US legislators accused Donald Trump, the former President, on Tuesday of inciting a throng of supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The act was supposedly a last-ditch effort to undermine the electoral system and remain in power.
The House of Representatives committee also produced proof that political aides and external agitators knew that Trump would urge thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol that day before the riots happened.
The panel consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans, who have been using the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election in order to remain in power fueled constitute illegal behaviour, far beyond standard politics.
The three-hour-long meeting concluded with Republican Representative Liz Cheney saying that Trump had tried to phone a potential committee witness—raising the possibility that he might have illegally attempted to influence witness testimony.
In video testimony during the hearing, witnesses described a loud late-night six-hour meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, where Trump ignored White House staffers who urged him to accept his loss to Joe Biden in the November 2020 election.
Instead, Trump sided with outside advisers who persuaded him to keep pushing his baseless fraudulent election claims.
Committee members said Trump ultimately was responsible for the chaos that followed.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. … He is responsible for his own actions and his own choices,” said Cheney, the committee vice-chairperson.
Committee members said Trump incited the riot through comments like a tweet on December 19, 2020, for supporters to flock to Washington for a “big protest,” saying, “Be there, will be wild.”
Trump, a Republican who has hinted he will seek the White House again in 2024, denies wrongdoing and has falsely asserted that he lost only because of widespread fraud that benefited Biden, a Democrat.
“I don’t think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. I didn’t understand how they had gotten in,” Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, said in video testimony.
The attack on the Capitol, following a speech by Trump, gave at a rally outside the White House, delayed certification of Biden’s election for hours, injured more than 140 police officers, and led to several deaths.
The panel showed an unsent Twitter message about the rally, with a stamp showing Trump had seen it: “Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!”
About 800 people have been charged with taking part in the Capitol riot, with about 250 guilty pleas so far.
The hearing also looked at links between right-wing white supremacist militant groups, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and the QAnon internet conspiracy movement, with Trump and his allies. Many Oath Keepers and Proud Boys participated in the January 6 insurrection.
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