Thread by @AmoneyResists

Here we go… (Jan 6th hearing #7)
#January6thCommitteeHearing

Chairman Bennie Thompson: “We settle our differences at the ballot box. When you’re on the losing side, you don’t have to be happy about it. You can protest. You can organize. You can try to make sure you have a better result next time. But you cannot turn violent.”

Thompson states that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election, and yet, he refused to acknowledge that or concede defeat. Instead, “He seized on the anger of his supporters, and when they approached the line, he didn't wave them off, he urged them on.”

He turns it over to Vice Chair Liz Cheney for opening remarks. Cheney begins: “Today's hearing will take us from December 14th, 2020 up through the morning of January 6th. We will also see today how the president provoked the mob to attack the capitol.”

Cheney recaps committee findings so far: 1. Trump's legal team knew they lacked evidence of election fraud. 2. How millions were persuaded to believe what Trump was saying. They didn't have access to the information Trump had; they wanted to believe him, and they were deceived.

Rep Murphy: Trump pursued multiple interlocking lines of effort to maintain executive power. He pressured Pence. He demanded state officials “find him” enough votes. He pressed DOJ to “find evidence.” When told it didn't exist, Trump said just “declare” it was corrupt/fraudulent.

Murphy cites Trump’s “will be wild” tweet (below) from just before the insurrection. She says Rep. Raskin will describe in detail, how this tweet was a call to action. The crowd at the ellipse was one of the last tools he used to try to maintain power at any cost.

Raskin: On December 18th, 2020 a team of advisors paid Trump a visit at the White House. The outside lawyers had lots of theories but no evidence. They brought a draft EO proposing the seizure of voting machines by the DOD. On 12/19, frustrated by his options, he sent that tweet.

Murphy describes the process by which the electoral college meets She states that on 12/15, electors met to cast their votes. Biden won. The election was over. Joe Biden was the President-elect. Before that day, trump filed dozens of lawsuits, and they lost over and over (60x).

The committee shows tape of McConnell on the senate floor on 12/15 conceding the election to Biden. McConnell: “The electoral college has spoken. Today I want to congratulate President Elect Joe Biden.” This is absolutely masterful work by the committee.

Committee plays testimony from Eugene Scalia, who says he called Trump and advised him that it was time to concede. Then testimony showing the same from Barr, Cipollone, Kayleigh Mcenany, Ivanka, and others. They all say the same thing: “Trump lost. He knew he lost. It was over.”

Barr testified that he asked Scavino and Kushner “How long is Trump gonna carry on with this stolen election stuff?” When Meadows caught up with them, he said “I think he's becoming more realistic and knows there's a limit” and Kushner said “we're working on it.” (He wasn’t).

Cheney: “By that time, they had lost 60 out of 61 cases in court. By 1/3, that was clear. Is the president obligated to abide by the ruling of the courts?”

Cipollone: “Of course. And one of the President’s obligations is to be sure the laws are carefully executed.”

Raskin shows Barr saying he told Trump that the idea that voting machines were controlled by someone else was “crazy stuff” and “complete nonsense.” Cipollone testified he agreed with Barr’s conclusion on 12/1. He says federal gov’t seizing voting machines was “a terrible idea.”

Trump *directed* Barr to seize voting machines. Barr testified that Trump told him “well we can get to the bottom of this if the department seized the machines.” What was his response? Barr said “absolutely not, there's no probably cause.” Cipollone states the same thing.

Raskin: “Even Rudy Giuliani’s own legal team admitted” they didn’t have the evidence. He then shows an email from Bernard Kerik saying they need to pressure state legislatures to reverse Trump’s loss.

Justin Clark testified that Rudy didn't have any evidence. Hutchinson testified that when Meadows realized there wasn't any evidence, he moved on to the “legal theories” like the Eastman plan that were “designed purely to keep Trump in office.”

The committee is now showing just how crazy Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani are through video testimony in which they are saying utterly crazy things interspersed with clips of Trump’s rational staff (e.g. Cipollone) saying these people are completely out of their minds.

They’re focusing on one particularly heated exchange that took place in “the yellow Oval” (outside primary Oval Office) with Cipollone, Herschmann, Powell, Flynn on Dec. 18, in which the arguments lasted for hours. Hutchinson texted about how “unhinged” the West Wing had become.

The timing of this is critical because it leads directly into Trump’s tweet the following day calling for people to come to the Capitol. They’re showing clips of every far-right lunatic from Alex Jones to Tim Pool calling on their listeners to heed his words and go to the Capitol

Raskin: “Trump's tweet would galvanize his supporters and change history.”

They are now playing audio testimony from a previous Twitter employee explaining how the platform refused to remove his tweet despite tens of thousands of objections.

The employee states that Twitter relished being the favorite social media platform of Trump. They are asked “would any other account have been suspended for this kind of call to arms?” They respond: “Absolutely. Any other user would’ve been suspended a thousand times over.”

“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” on Twitter. The committee is now showing posts from Twitter users responding to Trump’s “invitation.” Horrifying.

They’re showing how Trump personally amplified these messages and calls for violence as well as promoting the event that became the insurrection on Twitter. This is utterly devastating, methodical, brilliant, and criminally damning.

Hearing is adjourned for 10 min recess. 🍿🍿🍿

Committee is back. Raskin states: “Trump’s tweet on December 19th was a call to arms to his millions of supporters.” He plays testimony from a domestic terrorism expert from Homeland Security stating that they saw every possible red flag in communications from extremist groups.

Raskin: “Two groups in particular that needed Trump’s call to arms were the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.” He states that these groups have not worked together but openly announced their collaboration for Jan 6th and their leaders have been indicted for seditious conspiracy.

These groups worked with Trump allies including Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. They show pictures of Flynn with leaders of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys including Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio. And pictures of an encrypted chat led by Stone titled “Friends of Stone.”

They are now showing clips of extremist leaders calling for violence on January 6th. These leaders scream for people to spill blood and do anything it takes to keep Trump in office. Rhodes states “Let’s get this done while Trump is still commander in chief.” This is so damning.

Murphy: “We have evidence that these extremist groups made their intentions for violence clear prior to January 6th.” Yet no one on Trump’s team made any effort to cancel the event.” She shows a text message exchange between Katrina Pierson and Kylie Kremer (below).

Katrina Pierson: “Trump loves the crazies. Anyone who will ardently defend him in public.”

Murphy is now showing how Katrina Pierson’s concerns about extremist groups and violence were not heeded by any of Trump’s staff. She shows a message from Kylie Kremer to Mike Lindell (My Pillow CEO) discussing a “second stage [of the rally] at the Supreme Court.” Holy fuck.

They are presenting new evidence of a draft tweet that was never sent but “SEEN BY THE PRESIDENT” (below) that stated “I will be making a big speech at 10 AM on 1/6 at the Ellipse. Please arrive early. Massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal.” Omfg…

Ali Alexander texted right wing media on 1/5 “Tomorrow: Ellipse then US capitol Trump is supposed to order us to capitol at the end of his speech we shall see.” This is *direct evidence* that this was not “in the moment” and instead was in fact Trump's plan.

They show an email from Mo Brooks to Meadows setting up a meeting with multiple Republican members of Congress. “White house meeting Dec 21st re: 1/6.” Brooks: “Only citizens can exert the necessary influence on senators and congressmen to join this fight against voter fraud.”

https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1546933293928554498

The committee is brilliantly interweaving evidence showing Trump’s intent with the deranged leaders of these extremist groups including last minute edits to his speech given at the ellipse rally to pressure Pence to “do what was right and stop the steal of the election.”

Trump’s speechwriters were told to remove these lines from the speech that were directed at Pence and they did. Then Trump had the conversation with Pence in which Pence stated he would not illegally overturn the election. Trump in a rage readded the lines to the speech.

While Ivanka refused to say so, and even lied to Congress under oath (felony), members of her staff confirmed that Trump was in a rage over this conversation and made the last minute decision to re-add the lines about Pence and remove the word “peacefully” from his ellipse speech

They play clips of Trump’s ellipse speech telling his supporters to “fight like hell” for him. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a county anymore. Hopefully Mike Pence will have the courage to do what he needs to.” He was deliberately pouring kerosine on a fire

The committee shows a text message exchange between Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale and Katrina Pierson from January 6th acknowledging that Trump’s rhetoric was calling for Civil War and had gotten a woman (Ashli Babbitt) killed (along with at least 5 officers).

Chairman Thompson swears in the 2 witnesses for today’s hearing. The first is Jason Van Tatenhove, who was a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers. He describes it as extremist, violent, whose primary interest was stoking fear through lies (he is describing a terrorist group).

Mr Tatenhove states that he finally broke with the group when it became clear that it was steeped in racism (this is common knowledge to anyone). He says “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for him was them denying the Holocaust. Cool story, bro.

The second witness is Stephen Ayres, a Trump supporter who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a protected building on January 6th. This is really smart because they are going to provide a firsthand account of a supporter who was “just following orders” from Trump.

Mr. Ayres says he came to the ellipse rally that preceded the Capitol riot because “Trump told us to be there.” He said he wasn’t initially planning to go to the Capitol but changed his plans when Trump told him to “March to the capitol.”

Rep. Murphy asks Mr. Ayres why he decided to leave the Capitol when he did. He openly states it was when Trump issued his statement telling them to go home. He flat out says “If he had issued that statement earlier in the day, I would have left much earlier.” Trump is fucked.

Rep. Raskin asks Mr. Tatenhove what the Oath Keepers saw in Trump. He says they saw “a path forward of legitimacy for them as a paramilitary force” (domestic terrorist group).

Raskin asks him whether they ever expressed a desire for violence against elected leaders. He says yes, one of the first things they asked him to do was create a deck of cards featuring all of the “major players of the opposition” including Hillary Clinton as the Queen of Hearts.

He states that this deck of cards would be tantamount to the “Most Wanted” list of targets that the military has created for targets in Iraq.

Raskin asks him why he said he’s concerned for future elections. He responds that he thinks there is an extreme danger to Trump running for office (and winning again) on dangerous lies and deliberately false and divisive rhetoric and snake oil.

Mr. Ayres says he encourages people who still support Trump to take the blinders off, take a step back, and drop the politics and try to see things clearly. He says he’s angry that Trump duped him and continues to dupe so many. Trump supporters should be the MOST furious with him

Chairman Thompson thanks the witnesses for their testimony. Rep. Raskin in closing is giving an impassioned speech about the sanctity of freedom and democracy and our obligation to uphold it and fight against the racism, authoritarianism and political violence that Trump embodies

Rep Murphy: “I am the only member of this committee who was not blessed to be born in this country. My patriotism comes from the grace and generosity that America afforded my parents who fled for their lives from a government overthrown through violence. I love this country.” 🔥

Rep Cheney: “Donald Trump oversaw or directed the activity at every level of his multifaceted, premeditated, and coordinated efforts to subvert the will of the American people and thwart the peaceful transfer of power.”

She continues: “The hearing next week will continue to lay out the facts to the American people, coming back to the day of January 6th, when Trump watched the carnage he incited unfold for hours. We will watch minute by minute to show how he refused to stop the violence.”

Cheney says Trump attempted to contact a witness that has been speaking with the committee. A witness whose testimony has not yet been shown and whose testimony has not even concluded. They didn’t answer the call, and instead informed their lawyer who informed the committee. WOW

Chairman Thompson states in closing that there’s nothing more American than being able to safely cast your ballot in an election without the threat of violence as well as assurance that there will be a peaceful transition of power from one Presidential administration to the next.

He states how close we came to losing our democracy on January 6th, and how the thought of it still makes his blood boil (this is what real patriotism sounds like, MAGA). He says the next hearing will show Trump’s dereliction of duty in extreme detail throughout the day of 1/6.

He thanks the witnesses and members of the committee for their testimony. The seventh committee hearing is adjourned.

Corrections (1/2): This tweet should read “Two groups in particular that HEEDED Trump’s call to arms were the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys,” not ‘needed.’

Corrections (2/2): The last sentence of this tweet should read “Barr said “absolutely not, there’s no PROBABLE cause.” Not ‘probably.’