Missed Day 7 of Jan. 6 hearings? Committee shows march to Capitol was planned, Trump lawyers had screaming match in Oval Office
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
WASHINGTON–The special committee investigating the violent Capitol attacks on Jan. 6, 2021, revealed testimony and evidence Tuesday indicating former President Donald Trump used his huge social media following to summon an armed mob to Washington, D.C. as part of an "unhinged" effort to stay in power.
Trump proceeded with his plan despite White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cabinet officials and other top aides advising him to concede his presidential election loss to Joe Biden, according to witnesses and other evidence presented Tuesday.
But committee members said he continued to use his bully pulpit online, where he had millions of followers, to make unproven claims – even after losing 60 lawsuits – that the 2020 election had been stolen.
"Trump's purpose was to mobilize a crowd," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., one of the panel members. "He knew the crowd was angry. He knew the crowd was armed. He sent them anyway."
It was a hearing punctuated with several big reveals, including in committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney's final words of the hearing when she said Trump personally called an unidentified witness who has not yet testified. The committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice, she said.
"Let me say one more time, we will take any efforts to influence witnesses testimony very, very seriously," she said.
March to Capitol was planned: The special committee revealed evidence that showed the march to the Capitol was planned – and not spontaneous. Never-before-seen text messages on Tuesday showed those who were behind the rally ahead of the Jan. 6 riot knew Trump would call for the march. A never-before-seen draft tweet was also revealed that showed Trump was going to say he would be making a speech at 10 a.m. Jan. 6 at the Ellipse. "Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!"
'Unhinged' meeting: The committee focused heavily on a Dec. 18, 2020, meeting in the Oval Office, where Trump advisers Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn met to discuss overturning the election. The meeting broke into a screaming match, according to testimony, with White House counsel challenging ideas of Powell, Giuliani and Flynn and saying they lacked evidence of widespread voter fraud.
A call to arms: Trump assembled a crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, to "serve his goal," said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a committee member. Some of the members in that crowd had "specific plans," she said. A tweet from the former president on Dec. 19, 2020, in which he urged people to go to Washington on Jan. 6 and said it "will be wild," was a "call to action" and a "call to arms," she said.
The day it ended: Cipollone and other top Trump officials testified that they saw Dec. 14, 2020, as the end of the former president's legal election challenges. That was the day state electors met to cast votes in line with the popular votes in their states. Former White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere testified that he told Trump "the means for him to pursue litigation was probably closed" after the state electors voted. Trump said he disagreed, according to Deere's testimony.
'Trump's last stand': Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, 2020: "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" The next day, right-wing personalities shared messages with their followers that said Trump was calling on them to assemble. "This could be Trump's last stand," Tim Pool said. "Trump supporters need to say this is it. It's now or never." A pro-Trump YouTuber that goes by the name "Salty Cracker" said "a red wedding" would be "going down Jan. 6. There going to be a million-plus, geeked-up, armed Americans." Raskin explained that "red wedding" is a phrase, taken from the show "Game of Thrones," that means "mass slaughter." "The point is that Trump's call to Washington reverberated powerfully and pervasively online."
Early warnings: One of the warnings ahead of Jan. 6 came from John Ratcliffe, Trump’s director of national intelligence. He told former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson he thought the former president’s challenges to the election could "spiral out of control" and become potentially "dangerous," according to her testimony. A former Twitter employee who testified before the committee anonymously said he became concerned after Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during a 2020 presidential debate. "My concern was that the former president for seemingly the first time was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives," the employee said in recorded testimony. "We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me."
Hearing recap: Jan. 6 rioter blames his participation on Trump, false claims of election fraud: Day 7 recap
Filling in the gaps: On Jan. 6, Trump was out of public view as aides urged him to act. A breakdown of those 187 minutes.
Jan. 6 panel reveals march to Capitol was planned
Through a series of never-before-seen text messages and documents from the National Archives, the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack showed the march to the Capitol was planned ahead of time.
The panel obtained a series of text messages between Kyle Kremer, the organizer of the 'Stop the Steal' rally, and Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a Trump confidante.
Two days before the riot, Kremer said in the text messages how Trump is "going to have us march there," meaning the Capitol. He then told Lindell to keep that information to himself because the president, during his rally speech, would "unexpectedly" instruct his supporters to go to the Capitol.
"The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president," said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a member of the committee.
A never-before-seen draft tweet was also revealed that showed Trump was going to say he would be making a speech at 10 a.m. Jan. 6 at the Ellipse. "Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!"
Bannon denied: Steve Bannon's request to delay contempt trial denied after he offered to testify before Jan. 6 panel
Summoning protesters to the Capitol
A Jan. 6 rioter testified that he went to the Capitol because the president directed his supporters there.
Stephen Ayres said he didn't go to Washington that day with the intention of going to the Capitol. But he decided to go once "the president got everybody riled up and told everybody to head down, so we basically were following what he said."
"Everybody thought" the former president was going to march with them down Pennsylvania Avenue, Ayres said.
In a further testament to the weight of Trump's words, Ayres said he and fellow rioters left "right after" Trump shared a tweet asking people to leave. That tweet was shared after about three hours of violence at the Capitol.
"I was hanging on every word he was saying," Ayres said.
'Asking for a civil war'
A former Trump campaign manager believed Trump's rhetoric led to the violence on Jan. 6, according to correspondence between former Trump staffers.
Brad Parscale, Trump's 2016 campaign manager, said wrote in text messages after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that he felt guilty for his role in getting Trump elected and that it was Trump’s rhetoric that led to death of a rioter that day.
“A sitting president asking for civil war,” Parscale said in text messages to former White House press secretary Katrina Pierson revealed Tuesday by the committee investigating the attack. “This week I feel guilty for helping him win.”
Parscale said in another message: “Yeah if I was Trump and I knew my rhetoric killed someone,”
Pierson tried to comfort Parscale in the exchange, saying “it wasn’t the rhetoric” that led to a woman dying at the Capitol.
“Yes it was,” Parscale said.
Former GOP speaker cried on Jan. 6: Paul Ryan was 'sobbing' while watching Jan. 6 attack on Capitol, upcoming book says
'Craziest meeting' in the Oval Office
Testimony revealed an "unhinged" Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, that was also described as the "craziest meeting."
"At times there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other. It wasn’t sort of people sitting around on the couch just chit-chatting," said Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary.
The committee focused heavily on the Dec. 18 meeting, where Powell, Giuliani and Flynn met with the former president to discuss overturning the election.
The meeting broke into a screaming match, according to testimony, with the White House counsel challenging ideas of Powell, Giuliani and Flynn and saying they lacked evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Giuliani accused Cipollone and former Trump adviser Eric Herschmann of not acting aggressively enough, even once calling them the P-word.
"Excuse the expression, but that's almost certain what the word was," Giuliani said.
Herschmann, who said he’d had it with Giuliani after the former New York City mayor screamed insults at him, and told the Giuliani "either come over or sit your effin’ ass back down."
Hutchinson sent a text to deputy White House chief of staff Anthony M. Ornato during the scrum to sum up the meeting: "The west wing is UNHINGED."
GOP lawmakers met with Trump about overturning election results
Several Republican members of Congress met with Trump, Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the Oval Office to discuss what role Vice President Mike Pence could play in overturning election results.
According to White House visitor logs, members in attendance included: Brian Babin, R-Texas; Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Andy Harris, R-Md.; Jody Hice, R-Ga.; Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Scott Perry, R-Pa.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who at the time had been elected to Congress from Georgia but not sworn in, was also in attendance.
Several of the representatives in attendance later requested pardons, according to the committee.
Contributing: Phillip Bailey, Richard Rouan, Chelsey Cox and Katherine Swartz
Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at cwoodall@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jan. 6 hearing: Committee shows march to Capitol was planned
