What the President Knew, and When He Knew It

Notes from last night's stunning January 6 Select Committee televised hearing.

I’m sure some of you don’t follow politics closely. In fact, you may deliberately avoid politics, because it has just become so noisy and unsettling, and you’re trying to preserve your mental health during a time of many ongoing challenges. That is understandable, and it’s okay; you don’t have to obsess about politics to be a good citizen. It’s alright to detach, to step away.

But that said…I really hope you watched the bipartisan January 6 Select Committee televised hearing last night. It was riveting, and it provided clear, detailed, understandable information about this violent attack on our democracy, including who was responsible for it, and the threat they continue to pose to the future of our country.

I won’t rehash it all here, but a few key takeaways*:

1. Perhaps the most shocking fact unveiled during the hearing was that sworn, under-oath testimony states that when the rioters outside were chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”, President Trump said they “had the right idea” because Pence “deserves it.” Just to restate that: The President of the United States said that his own Vice President “deserved” to be hung on the gallows that a violent mob had erected outside the Capitol. Pence’s alleged crime? An unwillingness to overturn an election that President Trump knew he had lost. (More on that in #3 below.) 
   

   

2. The committee established that the attack on the Capitol was not a random, spontaneous event, as it may have seemed to those of us watching that day on live television. It was, in fact, a planned, coordinated, and orchestrated riot. Two violent white supremacist groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, were integral parts of it, and sworn testimony was presented that they participated at the invitation of Trump.

3. The committee established that there was no fraud in the 2020 election that would have changed the results of the election, and they brought the receipts to prove it. They showed sworn, under-oath testimony from Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, that he had investigated and found no evidence of voter or election fraud, that he had at least three conversations with Trump about this in November and December 2020, and that he eventually told Trump that such claims were “bullshit.” (He then resigned, rather than be part of the Trump administration's ongoing protestations that the election had been stolen.) They also cited testimony from other Trump administration figures, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who also admitted there was no election fraud, and that they had also told Trump this well before January 6th. (One of Trump’s lawyers told him the week of the election “in plain language” that he had lost.) Even Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and senior advisor, admitted under oath that she believed that there had been no fraud. The committee also reminded viewers that Trump had filed—and LOST—more than 60 lawsuits claiming election fraud after the election. Yet he continued—and continues, up to this very day—to claim that there was massive fraud, and that the election was rigged and stolen from him. He knew that was not true; he still knows it.

4. Despite gaslighting claims by some politicians and propagandists that the attendees on January 6 were “peaceful” and “full of love,” and “basically just tourists,” the committee showed many minutes of violent, never-before-seen footage from the Capitol, and featured live testimony from one of the Capitol police officers who was injured during the attack. She described it as a “war zone,” with her fellow officers vomiting after being hit with bear spray, mace, and tear gas. She recalled that there were so many injuries that she was “slipping on people’s blood.” Slipping on people’s blood. (Remember that the next time you hear Trump supporters talking about how they “back the blue.”)

5. The committee has evidence that Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) and “multiple other Republican congressmen” attempted to get then-President Trump to pardon them for their participation in the attempts to overturn the election. Put another way: They knew what they were doing was not just immoral, but criminal. And when it was apparent their efforts had failed, they tried to save their own butts.

You can watch the full 2-hour hearing on the YouTube channel of The Wall Street Journal here; I assure you it will be time well spent: 

There are at least five more televised hearings coming up on June 13 (10 AM ET), June 15 (10 AM ET), June 16 (10 AM ET), June 21 (10 AM ET), and June 23 (8 PM ET). 

*I am indebted to historian Heather Cox Richardson for her usual excellent work in recapping last night’s hearing.