The committee used Thursday’s hearing to show how Trump not only failed to act, but chose not to as he watched the violent attack on the US Capitol. Several witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on Jan. 6 told the committee that Trump did not call any law enforcement or national security officials as the attack on Capitol Hill unfolded, according to previously unseen evidence. video during Thursday’s hearing. The committee said it “confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, Vice President Mike Pence’s staff and DC government officials: Not one of them — not one — heard from President Trump that day,” the committee said. Leashes. The committee used that testimony to argue that Trump’s refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty. Former officials who were with Trump as he watched the riot on television, including then-White House adviser Pat Cipollone and Trump’s bodyguard Nick Luna, told the committee they were not aware the former president made a single call to the heads of various agencies that could have responded to the violence, including the defense secretary or attorney general. Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, who was also with Trump that day, testified that he never heard the former president call for the National Guard or a response from law enforcement. Kellogg also confirmed that he would have known if Trump had asked such a question. Matthews, the former White House spokeswoman, said she spoke with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany during the riot, and McEnany “looked directly at me and in a hushed tone, shared with me that the President did not want to include anyone kind of peace report’ in a tweet they were making. “To me, his refusal to act and remove the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was inexcusable,” Matthews told the hearing. That testimony matched other evidence presented Thursday, including excerpts of Trump’s videotaped Jan. 7 speech, where he tried to tone down some of the prepared language and told aides: “I don’t want to say the election is over, OK ?” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told the House Select Committee he was surprised that he never heard from Trump as the attack on Capitol Hill unfolded — suggesting that his failure to act was tantamount to abdicating his duties as Commander to the Chief, according to a previously unseen video of his closed-door testimony. “You know, you’re the Commander in Chief. You have an attack on the Capitol of the United States of America and there’s nothing? No call? Nothing? Nothing?” he said in the clip.
‘They started fearing for their lives’: Disturbing audio and video show the danger felt by Pence’s security detail
Thursday’s hearing included disturbing new video and audio that showed how threatened Pence’s security elements felt as they tried to remove the vice president from the Capitol. The panel outlined the fullest picture yet of the danger facing Pence and his team as rioters called for Pence to be hanged after he refused to go along with Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election. A committee witness testified that Pence’s detail was so alarmed by what was happening that they were “starting to fear for their lives” and that there were calls “to say goodbye to family members.” The witness was an unidentified national security professional working at the White House on January 6, whose audio testimony was blacked out to mask the official’s identity. “Is the vice president in danger? Well, I don’t know. We didn’t have visibility, but if they’re screaming and saying things like, say goodbye to the family … that’s going to go to a whole other level soon,” the national security official said. The House Select Committee also revealed, for the first time, Secret Service radio traffic as agents assessed the Senate staircase where Pence would be evacuated while rioters confronted police in a downstairs hallway at the same time. The video played Thursday combined the surveillance tapes with security footage and audio of Pence’s detail, bringing into focus how close Pence and his detail lived.
The committee contrasts Pence’s presidential actions with Trump’s inaction
A focus of the select committee hearing was the presidential actions taken on January 6, not by Trump but by Pence. The panel noted that Trump made no attempt to call law enforcement or military officials on Jan. 6, while Pence — whose life was threatened by rioters — was “working the phones” talking to Milley and then-Defense Secretary Chris Miller . The panel played a video of Milley’s testimony in which he said he had “two or three calls” with Pence. “He was very brisk and gave very clear, very direct, clear orders. There was no doubt about that,” Milley said. “He was very animated, very direct, very firm on Secretary Miller: Get the army down here, get the guard down here, put this situation in place.” Luria drew a direct contrast to what Trump did on Jan. 6: “The president didn’t call the vice president or anybody from the military, federal law enforcement or the D.C. government. Not one person,” she said. The panel’s comparison between Trump and Pence underscores how Trump is still angry with his vice president for Jan. 6. Politically, Pence has opposed Trump in several primaries ahead of a possible 2024 presidential showdown. The former vice president has supported Republicans who have rejected Trump’s false claims of fraud, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp — who defeated a primary challenge backed by Trump — and Arizona Republican Karrin Taylor Robson, who is running in the state’s primary against a Republican who has bought into Trump’s lies about the election. The committee, which counts two anti-Trump Republicans as members — Kinzinger and the committee’s vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — has described Pence as one of the key officials who stood up to Trump after his defeat in 2020 elections. The committee also included in its hearing Thursday a Jan. 6 video of Joe Biden condemning the violence — in what was a subtle nod to the pre-presidential Biden compared to Trump before he was sworn in.
Committee Goes after Congressional Republicans (Again)
The committee threw several sharp elbows at congressional Republicans during Thursday’s hearing, confronting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Trump allies. The panel played audio clips, previously disclosed, in which McCarthy talked about his conversations with Trump after Jan. 6 and said he was considering advising him to resign. The panel also played a video of the testimony of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in which Kushner said McCarthy was “scared” amid the unfolding violence on Capitol Hill when the two spoke by phone on Jan. 6. In addition, the panel pointed to Sen. Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican who led the Senate’s objection to the Jan. 6 election results. The panel showed a familiar photo of Hawley raising his fist at rioters outside the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6. Soon after, the panel played video of Hawley running out of the Senate chamber — and played it a second time in slow motion for emphasis. Later that evening, Hawley forced debate on the results of the Pennsylvania election and voted against their certification. The two Republicans on the panel, Kinzinger and Cheney, have been vocal critics of McCarthy as they were ostracized by the House GOP conference. Both could leave Congress next year: Kinzinger is retiring and Cheney faces a Trump-backed primary challenger in Wyoming. Kinzinger co-chaired Thursday’s hearing. The committee has previously hounded congressional Republicans for their role in aiding Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, including seeking clemency after Jan. 6. And the committee’s clashes with McCarthy go far beyond the hearings: The committee has subpoenaed five Republicans, including McCarthy, in an unprecedented move.
The committee adds corroboration of Hutchinson’s testimony
The Jan. 6 panel on Thursday provided new evidence to support explosive testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who publicly described Trump’s angry interactions with his Secret Service agents after Trump said he could not he goes to the capitol.
Luria said the committee had information from two additional sources to partially corroborate Hutchinson’s testimony that Trump tapped into his Secret Service information. One of the witnesses, Luria said, “is a former White House staffer with national security responsibilities.”
Although the person was not named, Luria said the official testified that Tony Ornato, then White House deputy chief of staff and now a member of the Secret Service, told him the same story Hutchinson testified Ornato told her — – that Trump was “furious” when Robert Engel, the Secret Service agent in charge on January 6, 2021, would not take him to Capitol Hill.
The second witness was a retired Washington, DC police officer. Mark Robinson, who was in Trump’s motorcade that day. Robinson testified that the Secret Service agent in charge of the motorcade had said Trump had a “heated” conversation with his detail about going to the Capitol.
Robinson added that he had been in “over 100” motorcades with Trump and had never heard of such an exchange before Jan. 6.
Hutchinson’s testimony about Trump hiding in his Secret Service has become a key point that Trump allies have tried to use to discredit the investigation.
While the detail about Trump turning on a Secret Service agent was only one excerpt from Hutchinson’s testimony, the pushback likely…
