<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655143768181,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-c093-df17-a7ff-cedfaaf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655143768181,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-c093-df17-a7ff-cedfaaf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55133176", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1030125"} }); ","_id":"00000181-5e41-d702-a3cf-5fc194bf0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe select committee investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol held another hearing on Monday featuring recorded testimony from former Trump administration aides and other witnesses.
Here are six key moments from Monday’s hearing.
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Bill Barr says Trump was ‘detached from reality’
In recorded video testimony, former Attorney General Bill Barr said then-President Donald Trump embraced baseless conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems machines, which he told the president were unfounded.
Barr said that in a meeting, Trump went on a “monologue” about how there was evidence of the claim and would have a second term as a result. Barr said he offered him an amateur report as evidence
“I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, ‘Boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has, you know, lost contact with — he’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,'” he said.
Barr calls Trump ‘weak element’ on Republican ticket in Pennsylvania
In other recorded testimony, Barr said Trump’s claims of election fraud in Philadelphia were “absolutely rubbish.” He argued that other Republicans on the ballot in Pennsylvania outperformed Trump, suggesting it was Trump himself who was “weaker” than the Republican ticket.
“He generally was the weak element on the ticket so that does not suggest the election was stolen by fraud,” Barr said.
Barr said he has not seen any evidence of systemic election fraud, quipping that includes 2000 Mules, a movie by conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza that claimed election fraud.
‘No evidence’ that dead people voted in Philadelphia, former city commissioner testifies
Like Barr, Al Schmidt, former city commissioner of Philadelphia, disputed claims circulated by Trump and his allies that mail-in and absentee ballots were cast for voters who died prior to the election to the benefit of President Joe Biden.
Asked about Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s claims of about 8,000 dead voters voting in the state, Schmidt didn’t mince words.
“Not only was there not evidence of 8,000 dead voters voting in Pennsylvania, there wasn’t even evidence of eight,” he said.
Cheney: Trump took election night advice from ‘an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani’
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Trump took guidance on election night in 2020 from “an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani” over his campaign experts.
Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said that despite widely circulated reports of how mail-in ballots would be tallied and a plan by some staffers to account for that in election night remarks, Trump took Giuliani’s advice instead.
“You will also hear testimony that President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and insisted that the vote-counting stop to falsely claim everything was fraudulent,” Cheney said.
Cheney added that Trump “falsely told the American people that the election was ‘not legitimate’ — in his words, quote, ‘a major fraud.’”
“Millions of Americans believed him,” she said.
The committee played footage of former Trump aide Jason Miller acknowledging in recorded testimony that Giuliani was intoxicated on election night. It also played footage of Giuliani’s recorded testimony in which he said he spoke with the president several times on election night.
Ex-Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt defends network’s election night Arizona call for Biden
Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News digital politics editor, testified about the network’s decision to call the results of the election in Arizona on election night in 2020 for Biden, a decision that later proved to be correct but resulted in his termination from Fox.
Stirewalt said the network was able to call the Arizona results before its competitors because it was using different prediction models with data that made it confident in its call for Biden in the state.
He explained a phenomenon he calls the “the red mirage,” which occurs when Republican candidates appear to have a lead but that it shrinks when mail-in ballots are counted because Democratic voters are more likely to choose to vote by mail than Republican voters, and he said Trump and some of his allies intended to exploit that phenomenon to back up its false claims of fraud.
Bill Stepien unable to attend in person
Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien was scheduled to appear before the Jan. 6 committee in person to testify and would have been the most high-profile witness during Monday’s hearing. But shortly before the hearing, he had to cancel his appearance, citing a family emergency, which lawmakers later said was his wife going into labor. The committee pivoted to play clips of his video testimony instead.
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Stepien is advising Cheney’s primary challenger Harriet Hageman. During the hearing, Cheney said she wished his family the best as it welcomes the new addition.
