Liz Cheney tells Republicans defending rioters: ‘When Trump is gone, your dishonour will remain’
The House January 6 select committee’s first prime-time hearing wrapped up after two hours of testimony, 18 months after the violent Capitol riot.
Included in the bombshell revelations introduced by Reps Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney were that Donald Trump thought then-Vice President Mike Pence ‘deserved’ hanging as rioters had chanted.
Excerpts of interviews with former Attorney General Bill Barr, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner were also played. Mr Barr testified he told then-President Trump that the idea the election was stolen was “bulls***”. Ms Trump said she respected his opinion and had also accepted that.
Ms Cheney said the probe had found multiple House Republicans had sought pardons for their roles in trying to overturn the election; Mr Trump had set off the chain reaction that led to the violence; and he did not contact any part of government to quell the mob.
To her Republican colleagues “defending the indefensible” she said one day Mr Trump will be gone, but “your dishonour will remain”.
The hearing was shown unseen graphic footage of the attack on the Capitol that distressed some in the room, followed by emotional testimony was heard from Officer Caroline Edwards who recalled being injured when the mob turned violent and the “war zone” that followed.
‘He was ghostly pale’: Video shows Officer Sicknick before he died
Video footage of Brian Sicknick, the officer who would die a day after the Capitol riot, was played on Thursday shortly before the committee adjourned for the night.
In the video, a uniformed officer identified as Mr Sicknick is seen holding his face in pain after apparently being attacked with pepper spray. The actual attack itself is not clearly visible.
John Bowden reports:
Jan 6 panel shows video of Officer Sicknick before he died: ‘He was ghostly pale’
Sicknick was first officer to die as a result of riot
Hearing shown video of staff fleeing Kevin McCarthy’s office
Richard Hall reports:
Jan 6 committee shows video of staff fleeing Kevin McCarthy’s office during attack
McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the attack, but later backtracked
Hearing adjourned
A final video is played of six of the rioters who pleaded guilty to their actions all saying that they went to the Capitol that day because Donald Trump asked them to go.
Following the video, the hearing is adjourned.
Officer Edwards is seen embracing Sandra Garza the late-Brian Sicknick’s partner.
Northern Virginia Congressman Don Beyer speaks about his constituent Officer Brian Sicknick.
Officer Edwards remembers telling her commanding officer they would need reinforcements.
She then recalls being knocked unconscious when the Proud Boys knocked through and lifted up the barriers that were set up.
Despite having a head wound she then returned to duty helping decontaminate fellow officers who had been sprayed.
She describes Officer Brian Sicknick with his head in his hands, looking “ghostly pale” — as white as a sheet of paper. She knew he hadn’t been pepper-sprayed as his face would be red.
As she tried to see what hit him, she got sprayed too, and when she went to get decontaminated, she then got tear-gassed.
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards
Asked for a memory of that day, she recalls there were wounded colleagues and “I was slipping in people’s blood, I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage, it was chaos … I’m not combat trained and that day it was hours of hand-to-hand combat.”
“It was an absolute war zone.”
Fox News shows air ad-free
Fox News is the only major network not airing the hearing live.
Both Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity’s shows are being broadcast with no commercial breaks.
Mr Thompson hands questioning over to Ms Cheney.
She plays footage of the moment when Officer Edwards was injured.
Mr Quested recounts his movements and interactions with Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys on 5 January 2021.
Tarrio met in a parking garage with Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and Mr Quested’s crew filmed that meeting.
The following day he was surprised by the number of Proud Boys present (approximately 200 people he recalls) and that they were walking down the Mall away from where President Donald Trump was speaking, towards the Capitol.
Officers cry as committee shows video of violence
Some of the Capitol police officers present on the day of the January 6 Capitol attack could be seen crying and emotional as the committee showed a shocking compilation of bodycam footage and documentary video on Thursday during the first primetime hearing into the attack on Congress.
John Bowden reports:
Jan 6 police officers cry in hearing as committee shows video of violence
Video incorporates bodycam footage, documentary scenes
Chairman Thompson: “We have obtained substantial evidence showing that the President’s December 19th tweet, calling his followers to DC on January 6th, energised individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups.”
In a video of their investigation into the Proud Boys’ activities that day, the January 6 Committee found that membership in the Proud Boys grew “exponentially” after Donald Trump’s infamous ‘stand back and stand by’ line at his presidential debate against Joe Biden.
Source Article from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jan-6-hearings-today-live-trump-b2097454.html
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