Breaking Business Jan. 6 Committee Hearing: Trump ‘Energized’ Extremists Like Proud Boys To Come To D. C.
, Thompson Says Nicholas Reimann Forbes Staff I cover national politics, with a focus on Donald Trump. Jun 9, 2022, 09:34pm EDT | Updated Jun 9, 2022, 09:55pm EDT Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.
), chair of the House January 6 committee, said in a primetime hearing Thursday that former President Donald Trump “energized” far-right groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to storm the Capitol when he urged his supporters to show up in D. C. in a tweet several weeks earlier—one of several bombshell claims the committee revealed at the hearing.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U. S. Capitol following a rally with .
. . [+] President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Trump supporters gathered in the nation’s capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) Getty Images Key Facts Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020, that his supporters should travel to the nation’s capital for January 6, saying: “Be there, will be wild!” Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who was following the Proud Boys, said in testimony that members of the extremist group started moving toward the Capitol before Trump finished his speech at a “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House—marching toward Capitol Hill by the “hundreds. ” Among other revelations, Rep.
Liz Cheney (R-Wyo. ), vice chair of the committee, said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.
) was one of “multiple” members of Congress who asked for pardons after the storming of the Capitol. It’s not clear why Perry allegedly asked for a pardon, but Perry had previously pushed Trump to install Jeffrey Clark—an obscure Justice Department official who supported Trump’s false voter fraud claims—as attorney general, according to the New York Times . Cheney also said in her remarks that former President Donald Trump told White House staffers on January 6 the rioters were “doing what they should be doing,” and he responded to rioters’ chants to hang Vice President Mike Pence by saying he “deserves it.
” Despite harried efforts by White House staff, Trump was hesitant to call off the rioters, and he didn’t place any calls to agencies like the Department of Defense to ask for help resecuring the Capitol, Cheney said. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in recorded testimony that Pence took charge and asked for National Guard support during a phone call on the day of the riot, while Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows primarily focused on the riot’s political ramifications.
Cheney said in the days following the riot, members of Trump’s cabinet discussed invoking the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which spells out a process for the cabinet to sideline the incumbent president. The committee also looked at Trump’s months-long effort to overturn his election loss: Lawmakers played testimony of former Attorney General Bill Barr calling Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election “bulls***,” along with a video of the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump saying she “accepted” Barr’s position there was no widespread fraud. Cheney says White House Counsel Pat Cipollone “threatened to resign multiple times” in the weeks preceding the riot because he was concerned the Trump Administration’s behavior was illegal—though in videotaped testimony to lawmakers, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner said he interpreted these threats to quit as “whining.
” Thompson said the 2021 attack on the U. S. Capitol amounted to an ongoing “conspiracy to thwart the will of the people,” calling the assault an “insurrection” that “put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk.
” Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who the committee said was the first officer injured on January 6, described a “warzone” at the Capitol filled with “hours of hand-to-hand combat” between police and rioters, who Edwards said attacked police with pepper spray and tear gas. Crucial Quote “It was carnage. It was chaos.
I can’t even describe what I saw,” Edwards said. “Never in my wildest dreams as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer I would find myself in the middle of a battle. ” Key Background The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, began its investigation into the attack last summer.
It has interviewed dozens of former Trump staffers as part of its probe, which has largely centered on determining Trump’s role in the riot. The former president and many of his supporters have slammed the investigation as a politically driven witch hunt, and some Trump allies have resisted cooperating with the committee. More to come.
Follow me on Twitter . Send me a secure tip . Nicholas Reimann Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.
From: forbes
URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/06/09/jan-6-committee-hearing-republican-congressman-sought-pardon-after-riot/
