The latest Jan. 6 hearing revolved around Trump’s refusal to do anything to end the drama during the storming of the Capitol. The suspicion arises that the events were entirely in his interest.
A video recorded at the hearing shows Trump conceding defeat in the elections on January 7, 2021, but refusing despite insistence from his daughter Ivanka.
The eighth public hearing on the events of January 6, 2021 took place on Thursday evening. It was broadcast live during prime time on all major television stations in the United States, except for the right-wing channel Fox News. The House of Representatives committee, which has been investigating the storming of the Capitol in Washington for a year and has interviewed more than a thousand people, this time had the motto “187 minutes”.
The love of the mob
This is the length of time between the end of Donald Trump’s speech calling for a march on the Capitol and his video message that afternoon urging the mob to go home. During those three hours, countless people in his immediate vicinity asked him to stop the rioting, but he refused. He sat in his dining room watching the drama on TV and just called a few senators to convince them to oppose certification. Meanwhile, the rioters chanted, “Hang Pence!” But Trump apparently didn’t care about the fate of his deputy and MPs.
Even when he finally made himself known to the public at 4:17 p.m., he couldn’t resist saying goodbye to “his” people with “We love you, you are very special”. In the meantime, he had put out two tweets urging the mob to remain peaceful but not to retreat. And above all, he attacked Pence in a Twitter message at 2:24 p.m. when the captors were already looking for him in the Capitol – and actually came dangerously close to him.
Various people have long argued that Trump did not want the violence and that he did not anticipate the escalation. This opinion has been refuted by previous hearings. In particular, Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony on June 28 showed that Trump had planned the storming of the Capitol and originally wanted to march with, even confront Pence there directly.
A coup plan in seven steps
Trump also knew about the armed militias, who then played such an important and dangerous role in the storm, as the last hearing on July 12 showed. The repeatedly widespread opinion that Trump was not informed about the extent of the violence even during the storm or believed that it was caused by left-wing extremists Antifa can now be considered refuted.
Much more emerged over the course of the hearings that Trump knew he had lost the election and attempted to reverse the result in seven steps: he publicized misinformation about voter fraud, attempted to change the Attorney General to support his claims , urged Pence not to certify the results, pressured state officials to tamper with the counts, sent “backup electors” in seven states, mobilized a mob to storm the Capitol and then refused to call it back, too when it was a matter of life and death. He only reacted when it became apparent that even this last stage of escalation would not save his presidency.
Schadenfreude instead of regret
Even his 6:01 tweet lacked any trace of regret. Instead he wrote maliciously and dogmatically: “These are the things that happen when you take away the election victory of great patriots who have been treated so unfairly for so long. Remember this day forever!”
This final was the subject of the last hearing before the summer break on Thursday. Lead witnesses live were former Assistant White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and former Assistant National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger. Both had resigned from their posts after the events of January 6th. Various other testimonies were recorded on video. They all supported the assertion that Trump deliberately allowed the mob to do what he wanted, even though he could have stopped him at any time because the mob faithfully followed his every order.
Trump can’t get the crucial sentence off his lips
Shocking were the recorded voices of Pence’s security guards saying goodbye to their families because they were convinced they would not survive January 6th.
The most bizarre video, however, was shown near the end of the hearing. It showed Trump addressing the American people on Jan. 7 — apparently under pressure from those around him — to explain the drama of the previous day. But he could hardly bring himself to follow the ready-made text. “I don’t want to say that the election is over,” he complained, gesticulating wildly. “I just want to say that Congress certified the election.”
To this day, Trump refuses to admit defeat.