WASHINGTON (AP) – The House of Representatives, which is investigating the January 6, 2021 uprising, systematically challenged at its second hearing on Monday that Trump and his advisers knew his allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were untrue. .
The argument is key to the commission’s investigation, as the nine-member commission details its evidence of what led to the violent riot. The rebels who stormed the Capitol that day and cut off President Joe Biden’s victory were repeating Trump’s lies that he, not Biden, won the election by right.
Excerpts from Monday’s hearing:
Watch a recording of Monday’s meeting.
WITNESS PULLS OUT, BUT VIDEO TELLS STORY
The hearing began with a quarrel, as former Donald Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, the commission’s chief witness on Monday, said he would not appear due to a “family emergency”. The chairman of the commission, Mississippi representative Benny Thompson, said Stephen’s wife was giving birth.
But the committee had a plan B – hours from Stepien’s previous interview with the panel, which was recorded on video. During the hearing, the committee broadcast a number of videos from this interview, along with others.
Stepien told investigators that Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had urged Trump to declare victory on election night, despite Stepien’s warnings that it was “too early” to make such a prediction.
“My conviction, my recommendation was to say that the votes are still counting, it is too early to say, it is too early to announce the race,” Stepien said in a video.
However, Trump went to the podium in the White House and said that the first results were “a hoax for the American public” and that “frankly, we won this election.”
THERME’S MIND WAS “AWARDED”
Trump’s advisers have repeatedly told him that he must wait for the results and not declare that there is widespread election fraud. But Trump did not listen and increasingly relied on the wild allegations made by Giuliani and Trump’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, among others, according to the testimony.
The panel showed a video of Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and campaign aide Jason Miller. Ivanka Trump told the committee that “it is clear” that the election will not be called on election night, and Kushner said that at one point he told Trump that Giuliani’s advice “is not the approach I would take.” But Trump said he trusted Giuliani.
Miller said there was a meeting on election night where he told Trump not to declare victory until they got a better sense of the numbers. But Trump told a panel of advisers that anyone who disagrees with Giuliani is “weak.”
Bill Stepien, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, said in an earlier interview with the panel on Jan. 6 that he “didn’t mind being described as part of the normal team” about Rudy Giuliani’s campaign allegations. and other . pic.twitter.com/4jRWNx8qte
– Associated Press (@AP) June 13, 2022
Stephen
Stepien said his group of advisers was called a “normal team”. Another White House lawyer, Eric Hershman, said the fraud theories – including Powell’s claims that voting machines were set up to change votes – were “crazy.”
Former Attorney General William Barr, who said at the time that there was no evidence behind Trump’s allegations of fraud, said the president was increasingly “detached from reality.”
William Barr told the panel on January 6 in an earlier interview with then-President Donald Trump’s reaction to the @AP story, where the former attorney general said: “So far we have not seen fraud on a scale that could lead to a different election outcome." pic.twitter.com/a7RKQj6lf3
– Associated Press (@AP) June 13, 2022
MONTHLY CAMPAIGN
Trump’s allegations of fraud did not begin after election day. The commission showed videos where Trump visualized his strategy in speeches throughout his 2020 campaign. In August of that year, he told the public that fraud was the only way to lose.
Stephen told the committee that he and Republican Republican Party leader Kevin McCarthy met with Trump in the summer of 2020 and put forward two-sided arguments as to why he should stop criticizing the postal vote. He and McCarthy told Trump that he was leaving “a lot to chance” and that there were Republican Party officials on the scene who could help get Trump’s mail in the mail.
McCarthy, who refused to co-operate with the commission on Jan. 6 despite the summons, “echoes the same argument,” Stepien said.
“But the president’s decision was made,” Stepien said.
THE RED MIRACLE
Chris Stewworth, a former political editor of the Fox News Channel, testified in person at the hearing. Stirewalt called election night that President Joe Biden had won Arizona, a moment that sparked “anger and frustration” at Trump’s inner shrine in the White House, Miller said.
Stirewalt explained that the network, along with others, expected a so-called “red mirage” early in the evening as personal Republican voices arrived and many of the voices in the mail were believed to be will later rely on Democratic. He noted that this happens at every election.
Trump has not only used this model to make false allegations of fraud, but has contributed to his campaign calling into question the postal vote.
“We had worked hard and I’m proud of the pain, we went to make sure we were informing viewers that this was going to happen because the Trump campaign and the president made it clear that you would try to use this anomaly.” said Stirwalt.
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Associated Press writers Farnush Amiri and Kevin Frecking contributed.
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