New footage and interviews from the Jan. 6 Committee: Week 2
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THURSDAY
The January 6th Committee’s Thursday hearing focused on Trump’s campaign to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting the results of a democratic election and declare Trump president for a second term.
Video of Trump stoking violence against Pence and the results on January 6: https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1537490408351080448
Greg Jacobs, former counsel to Mike Pence: “There is no justifiable basis to conclude that the vice president has that kind of authority [to determine the outcome of a presidential election].” https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1537494363596546055
John Eastman admitted in an email that the fake electors had no legal weight and the scheme was “dead upon arrival in Congress” https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=2695
Former Judge Luttig, who Eastman once clerked for, says “there was no basis in the Constitution or laws of the United States at all for the theory espoused by Mr. Eastman.” https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=3141
White House officials, including Mark Meadows, thought the idea of Pence trying to decide the election result was “nutty” and “crazy” https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1537520385239007233
More interviews with White House officials about Eastman’s plot https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=4166
“Al Gore did not have a basis to do it in 2000. Kamala Harris shouldn’t be able to do it in 2024. But I think you should do it today” — Jacob on what Eastman told him about Pence trying to overturn a presidential election result https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=4941
Video montage of Trump’s attempts to pressure Mike Pence: https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=5125
Jacobs details a January 4 meeting involving Trump, Pence, Eastman, himself, and others, in which Eastman presented theories that purportedly would provide a legal justification for Pence to try to reject Trump’s loss two days later https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=5306
Rep. Aguilar points out that Trump released a statement he knew to be false on January 5 claiming Pence agreed he had the power “to act” the next day, even when Pence had repeatedly told him he did not in fact think that https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=6652
Jason Miller told the January 6 committee that Trump dictated “most” of the false January 5 statement claiming Pence had the power to affect the presidential election result https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=6775
Nicholas Luna, former assistant to President Trump, told the committee that he heard Trump calling Pence a “wimp” during their phone call the morning of January 6; Ivanka’s Chief of Staff relates that she told her that Trump called Pence a “pussy” https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=7914
Video showing how Trump’s tweet criticizing Pence was seized upon by the insurrectionists in real time https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=8270
Video showing that the insurrectionists came within 40 feet of Mike Pence in the halls of the Capitol https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=8605
Aguilar says a court filing indicates that a Proud Boys informant told the FBI that the Proud Boys would’ve killed Mike Pence on January 6 if given the chance. The committee then shares photos of Pence sheltering in the Capitol during the insurrection. https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=8792
Eastman asked Pence to reject the election results even after the attack on the Capitol https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=9247
Former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann advised Eastman on January 7 to “get a great fucking criminal defense lawyer.” Eastman then asked Rudy Giuliani to obtain a pardon for him https://youtu.be/8zkZHb2kA2c?t=9618
MONDAY
Monday’s hearing focused on Trump’s intentional spread of the Big Lie despite voluminous evidence that there was no significant voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Chairman Bennie Thompson: This morning, we’ll tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election and knew he lost an election and as a result of his loss, decided to wage an attack on our democracy. An attack on the American people by trying to rob you of your voice in our democracy and in doing so lit the fuse that led to the horrific violence of January 6th when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol, sent by Donald Trump to stop the transfer of power.
Cheney: First, you will hear firsthand testimony that the president’s campaign advisers urged him to await the counting of votes and not to declare victory on election night. The president understood even before the election that many more Biden voters had voted by mail because President Trump ignored the advice of his campaign experts and told his supporters only to vote in person. Donald Trump knew before the election that the counting of those mail in ballots in several states would not begin until late in the day and would not be complete for multiple days. This was expected, reported, and widely known.
Cheney: You will also hear testimony that President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and insist that the vote counting stop to falsely claim everything was fraudulent. He falsely told the American people that the election was not legitimate, in his words, quote, a major fraud. Millions of Americans believed him.
Video of Trump from spring and summer 2020 claiming that the only way he could lose an election would be as a result of fraud. https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=3622
Video of interviews with Ivanka, Jared Kushner, and others talking about the events at the White House on election night (includes talk about how drunk Rudy Giuliani was). Jason Miller: “There were suggestions I believe by Giuliani to go and declare victory and say we’d won it outright.” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=3933
Testimony of former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt (who called Arizona for Biden on election night): https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=4479 and https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=4983
Attorney General Bill Barr explaining how Trump claimed there was major fraud “right out of the box” on Election night: https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=4641
Cheney: Pay attention to what Donald Trump and his legal team said repeatedly about dominion voting machines, far flung conspiracies with a deceased Venezuelan communist allegedly pulling the strings. This was, quote, complete nonsense, as Bill Barr said. President Trump’s own campaign advisers, his Department of Justice and his cybersecurity experts all told him the same thing. https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=3302
White House lawyer Eric Herschman: “I thought the Dominion stuff — I never saw any evidence whatsoever to sustain those allegations” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=3327
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien testified that Trump embracing the conspiracies spread by Giuliani and Sidney Powell caused him to “step away” from the White House: https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=5646
White House Attorney Eric Herschmann on Giuliani and Powell: “What they were proposing, I thought was nuts. You know, the theory was also completely nuts…it was just all over the radar.” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=5744
Bill Barr recounts his first in person meeting with Trump after the election, during which he told the president that the Department of Justice will not investigate his claims of election fraud: https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=6118
Bill Barr recounting another meeting with Trump in which he told him “the claims of fraud were bullshit.” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=6357
Former Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon says that when he told Peter Navarro the Dominion conspiracy theories weren’t adding up, Navarro accused him of being “an agent of the deep state” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=6956
Rep. Zoe Lofgren presents evidence that the Trump Official Election Defense Fund didn’t actually exist: “Throughout the committee’s investigation we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big ripoff.” https://youtu.be/jblC2Ooog2U?t=9871