The Jan. 6 committee wrapped its first hearing in nearly a year Thursday night, and the prime-time show unveiled a slew of new information about the Capitol riot while teasing more to come in the five hearings to follow.
While the committee will present some of the evidence it has collected from thousands of witnesses, it was clear who is at the center of it all: former President Donald Trump. The evidence presented encircled Trump by pointing to his supporters’ efforts to block President Joe Biden’s 2020 win. The Jan. 6 committee delved into the motivations of his supporters, testimony of his advisers, and the brutality of the attack. Here are six key moments from the televised spectacle.
SECRETIVE GOP JAN. 6 INVESTIGATION REVEALS SECURITY AND LEADERSHIP ‘BREAKDOWN’
Liz Cheney steals the show
Though the committee is composed of nine members, only two did any talking. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) delivered the opening statement and asked some questions of witnesses, but it was Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) who was the star presenter.
“In our country, we don’t swear an oath to an individual or a political party,” she said near the end of her testimony. “We take our oath to defend the United States Constitution. And that oath must mean something. Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
Cheney broke with Republican leadership by joining the committee in the first place, which prompted GOP colleagues to strip away her leadership role as the No. 3 Republican in the House. It also earned the ire of Trump, who has launched a heated effort to prevent her from being reelected, backing a rival Republican in the Aug. 16 GOP primary for Wyoming’s lone House seat, which Cheney has held since 2017.
Cheney says House members asked for pardons
While she was outlining what evidence will be presented in future hearings, Cheney said that “multiple” GOP members of Congress who questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election asked for presidential pardons from Trump to ensure their safety. She specifically named Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
“As you will see, Rep. Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after Jan. 6 to seek a presidential pardon,” she said. “Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.”
A spokesman for Scott denied that he asked Trump for a pardon, telling the Hill that Cheney’s allegation is a “laughable, ludicrous, and a thoroughly soulless lie.”
“I was slipping in people’s blood”
Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who was injured in during the riot, gave a graphic recounting of her experience defending the Capitol. She recalled “slipping in people’s blood” and being locked in hand-to-hand combat for hours, all after she was knocked unconscious.
“It was carnage. It was chaos. … Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards describes “absolute war zone” outside of the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/Rs4FU3CqKW
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 10, 2022
Jared Kushner didn’t take the White House counsel’s resignation threats seriously
In a video testimony shared for the first time at the hearing, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, said he didn’t think White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was serious about resigning as many in the administration looked for ways to overturn the results of the election.
“I kind of, like I said, my interest at that time was on trying to get as many pardons done, and I know that he was always, him and the team, were always saying, ‘Oh, we are going to resign,'” Kushner said. “‘We are not going to be here if this happens, if that happens.’ … So, I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you.”
“Substantial evidence” shows Proud Boys were motivated by Trump’s tweet
As part of the committee’s framing that the entire incident goes back to Trump, Thompson made the case that the Proud Boys were motivated to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a direct result of a Trump tweet.
“We have obtained substantial evidence showing that the president’s Dec. 19 tweet, calling his followers to D.C. on Jan. 6, energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups,” Thompson said during the hearing.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Ten minutes of harrowing new footage of the riot
The first half of the hearing wrapped with nearly 10 minutes of new video footage of the riot. The images were taken from security cameras in the Capitol and body cameras worn by police at the scene.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 10, 2022
