Two former White House aides who resigned after Jan. 6 — former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews — will testify at Thursday’s hearing, CNN previously reported (the committee has not formally announced witnesses for the event). Earlier reports from CNN and others, as well as excerpts from committee testimony that have been made public – detailed how Trump watched television outside the Oval Office as rioters breached the walls of the Capitol. Before Trump released his video telling rioters to go home, he sent out several tweets that did not tell them to leave Capitol Hill — including one attacking Pence for not participating in his plan to try to overturn the election of 2020. Here’s what to watch at the committee hearing:

Connecting the dots back to Trump

Thursday’s hearing, the panel’s eighth in the past two months, is the culmination of the Jan. 6 panel, which has made a point of putting Trump front and center at each hearing. The panel has repeatedly used those around Trump to show how he was told he lost the election but refused to listen, and how he played a key role in the multiple attempts to overturn the election leading up to Jan. 6. On Thursday, testimony from the same aides is likely to show how Trump was told to stop the violence but did not. The committee has already released testimony from Cipollone’s video deposition, in which the former White House adviser said he pressured Trump to issue a statement telling people to leave the Capitol. “I felt it was my obligation to continue to push for it, and others felt it was their obligation as well,” the former White House adviser responded. The committee also spoke to others who were around Trump on Jan. 6, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Pence’s former national security adviser, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg. Kellogg has testified about how he urged Ivanka Trump to go and talk to his father in hopes that she could contact him, according to excerpts of his testimony that have been released as well as a previous report.

Both witnesses left the Trump administration after January 6

Thursday’s witnesses are expected to be two former Trump White House officials who resigned after the deadly attack. Pottinger, a former deputy national security adviser, served under Trump for four years. A former journalist who served in the Marine Corps, Pottinger was brought into the White House as a top adviser on Asia by Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, for whom he worked in the military. In testimony played to the committee, Pottinger told the committee he made his decision to resign when a staffer brought him a printout of Trump’s tweet attacking Pence. “I read that tweet and decided at that moment to resign. That’s when I knew I was leaving that day,” Pottinger said in the video deposition. According to the New York Times, Pottinger did not speak to Trump that day, but told Meadows that the National Guard had not yet arrived at the Capitol as the violence unfolded. Matthews, a former deputy press secretary, was one of several White House aides who called on Trump to condemn the violence. According to a source familiar with her decision, Trump’s inaction is what led to her resignation that night. Matthews met with committee members or staff three times before her public testimony and told the committee that Trump’s tweet about Pence was “adding fuel to the fire by writing that,” according to a video of her testimony that was played at a previous hearing. . Matthews also did not speak with Trump on Jan. 6, but a source told CNN that he will be able to shed some light on what was going on in the White House that day, including information from conversations involving staffers in the room with Trump.

Covid-19 will not prevent Thompson from presiding over the hearing

Rep. Bennie Thompson, who tested positive this week for Covid-19, will continue to serve as committee chairman at Thursday’s hearing — albeit remotely, aides say.
After the announcement of Thompson’s positive test, his office made it clear that the hearing would continue even if the Mississippi Democrat could not attend in person, though it was unclear whether the president would play a role. Aides said Wednesday that Thompson is “feeling good” and will continue to preside over the hearing virtually. Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia and GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois will lead Thursday’s presentation, according to committee aides. “We’re going to go almost minute by minute during that time frame” during the 187 minutes of the Capitol standoff, Luria said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He did nothing to stop the riot,” he added. The committee’s Republican vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, will also play a role as she has in each of the seven previous hearings.

Final listen of this series, but probably not the last

Committee aides again declined to say whether there would be more hearings after Thursday’s presentation, but left the door open to that possibility. The commission has steadfastly maintained that its investigation is still ongoing and characterized Thursday’s hearing as a season finale of sorts. “We stated in June that we were holding this series of hearings to present findings to tell you a story,” a committee aide told reporters Wednesday. “We also said at the beginning of the hearings that we have far more information than we could ever present to the American people in a single series of hearings.” “All I would say is that nothing is off the table. I think all members have indicated to us that there is a possibility of future hearings. Certainly when we publish any sort of Select Committee report, you can expect to see the committee rallying around this.” added the assistant.
That echoes what Luria said on CNN on Sunday. “Whether it’s hearings or other methods of presenting the evidence, but you know, we have a responsibility to present the things that we’ve uncovered and we’re talking about the best way to do that as a board after that. hearing,” he said. CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.