jan. 6 hearings.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

President Biden on Wednesday began a swing out West, joining Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D), a candidate for reelection, for a designation on a brisk sunny day in the Centennial State of the first national monument of Biden’s presidency (The Denver Post and The Colorado Sun).

With a nod to veterans and history, Biden established Camp Hale, a former high-altitude World War II training camp near Leadville, Colo., as 53,804 acres of mountainous beauty now under monument protection.

Biden will be in Los Angeles today, raising money for House candidates, and in Orange County, Calif., on Friday to tout Democrats’ legislative achievements since his inauguration. Later Friday and on Saturday, he’ll be in Portland, Ore., to try to boost the fortunes of Democratic candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek (Willamette Week and Politico Playbook).

Senate candidates in two states are scheduled to debate today. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and challenger Mandela Barnes (D) will spar for a second time this evening in Madison. Competing for Vermont’s Senate seat are Rep. Peter Welch (D) and Republican Gerald Malloy, a retired U.S. Army major and businessman, during a noon debate hosted by Vermont PBS.

Friday’s high-profile Senate debate is scheduled in Georgia between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican challenger and political newcomer Herschel Walker. Here’s how to watch the 7 p.m. event in Savannah on Friday, hosted by Nexstar, parent company of The Hill.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has made comments about race and crime that reverberate loudly on the campaign trail.

▪ The Hill: NBC interview draws new scrutiny over the health of Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman (D).

▪ The Hill: Five female progressive rising stars to watch in 2024.

▪ The Washington Post: A Mar-a-Lago witness told the FBI that Trump ordered boxes of documents moved to his residence after receiving a government subpoena.

Follow the money. A federal watchdog is investigating whether Florida improperly tapped coronavirus response funds to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., part of a widening federal inquiry into states that put federal pandemic dollars toward controversial immigration crackdowns. The inspector general for the Treasury Department confirmed its new interest in a letter sent last week to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and other members of Congress who had expressed concern that the spending approved by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “violates federal law.” The governor has said he has tapped $12 million in state funds to transport immigrants and asylum seekers arriving in Texas to Democratic-governed cities and states (The Washington Post).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ COURTS

A federal judge denied Trump’s motion to pause proceedings in a defamation suit against him, ordering him to sit for a deposition next week in the case of a woman who accused him of rape.

In her lawsuit, E. Jean Carroll accused the former president of raping her at a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump, in response, accused Carroll of lying and made remarks criticizing her appearance (The Hill).

Infowars founder Alex Jones must pay nearly $1 billion in damages to eight families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, a judge ruled Wednesday. An FBI agent also is to receive damages. Jones had for years falsely claimed the massacre of 20 children and six adults was a hoax (The New York Times).

Jones, who was found guilty of defamation, cheered the judge’s ruling on his program, calling the $965 million decision “a joke” and suggesting his intention to appeal. Jones was found liable for violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act by using lies about the shooting to sell products on Infowars. There is no cap on punitive damages under that law. Jones lost a previous defamation lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook parents and faces another such trial.

“They want to scare everybody away from freedom, and scare us away from questioning Uvalde [Texas] and what really happened there, or Parkland [Florida] or any other event. And guess what? We’re not scared, and we’re not going away, and we’re not going to stop,” he said on “The Alex Jones Show.”

The New York Times: “We told the truth”: Sandy Hook families win $1 billion from Alex Jones.

➤ CONGRESS

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met Wednesday in New York City with Mayor Eric Adams (D), who is struggling with an influx of migrants transported to the city by Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida. Pelosi told reporters that Biden and Congress must do more to secure U.S. borders while acknowledging the absence of bipartisan consensus to address the problems in the House and Senate.

“What we must do in our country is to have comprehensive immigration reform. We all know that we must secure our border, that’s our responsibility as a country,” Pelosi said while visiting a senior center in Queens (New York Post).

“It’s a new phenomenon,” she said of the migration surge and the recent transport by bus and chartered planes of asylum seekers to blue states and cities beyond the border. “The answer to almost every problem is to have comprehensive immigration reform. We can’t get that under the present set of circumstances. Short of that though, we’ll have to address the issue,” she added.

Pelosi, during a pre-recorded interview airing this morning with SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell, said Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “should be recusing himself from every decision that relates to Jan. 6th” because of the involvement of his wife, Ginni Thomas, in seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Ginni Thomas voluntarily testified to the House Jan. 6 panel and told investigators she did not talk to her husband about her election activities, which included texts and communications with top White House officials. Pelosi commended the committee for investigating Ginni Thomas’s role and potential conflicts affecting the high court.

“People say, ‘oh, well, it’s up to the justice,’” Pelosi continued. “Well, it’s up to him and he should have better judgment as a justice of the Supreme Court.”

🌀 Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who opposed what he calls “pork” in previous disaster assistance requests (i.e. Hurricane Sandy) and is in a tough race for reelection, wants $33 billion in federal emergency supplemental disaster funding for his state because of the impact of Hurricane Ian. “Given the scale and scope of the disaster, by some measures the fifth strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States, the federal government has an important role to play in facilitating Florida’s recovery. I plan to make sure our state receives the emergency relief it needs to fully rebuild,” he said (The Washington Post).

OPINION

■ The powerful legacy of the Jan. 6 committee, by Walter Shapiro, columnist, Roll Call. https://bit.ly/3g3FQFU

■ Scandal in L.A. and questions in Florida sit at the nexus of race and power, by Philip Bump, national columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3VkhO9Y

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 11:30 a.m. on Friday for a pro forma session. Members are scheduled to return to the Capitol on Nov. 14. The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack holds a 1 p.m. public hearing.

The Senate convenes Friday at 11:30 a.m. for a pro forma session. Senators make their way back to Washington on Nov. 14.

The president is in Los Angeles where he will speak about public transit at 11:15 a.m. PDT and then headline a political event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at 7:45 p.m. local time. Pelosi will join Biden in Brentwood, where DCCC tickets range from $5,000 per person up to $50,000 per couple (Deadline).

Vice President Harris will deliver remarks at 11:20 a.m. during a White House event about U.S. infrastructure.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets at 9:30 a.m. with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in Washington. The secretary delivers opening remarks during the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue at 10:30 a.m. at the department. Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at noon host a U.S.-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue working lunch, followed by a press conference at 1:30 p.m. that also includes Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Rodriguez. The secretary at 6:15 p.m. will speak at a signing ceremony for a new memorandum of understanding with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will join a 7:30 a.m. breakfast hosted by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman among G20 finance ministers gathered in Washington, then join a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. Yellen will meet at 2:30 p.m. with European Commission Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni at the International Monetary Fund. She will participate in an early warning exercise carried out by an IMF committee at 4:30 p.m.

Economic indicators: The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. will report the consumer price index for September. The data is expected to show little improvement in the year’s sky-high inflation exceeding 8 percent (MarketWatch). The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report filings for unemployment benefits in the week ending Oct. 8. The Social Security Administration will announce a hefty cost-of-living increase for 2023 to be applied to benefits received by tens of millions of Americans (The New York Times).

First lady Jill Biden flies to Georgia this evening to visit service members and military families at U.S. Army Fort Benning and the Maneuver Center of Excellence in Fort Benning. She will join military families for dinner and deliver remarks at the National Infantry Museum at 6:45 p.m.

🎂 Second gentleman Doug Emhoff celebrates his 59th birthday!

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The United States and allies are pushing to get Ukraine additional air defenses to use against Russian attacks as fast as possible, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Brussels on Wednesday while emphasizing U.S. long-term commitments to Ukraine (The Washington Post).

Yahoo News/AP: U.S. weapons systems Ukraine will or won’t get.

Russia’s missile bombardments of civilians and nonmilitary targets throughout Ukraine since the weekend’s truck-bomb damage to an important Russian bridge compelled NATO defense ministers to search for new ideas in the face of emerging risks to Ukraine and the region resulting from Russia’s war.

“Allies have provided air defense, but we need even more. We need different types of air defense, short-range, long-range air defense systems to take (out) ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, different systems for different tasks,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

Officials from 50 nations meeting want to discuss how to press regional defense industries in order to replenish weapon stocks donated to Kyiv’s forces since February (Defense One).

▪ Reuters: Russian missiles target more than 40 Ukrainian cities, towns.

▪ The Hill: Rising nuclear fears spur debate over red lines in the Ukraine war.

French President Emmanuel Macron was among world leaders who committed to deliver radar and air defense systems to Ukraine in coming weeks (Reuters).

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Europe is to blame for its energy crisis because of policies that he asserts starved the industry of investment as European Union states struggle to agree on a proposed price cap on Russian natural gas to offset the impact on consumers (Reuters).

▪ The New York Times: The U.S. considers easing oil sanctions on Venezuela as a way to try to stem the tide of migration fleeing an unstable government.

▪ The Hill: The Department of Homeland Security expands a Trump-era policy to Venezuelans while opening a new pathway to the United States.

▪ Bloomberg News: The Biden administration is considering a total ban on Russian aluminum.

▪ The New York Times: Biden’s new national security strategy document focuses on China, Russia and U.S. democracy.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccines doses for children ages 5 to 11. The agency granted emergency approval of Moderna’s booster for children as young as 6 and approval of Pfizer’s version for children as young as 5 (The Hill).

“Since children have gone back to school in person and people are resuming pre-pandemic behaviors and activities, there is the potential for increased risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “Vaccination remains the most effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.”

Information about COVID-19 vaccine and booster availability can be found HERE.

Europe is entering a new wave of COVID-19, according to a joint Wednesday statement from the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Control. Weekly reported cases on the continent started to rise in September, WHO data shows. The new wave of infection is concerning to experts, but not entirely surprising, as COVID-19 moves into an endemic seasonal pattern with spikes in the winter (NBC’s Today.com).

▪ The Atlantic: Medium COVID-19 could be the most dangerous COVID-19.

▪ The Washington Post: Large study provides powerful evidence of long COVID-19’s lasting impact.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,064,058. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 338, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the upcoming midterm elections, we’re eager for some smart guesses about October surprises in history.

Email your responses to asimendinger@digital-staging.thehill.com and/or kkarisch@digital-staging.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

In the final days of the 2000 presidential election, what news report drawn from the past about candidate George W. Bush forced him to do damage control?

1. A 1976 arrest for DUI

2. Former voter registration as a Democrat

3. Alleged tax evasion scheme

4. Experience as a Yale University cheerleader

Former Republican President William Howard Taft’s doomed 1912 reelection campaign faced which blow a week before Election Day?

1. The president’s chief of staff was found guilty of tax fraud

2. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, running on the Bull Moose ticket, was endorsed by the Republican Party

3. Vice President James Sherman died

4. Taft missed the final week of campaign events because he was sick

With seven weeks left in the 2012 campaign, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was recorded belittling _____ while speaking to a donor audience?

1. Democrats

2. “47 percent” of voters he said would back President Obama

3. Consultants at Bain & Company

4. “Wishy washy” undecided voters

In the final weeks of the 1968 presidential race, Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon sought to influence U.S. policy by _____?

1. Promoting a sweeping plan for infrastructure funding

2. Secretly sabotaging President Lyndon Johnson’s plans to stage Vietnam peace talks

3. Supporting anti-Vietnam War protests

4. Promoting single-payer health insurance

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