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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack detailed former President Trump’s “complete dereliction of duty” as he ignored pleas to condemn the violence and call off the mob from his White House Counsel, top aides and members of his own family.
“This man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved, not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters, or the desperate pleas of those facing down the rioters,” said Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., during Thursday’s prime-time hearing.
The Democrat-led committee shed light on the much-talked about but still murky 187 minutes that stretched from his speech to his supporters at 1:10 p.m. ET to his 4:17 p.m. ET video statement asking them to return home.
The hearing, led by military veterans Reps. Elaine Luria, D-Va., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., used witness testimony to piece together Trump’s actions the afternoon of Jan. 6, as there was not an official call log from the White House that afternoon and nothing included in the presidential daily diary.
“The chief White House photographer wanted to take pictures because it was, in her words, ‘very important for his archives and for history.’ But she was told: ‘no photographs’,” Luria said.
White House counsel and White House officials testified that Trump did not make any calls to the secretary of defense, the attorney general or the secretary of homeland security during the siege.
Although the White House call logs are empty, Trump lawyer and ally Rudy Giuliani’s call logs show at least two calls between him and the president that day. The committee also noted that other Trump calls that day are known, including several to Republican senators to urge them to delay the certification of Biden’s win.
‘I’ve seen the impact that his words have on his supporters’
A major theme from the hearing was how much television the former president consumed as the chaos and violence unfolded.
“President Trump sat in his dining room and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff closest advisers and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president,” Luria said. “When lives and our democracy hung in the balance, President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power.”
The committee played video clips of news coverage from Fox News, to show what Trump watched in real time as he tuned in from his dining room, just off from the Oval Office. He watched as his supporters, donning red caps and chanting his name, overwhelmed and outnumbered police as they flooded the Capitol grounds and attempted to breach the Capitol.
What was he doing while the Capitol was under siege? See for yourself. Donald Trump is a disgrace to America. pic.twitter.com/tgjdSe2zYZ
— Adam Kinzinger????✌️ (@AdamKinzinger) July 21, 2022
At 1:49 p.m. ET, just as D.C. police were declaring a riot at the…
Read More: Jan. 6 panel details what Trump did — and did not do — during the Capitol riot : NPR