The former President’s urging for his followers to come to DC for a ‘wild’ and ‘big’ protest attracted far-right, QAnon followers and other proponents of violence
Violent groups started aligning because of Trump tweet ahead of Jan. 6, DC homeland security official says
Former President Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020, tweet calling his supporters to the capital on Jan. 6 united violent groups, according to Donell Harvin, the former chief of homeland security for Washington, DC.
“These nonaligned groups were aligning,” he told the Jan. 6 House select committee.
“All the red flags went up at that point. When you have armed militia collaborating with white supremacy groups collaborating with conspiracy theory groups online, all towards the common goal, you started seeing what we call in terrorism a blended ideology,” Harvin said.
“And that’s a very, very bad sign,” he added.
The Jan. 6 committee hearing is back from break
From CNN staff
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is back after taking a short break.
Here’s who is expected to testify:
- Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesperson and self-described “propagandist” for the Oath Keepers
- Stephen Ayres, one of the many people who descended on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 and was later accused and pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol illegally
Here are the key moments from the hearing so far
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, laid out the foundation for the panel’s seventh public hearing, saying evidence will show how former President Donald Trump “summoned a mob” in a “last-ditch effort” to overturn the 2020 election.
Thompson said by Dec. 14, 2020, Joe Biden had been elected President but, “by that point, many of Donald Trump supporters were already convinced that the election had been stolen because that’s what Donald Trump had been telling them.”
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s testimony to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol “met our expectations,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee.
Clips from Cipollone’s testimony last week have been played during the hearing.
If you’re just reading in, here are some of the key moments from the hearing so far:
- Cheney: Trump is “not an impressionable child,” he is responsible for his actions: Rep. Cheney said that the new strategy of Trump’s allies in defending him appears to be that Trump was “manipulated by others outside the administration” like attorneys John Eastman or Sidney Powell or Rep. Scott Perry. “The strategy is to blame people his advisers called, quote, the crazies, for what Donald Trump did. This, of course, is nonsense,” Cheney said, adding that Trump is a 76-year-old man and “not an impressionable child.” She added: “Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.
- Trump tweet was a “call to action” to his supporters: Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the Jan. 6 select committee, said that one of former President Trump’s tweets in the lead-up to the Capitol attack was a “call to action and in some cases, as a call to arms for many of President Trump’s most loyal supporters.” On Dec. 19, 2020, Trump tweeted encouragement for his supporters to travel to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021. “Be there, will be wild,” it read, according to Murphy.
- White House meeting with Trump and advisers described as “unhinged”: Rep. Jamie Raskin referenced a meeting that took place on Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, at the White House that he says has been called “unhinged,” “not normal,” and “the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency.” Raskin said that a team of outside advisers to Trump visited him in the White House on that date. “The outside lawyers who had been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it.”
- Former White House counsel told committee Trump should’ve conceded election: Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, in the first aired footage of the 8-hour interview he had with members of the Jan. 6 select committee, said he agreed with other Trump officials that there was not sufficient evidence of election fraud. Cipollone specifically testified that he believed Trump should’ve conceded the election. “I was the White House counsel. Some of those decisions were political. … If your questions is did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time? Yes I did,” he said in video footage shown in the hearing.
- Giuliani’s legal team knew there wasn’t evidence to support election fraud claims: Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin cited emails from Rudy Giuliani’s legal team, which shows that they did not have sufficient evidence of widespread voter fraud ahead of Jan. 6, 2021. “Even Rudy Giuliani’s own legal team admitted that they did not have any real evidence of fraud sufficient to change the election results,” Raskin said. Several officials, including those who were working on the Trump campaign, said they never saw evidence that backed up Rudy Giuliani’s claims that there was election fraud.
- Former attorney general said Trump asked to seize voting machines: A clip of former Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony played today by the committee revealed Trump asked Barr to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. “My recollection is the President said something like, well, some people say we could get, you know, to the bottom of this if the department sees the machines. It was a typical way of raising a point,” Barr said. The former AG said he responded, “Absolutely not, there is no probable cause and I’m not going to seize any machines.”
Former Twitter employee recalls concern about Trump talking directly to extremists on platform
A former Twitter employee who worked on the team responsible for platform and content moderation policies throughout 2020 and 2021 said they were concerned that former President Trump seemed to be talking directly to extremist organizations on Twitter and “giving them directives.”
They testified that they were worried Trump would use the platform to incite violence.
“If the former president Donald Trump or any other user on Twitter, he would’ve been permanently suspended a very long time ago,” the former employee said, speaking anonymously.
Despite concerns, the employee said Trump remained on Twitter unchecked.
“It felt as if a mob was being organized and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight,” they said.
On Dec. 19, the former President tweeted encouragement for his supporters to travel to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021. This tweet marked a turning point in the chatter, the former Twitter employee said.
Before the Dec. 19 tweet, the organization among extremist groups was “nonspecific but very clear,” but after, the former employee said it became clear that people were willing to fight for the cause.
“It became clear not only with these individuals ready and willing, but the leader of their cause was asking them to join him in this cause and fighting for this cause in DC on Jan. 6 as well,” the employee said.
They also said they were “shocked” by the responses to Trump’s tweets.
“I very much believe that Donald Trump posted his tweet on December 19 was essentially staking a flag in DC on Jan. 6 for his supporters to come and rally,” adding they were concerned about this gathering becoming violent.
Raskin: Trump turned away from advisers and used Twitter to mobilize protest that resulted in Jan. 6 riot
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said that former President Donald Trump eventually turned away from his advisers at the White House after an “unhinged” meeting in December 2020 with Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani and tweeted out an invitation, where he falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen and urged his supporters to come to Washington, DC, on Jan., 6, 2021 to protest.
“President Trump turned away both from his outside advisers, most outlandish and un-workable schemes and his White House counsel’s advice to swallow hard and accept the reality of his loss. Instead, Donald Trump issued a tweet that would galvanize his followers, unleash a political firestorm, and change the course of our history as a country,” Raskin said.
He continued, “Trump’s purpose was to mobilize a crowd and how do you mobilize a crowd in 2020? With millions of followers on Twitter, President Trump knew exactly how to do it. At 1:42 a.m. on December 19, 2020, shortly after the last participants left the unhinged meeting, Trump sent out the tweet with his explosive invitation.”
The tweet, Raskin said, repeated the election fraud lie and claimed it was “statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election.” The tweet then went on to call for a “big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Trump tweet persuaded far-right and QAnon followers to come to DC on Jan. 6
From CNN’s Alex Rogers
Former President Trump’s December tweet urging his followers to come to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021 for a “wild” and “big” protest attracted some of his most extreme supporters, including followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, and was greeted online by White supremacists and other proponents of violence, according to witness interviews and exhibits released by the House select committee on Tuesday.
Jim Watkins, the administrator of 8kun, an online forum that is the home of the QAnon conspiracy, told the House panel that he decided to go to Washington on Jan. 6 after Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19.
“When the President of the United States announced that he was going to have a rally. Then I bought a ticket and went,” testified Watkins.
The House panel showed in its hearing Tuesday how some of Trump’s followers took to social media with violent online rhetoric; One online commenter called for the “DAY OF THE ROPE!” and for a “WHITE REVOLUTION.”
“I’m ready to die for my beliefs,” posted someone on the anonymous forum 4chan on Jan. 5, 2021. “Are you ready to die police?”
The committee also deposed Jody Willams, former owner of the racist and anti-Semitic site TheDonald.win.
“After it was announced that he was going to be there on the 6th to talk, yes, then anything else was kind of shut out and there was just going to be on the 6th,” Williams said.
A commenter on the site posted that they would “bring handcuffs and wait near the tunnels.” Another poster encouraged people to bring “body armor, knuckles, shields, bats, pepper spray, whatever it takes.”
The hearing is taking a break
The Jan. 6 committee is taking a short break.
Ivanka Trump and Kayleigh McEnany planned for next steps when litigation on alleged election fraud concluded
Many other Trump White House officials shared the view that once the litigation on alleged voting fraud ended and the Electoral College met, the election was over, including Ivanka Trump and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, according to Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney.
When the litigation concluded “was when I began to plan for life after the administration,” McEnany said in her taped testimony to the committee.
When Ivanka Trump was asked if the conclusion of the Electoral College vote affected her planning in terms of the end to the Trump administration, she said, “I think so. I think it was my sentiment probably prior as well.”
Cipollone says he pushed for evidence in tense White House meeting with Powell and Flynn
In a “heated and profane clash” on Dec. 18, 2020, at the White House, there was a meeting that lasted over six hours. The select committee spoke to six of the participants, “as well as staffers who could hear the screaming from outside the Oval Office,” according to Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone said he walked into a meeting with attorney Sidney Powell — who repeatedly pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election — former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Overstock founder Patrick Byrne.
Cipollone expressed his displeasure with seeing them in the White House in video footage from the committee.
Derek Lyons, former White House staff secretary, said the meeting was tense.
“At times, there were people shutting out each other, throwing insults at each other. It wasn’t just people sitting around on a couch chitchatting,” he said.
Powell told the committee that Cipollone and former senior adviser Eric Herschmann were “showing contempt and disdain” for Trump.
Cipollone told the committee they were verbally attacking him.
“We were pushing back and we’re asking one simple question as a general matter: Where is the evidence?” he said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/january-6-hearings-july-12/index.html
