Thread by @AkivaMCohen

OK, folks, time for another #January6thHearing semi-live watch/reaction thread. Keeping an eye on the kiddos today so I'm going to watch behind by a bit and probably have frequent pauses

Schiff has the seat next to Thompson today, so he's going to be the one questioning these witnesses.

Thompson opens by recapping the last hearing and connecting it to today: pressuring Pence wasn't an outlier, Trump's plan relied on pressuring many officials to break the law.

Trump pressured state officials, and when they wouldn't do what he wanted, made sure they suffered for it, including by threats to their safety that he helped amplify

Thompson talking about the continuing threat, highlighting the insanity in Otero County New Mexico, where county commissioners just refused to certify election results based on a "gut feeling" that there was fraud (they eventually caved to court order)

Now Cheney: The same people who were pressuring Pence (Trump, Rudy, Eastman) were pressuring state officials, as part of a broader plan in preparation for 1/6.

We're going to hear tapes of Trump's calls with state elected officials

Cheney pointing out that Trump had been repeatedly told by the Justice Department that there was no evidence of fraud after doing multiple investigations, but Trump continued to pressure state election officials to change the results anyway.

Playing Gabriel Sterling's righteous rant about Trump and the GOP Senators pouring gas on the fire. "It has to stop."

Cheney: "The point is this. Donald Trump did not care about the threats of violence. He did not condemn them. He made no effort to stop them. He went forward with his fake allegations anyway."

Cheney: I would urge everyone watching to focus on the evidence. Ignore the politics.

Yep.

Schiff opening statement: Trump ran for President and lost. For the first time in history, the losing President tried to stay in power anyway.

On election day, he tried to stop the count, knowing the absentee ballots still to be counted would favor Biden. When he couldn't ...

he tried to stop the certifications, filing frivolous fraud claims that he couldn't substantiate in court. When that failed, he turned to state legislatures and pressured them to decertify, or just declare him the winner, or send two slates

so Pence could just choose him. None of the legislatures went with that plan. No legislature went into special session or did what Trump wanted. But that didn't stop Trump either - he just had a bunch of people declare themselves electors regardless and send fake certificates in

None of this worked. And according to Judge David Carter, Trump and his co-conspirators violated multiple federal laws, including conspiracy to defraud the US.

Quoting Judge Carter.

Back to the fact that the Big Lie claims were BS.

This is "a cancer on the body politic. If you can convince Americans that they cannot trust their own elections, that any time they lose it is somehow illegitimate, then what is left but violence to determine who should govern"

This is true. It's also why the "Not My President" framing after the 2016 election was a fucking disaster (something I said at the time, despite thinking Trump had the fitness for office of a brain-damaged alpaca)

Schiff going over Trump's pressure campaign, direct and public. State officials and local election workers had their lives turned upside down.

Lot of the same people upset at protests outside SCOTUS homes seem to be on video protesting outside state election officials homes

Now a committee staff video on the timeline. Playing video of Rudy, Ellis, and Trump arguing to state legislators that they need to just declare Trump the winner

Two days after the election, Cleta Mitchell (and boy oh boy is that a name that should live in infamy forever, one of the worst people most of you have never heard of) asked Eastman to write a memo justifying this strategy

🚨🚨🚨Video of Mitchell, doing "really fucking stupid witness things" volunteers that this option "might have come up even before the election"🚨🚨🚨

Folks, "if we lose the count, let's just claim fraud and ask the states to declare us the winners anyway" is as strong a piece of evidence that this shit was illegal as you could possibly ask for.

Eastman wrote the memo, appeared before various legislatures publicly advocating for it and insisting it was their "duty" to just declare Trump the winner

Now on pushback from various officials
Kemp: Do you even constitution, asshole?
Bowers (AZ House Speaker): This is the rule of law, have you two met?

(Note, these are relatively tight paraphrases)

Testimony from the Michigan House Majority Leader (R) that he told Trump "we're going to follow the law"

The pressure kept up. Trump tweets the next day that the courts and legislatures just need the "courage" to flip the election because there's evidence of fraud

Trump FB posts asking followers to call public officials - and posts the Michigan House Majority Leader's personal phone number that they can use to harass him.

WOW

Unsurprisingly, Shirkey got over 4000 text messages that night.

Strangers were calling him.

Now we have a recorded phone call from Trump campaign HQ to a state legislator (supposedly, per a script and this is just one of many): You have the power to appoint a slate of electors for Trump

Rudy and Jenna calling various state legislators

OK, got to break for a bit

Rudy keeps calling despite the Penn House Speaker Cutler saying "stop calling me, this is wrong"

So Bannon organizes protests outside his home, Cutler gets doxxed.

Video of Nick Fuentes going "what else can we do except kill state legislators who won't go our way. Don't do that, but wink wink nudge nudge what else can you do?"

Video ends with armed militants marching and saying "the punishment for treason is death"

Schiff previewing the witness testimony.

"You'll hear what they experienced when the most powerful man in the country tried to cling to power"

"The system held because courageous people did their jobs. We need to do ours."

Thomas introducing Bowers (AZ R Speaker of the House), Raffensberger, and Sterling

Thompson: Bowers, you campaigned for Trump. Fair to say you wanted him to win?

Bowers: Yes

And who did win?

Bowers: Biden

Schiff starts questioning with Trump's most recent statement: Bowers is a RINO and in 2020 he told me the election was rigged and I won Arizona

Wait wait wait was Trump really dumb enough to say this today?

Got to pause here for a second. First, that statement is internally contradictory; why would a RINO have told him that.

But it may also be the dumbest thing Trump has done in connection with this.

It's a transparent lie - why would Bowers have said that but acted the opposite way, both in 2020 and after? And 1 transparent & relevant lie is more than enough to tip a jury over to not believing you in a he-said-she-said case, which is what Trump's "I believed it" defense is.

Again, a braindead fucking alpaca.

OK, unpause

Schiff: Did you have such a conversation with the President?

Bowers: I had *a* conversation with the President, but no fucking way did I tell him it was rigged and that he won

Bowers talking about call from Trump and Rudy. Describing being connected by the WH operator.

I asked for proof of the fraud. Rudy said he had proof. Bowers asked for it. Rudy said "I'll give it to you" - names of supposedly fraudulent voters. Rudy never provided it

They asked Bowers to hold a committee hearing at the capitol to take the evidence. Bowers said no. To what end?

Rudy said he'd heard that the AZ legislature could replace the Biden electors, that's what we want. Bowers said "that's counter to my oath." No.

Rudy kept saying "aren't we all Republicans, I'd expect you to be more open"

Schiff: Why unconstitutional?

Bowers: Once the law allows people to vote, that becomes a fundamental right. Without evidence, real evidence, hell no.

Bowers: I believe the constitution is divinely inspired. To do that is foreign to my being. I will not do it.

I asked him (and later Eastman and others) if there was ever precedent. They said no.

Bowers: The AZ roadshow was not an official hearing. It was just a meeting hosted by an AZ legislator at a hotel. I would not authorize a hearing.

Bowers: Rudy went back to the "illegal voters" accusations. We pressed him strongly for proof. He asked Ellis "do we have the proof"

Bowers: She said yes. I asked if they had the names. She said yes. I said "did you bring the evidence with you?" She said "no". And that happened over and over.

Jenna LoLlis.

Rudy then said "well, we don't have the evidence but we have a lot of theories"

Bowers: Nobody EVER gave me such evidence.

Schiff showing footage of protestors invading the AZ capitol, including "Q Shaman" Jacob Chansley.

Armed protestors were calling for Bowers by name

Trump called Bowers later in December and Bowers said "I supported you, I voted for you, but I'm not going to do anything illegal for you"

Eastman called Bowers on 1/4 (Schiff misspoke and said "a few days later on June 4"). Many people were on this call. What did Eastman want?

The AZ legislature to vote to "overthrow - well, I shouldn't say overthrow. To decertify the electors"

I said "again, I took an oath. To do that would be counter to the oath."

Eastman: Just do it and let the courts sort it out

Bowers: Are you insane? Without sufficient proof?

Eastman: Yeah. Just do it. Let the courts sort it out.

Bowers: I remember him saying the authority of the legislature is plenary. And I told him 'I don't even have authority to call the legislature back into session'

Bowers now testifying about a call with Andy Biggs on 1/6, with Biggs asking him to support decertifying the electors. Bowers said no.

Bowers issued a statement that the rule of law would not allow him to do such a thing. I can't go beyond my authority.

Bowers quoted Reagan on the importance of the orderly transfer of authority. Why?

Bowers: I have a lot of admiration for Reagan. And he's right - our ability to accept election results and follow the will of the people, that means a lot to me and meant a lot to him.

Schiff shifts to the fake electors scheme. Gives backgrounds on the electors scheme.

Ooooh, this is a VERY good point.

Schiff notes Trump told the fake electors their certificates would only be used "in case courts ruled in our favor" - but then tried to use them anyway

Another committee staff video.

Cheseborough memo suggesting the fake electors plan. Video of a Meadows aide testifying about who was involved: Meadows, Rudy, some Congressmen

Ronna McDaniel testifying about how Trump enlisted the RNC in helping carry out the plan.

Justin Clark (campaign lawyer) testifying that he told them "unless we have pending litigation that might change things in a particular state, this is inappropriate."

I got into a back and forth with Cheseborough.

Another campaign lawyer testifying he said "this is all you, I'm not doing this"

Hutchinson testifying WH Counsel advised that this was illegal. Meadows, Rudy, and Rudy's associates heard that.

Trump staffer Robert Sinners (yes, really): "We were just useful idiots, rubes." Committee staff asks him how he feels after hearing what the campaign lawyers and WH counsel were saying: "I'm angry. ... I think no one really cared if people were putting themselves in jeopardy"

"If I had known that, I would not have wanted to participate"

Andrew Hitt, one of the fake Wisconsin electors: "I was told that these would ONLY count if a court ruled in our favor"

On Trump's attempt to use them anyway: We weren't told about that and we wouldn't have supported it

Fake electors got written instructions to maintain complete secrecy.

Michigan witness testifying that the Trump Campaign was involved in the effort and that the Michigan fake electors were planning to hide in the Capitol overnight so they could vote in the required place

"I told him that was insane and inappropriate"

The fake electors send fake certificates, and Eastman says this is good, Pence should just "act boldly and be challenged"

🚨🚨🚨Ron Johnson wanted to personally hand fake elector votes from Michigan and Wisconsin to Pence at the count, per a text from a Johnson aide to a Pence aide. Response: "Do not give that to him"

Ron Johnson is a deeply underappreciated member of the insane treasonweasel caucus in Congress.

Schiff: Bowers, were you aware of the fake electors when they acted? And what did you think when you learned?

Bowers: I was not. And I thought of the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight, and how tragic it was.

Bowers reading a "it's so painful that the leopards are now eating MY face, I thought they were my friends" passage from his journal.

It's a deeply religious recognition of his duty, but still, DUDE, they're the face eating leopards.

I have a ton of sympathy for the insanity that Bowers suffered through during and in the aftermath, the fear, etc. But I have zero sympathy at all for his "pain" that "people he thought were friends" would do this to him.

THIS IS WHO THEY ARE. HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW THAT BY THEN?

An armed Threeper threatened his neighbor. His own family was deeply affected. It was disturbing.

Schiff thanks Bowers and we're in recess. I'll FF through that though

Thompson: Trump had a particular obsession with Georgia.

Playing Trump's J6 speech: They should just find those votes

Raffensberger: I wanted Trump to win.

Election day went remarkably smooth. Average wait time in the afternoon was 3 minutes.

Schiff: Biden won?

Raff: Yes.

Schiff: The audits and recounts confirmed that result?

Raff: Yes. We hand-recounted and got the same count. Then rescanned and got the same count.

Now Sterling: they're playing his speech.

Schiff: Why'd you do that?

Sterling: We had a previously scheduled press conference. Just before lunch, got a call from an audibly shaken Dominion manager, and she wasn't the type to shake easily. Pointed me to a threat aimed at a

young contractor. I looked at the tweet. It had his name, accused him of treason, had a slowly twisting noose. And I lost it. I just lost it.

Note: This is the appropriate human response to this vileness

After you made that statement, did Trump urge people to avoid violence?

Sterling: No.

Instead, Trump tweeted that there was massive evidence of fraud. Was there?

Sterling: No.

Now we're on to the "suitcases of ballots" insanity and Rudy at the Georgia hearing

Sterling: Our investigators reviewed 48 hrs of videotape. It showed Fulton County election workers doing their jobs. If you watch the video, people are under the impression they expect to go home. Putting on their coats, putting ballots into storage containers to be sealed, ...

You can see the ballots being put under the table. We at the Secretary of State's office were told they were shutting down for the night, we didn't like that, we said "no, keep counting" and passed that message to them

You can see the guy running the count there take the phone call, be reluctant, and then tell people they have to stay. They take their coats off and go back to work

Editor's Note: The thing about this is that the Trump campaign had to know the video showed all this. But they could put out a misleading snippet anyway

Sterling again: On this "double counting" - running a batch twice is standard procedure when there's a scanning error, and the hand count proves no ballots were double counted; if they had been the hand count number would have been a lot lower than the machine count

Showing Sterling's 2020 speech explaining all this, and pointing out what I just did (that the Trump campaign had the video that proved it, and chose to deliberately mislead people)

Schiff: What was it like to compete with the President's megaphone?

Sterling: It was frustrating. People wanted to believe there was fraud, and the facts didn't matter.

Videos of Trump pushing the fraud claims at his rallies, even after being told the claims had been investigated and were bullshit.

About to go to the Trump-Raffensberger call.

Before that: Meadows went to Georgia to watch the count and meet with the lead investigator. Then had Trump call the investigator and insist he'd won GA

Playing audio of that call: "the people of Georgia know I won. Won by hundreds of thousands of votes. It wasn't close."

"When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised." "Whatever you can do"

Raffensberger: No, he fucking didn't win GA. Hell, he got 30K fewer votes than some GA congressman, because he lost a bunch of R voters. That's why he lost

OMG - Trump wanted to send the investigator Trump memorabilia. Aides stopped him

Now onto the Raff call: The entire recording available on the committee website.

Trump repeating the "suitcases of ballots" nonsense he'd specifically been told had been investigated and was untrue. Including by Bobby Christine, the US Attorney Trump appointed to replace Pak.

Sterling: We had a monitor in place in Fulton County. This was impossible.

Trump: You took ballots after 7pm.

Raff: Fuck no we didn't.

Trump: 5K dead people.

Raff: There were 4

Trump: You can say you recalculated.

Raff: No we fucking couldn't. He's going through all the allegations, they confirmed the numbers were not there.

Raff to Trump: I can send you the evidence (on the video). I'll give you a link-

Trump: Brad, I don't need it, I have a much better link

Trump on the investigation: They're either dishonest or incompetent. There's no way

Trump retweeting Lin Wood suggesting he should jail Kemp and Raffensberger.

Then on to the call, Trump claiming people are shredding ballots (makes sense, that's why the recounts are exactly right, right?) and threatening Raff with criminal exposure

After that: "All I want to do is this. I want to find 11,780 votes, one more than we need"

Raff: There are no votes.

Trump: It's very dangerous for you to say there are no votes.

Raff: That was a threat. People started going after my family. Someone broke into his kid's house

More Trump: I won by 400K votes, gimme a break.

Repeating the Fulton county lies on the J6 speak.

Those witnesses excused. Wandrea Moss now up

Moss and her mom, Ruby Freeman, were the targets of MAGA conspiracy nuts' GA allegations

Never received threats like this before, in a decade of election work.

She loves being able to help older voters, help people figure out the mechanics of voting so they can exercise their rights. Remembers bringing an absentee application to a hospital

Now playing Rudy's insane and false accusations against Moss and her mom in a GA state hearing.

Moss learned about it at work. Showed basically a youtube clip making accusations over the arena video.

She asked why this was happening and was told because Trump is unhappy and people are making threats. Talking about navigating FB and finding the threats to her and her mom.

So much racism in the messages.

Trump specifically attacking Moss and Freeman on his call with Raff. Moss talking about the impact, and feeling guilty for putting her mom in that situation by choosing to be an election worker.

Now video of Ruby Freeman talking about the impact on her. She's nervous to use her name because these maniacs decided to make her a scapegoat for the lies

Moss testifying about the psychological impact on her. She's been devastated, fearful in public, doesn't want people to hear her name.

Her mom had to leave her home for months.

This stuff is so toxic.

People harassing them constantly. Insane.

Other election workers have quit, as did she. Because this stuff is horrific

Ruby: Do you know how it feels to have the President target you? He's supposed to represent every American, not target one.

And we're done. Witness excused. Closing statements upcoming

Schiff: Our democracy is distinguished by the peaceful transfer of power. What Trump did broke that tradition. Whether his actions were criminal is for others to decide - but it was unconstitutional, unAmerican, and put people in danger.

Civil servants are leaving because they're being threatened. This isn't who we are. It can't be who we are.

We must reject violence, take our oaths of office seriously, and do the right things.

Cheney thanking the witnesses.

Today we've been reminded that we're a nation of laws, and what it means to serve.

More than 30 witnesses have taken the fifth. Stone, Eastman. Bannon and Navarro are in contempt. Meadows hiding behind presidential privilege. Cippolone won't come.

Cippolone should come. The American people deserve to hear his testimony.

Now Thompson: For Donald Trump, these witnesses and others like them were roadblocks to his attempt to hold power. Thursday, we'll hear about his efforts to corrupt DOJ

Playing a clip of Donoghue saying he'd have resigned immediately if Trump followed through on the plan to appoint Jeff Clark acting AG

He'll testify live on Thursday. And we're done.