Within the earlier hearings, the committee has sought to tie Trump to the violence on the Capitol, displaying how he was warned by his aides that his claims the election was stolen have been baseless and that there was a danger of violence on January 6, 2021. The committee’s last listening to on this collection will try and illustrate how the previous President “refused to behave to defend the Capitol as a violent mob stormed the Capitol,” based on committee aides.

Like previous hearings, the committee is more likely to depend on witness testimony of those that have been round Trump on January 6 or close by within the West Wing, to be able to inform the narrative of what occurred by means of the phrases of Trump’s interior circle.

The committee has spoken with quite a few people round Trump on January 6 — together with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, former Pence nationwide safety adviser retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former Trump White Home Counsel Pat Cipollone.

Two witnesses are slated to testify in particular person on Thursday, and each resigned within the quick aftermath of the January 6 assault: Former Trump deputy nationwide safety adviser Matthew Pottinger and former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.
Trump’s former chief of employees, Mark Meadows, has not testified earlier than the committee — the Home voted to carry him in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena. However Meadows selectively turned over greater than 2,300 textual content messages to the panel, which CNN obtained, and the texts present key insights into the frantic messages the chief of employees was receiving from Republican allies in Congress and even Trump’s son urging the President to behave.

Listed here are some key questions and solutions in regards to the 187 minutes of January 6 forward of the ultimate listening to:

When do the 187 minutes start and finish?

The 187 minutes started at 1:10 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, as Trump was wrapping up his speech on the Ellipse. That is when he advised his supporters to march to the Capitol, so they may strain lawmakers to overturn the election whereas they met for a joint session of Congress to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory.

“So, we will stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue … and we will the Capitol,” Trump stated. “We will try to give our Republicans — the weak ones, as a result of the robust ones do not want any of our assist — we will try to give them the sort of satisfaction and boldness that they should take again our nation. So, let’s stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Precisely 187 minutes later, at 4:17 p.m. ET, Trump posted a video on Twitter. Within the clip, he stated for the primary time that his supporters ought to go away the Capitol. He additionally heaped reward on the rioters and repeated his debunked lies in regards to the election, which had spurred the riot within the first place.

“I do know your ache. I do know you are harm,” Trump stated on the time. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everybody is aware of it, particularly the opposite aspect, however you must go dwelling now. Now we have to have peace. Now we have to have regulation and order. Now we have to respect our nice individuals in regulation and order. We do not need anyone harm. It is a very powerful time frame.”

Protesters supporting then-President Donald Trump storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.

Why do the 187 minutes matter to the committee?

This timeframe is central to the committee’s mission. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee’s GOP vice chair, has repeatedly stated that the proof obtained by the panel about these 187 minutes gives a transparent instance of Trump’s “supreme dereliction of responsibility” all through the rebel.
The panel’s Democratic chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, stated earlier this 12 months, “The President was advised, ‘That you must say on to your individuals to go dwelling, go away the Capitol.’ And so, it took over 187 minutes to make that straightforward assertion. One thing’s incorrect with that.”

Thursday’s listening to might be led by Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican. Luria stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the listening to would “undergo just about minute-by-minute” of what went on through the 187 minutes of the Capitol rebel.

“The President did not do a lot however gleefully watch tv throughout this time-frame,” Kinzinger stated on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

What can we already know in regards to the 187 minutes?

After leaving the stage on the Ellipse, Trump received into his motorcade and angrily tried to persuade his drivers to take him to the Capitol, based on testimony from Trump White Home aide Cassidy Hutchinson. The brokers refused, telling him that the scene was too harmful and unstable.
Trump then watched TV information protection of the chaos unfolding on the Capitol, based on a guide by Washington Submit reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and based on then-White Home press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who stated Trump was “gleefully” watching the information.
White Home Counsel Pat Cipollone advised Trump’s chief of employees that Trump wanted to intervene, or else “individuals are going to die,” based on Hutchinson’s testimony. Meadows responded by telling Cipollone that Trump “would not need to do something” and that he even agreed with the rioters who have been seen chanting about hanging Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump posted three tweets throughout this vital timeframe. The primary tweet criticized Pence for refusing to overturn the election. The second and third tweets advised the rioters to “keep peaceable” and to “respect the regulation” — however notably Trump didn’t instruct his supporters to go away the Capitol.

He additionally spoke by telephone with Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who pleaded with Trump to name off the mob. However through the name, Trump took the rioters’ aspect and stated they cared in regards to the election greater than McCarthy did, based on earlier reporting.

In the course of the 187 minutes, a wide selection of Republican lawmakers, former Trump officers and conservative media personalities texted Meadows, saying Trump wanted to intervene, CNN has beforehand reported. This included Donald Trump Jr., Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, former Trump administration officers Mick Mulvaney and Reince Priebus, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.

Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, is sworn in to testify last month.

Who was with Trump and what have they stated about it?

The committee has taken video depositions from a number of individuals who have been with Trump on January 6 and is probably going to make use of these interviews to attempt to clarify what the President was doing when rioters breached the Capitol.

Along with Ivanka Trump, Kellogg, Cipollone and McEnany, the committee has performed clips at earlier hearings of video depositions from an extended listing of White Home aides, together with former Trump private assistant Nick Luna, former White Home employees secretary Derek Lyons, former Trump White Home lawyer Eric Herschmann, former Ivanka Trump chief of employees Julie Radford and former Meadows deputy Ben Williamson.

The testimony from lots of these contained in the White Home are more likely to be performed to be able to assist inform the story of what Trump was doing through the afternoon of January 6.

The committee has beforehand performed clips from each Pottinger and Matthews, the 2 in-person witnesses Thursday, reacting to Trump’s tweet attacking Pence.

“I bear in mind us saying that that was the very last thing that wanted to be tweeted at that second,” Matthews stated in a clip from her video deposition. “The scenario was already unhealthy. And so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fireplace by tweeting that.”

Pottinger advised the panel that Trump’s tweet was what prompted him to resign. “I learn that tweet and decided at that second to resign,” he stated in his video deposition. “That is the place I knew that I used to be leaving that day as soon as I learn that tweet.”

On the finish of the committee’s final listening to, Cheney previewed what the committee had deliberate for its upcoming session by taking part in a clip from Cipollone deposition, which the committee had simply taken days beforehand.

“Was it needed so that you can proceed to push for an announcement directing individuals to go away throughout that time frame till it was in the end achieved?” Cipollone was requested within the video deposition.

“I felt it was my obligation to proceed to push for that and others felt it was their obligation as properly,” the previous White Home counsel responded.

The committee’s testimony — together with reporting from CNN, different information organizations and a number of other books in regards to the Trump presidency — have stuffed in key particulars about what was happening contained in the West Wing. Kellogg advised the committee, as an illustration, about how he inspired Ivanka Trump to talk along with her father on January 6 to behave, and that she did so a number of occasions that day, based on committee paperwork.

The committee has additionally spoken to quite a few West Wing officers who did not see Trump instantly because the violence was unfolding however have been reacting to what was taking place on each ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Williamson, Meadows’ prime aide, advised the committee how he texted Meadows encouraging Trump to tweet as a result of issues have been “getting somewhat furry” on the Capitol. Williamson advised the panel that he went to talk to Meadows in particular person, and the White Home chief then went towards the Oval Workplace, based on court docket filings.

Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is seen in a video interview during a House select committee hearing in the Cannon House Office Building earlier this month.

What are the large unanswered questions?

Whereas plenty of particulars about Trump’s response on January 6 are already identified, there are nonetheless lingering questions on what the previous President was doing on January 6.

As an example, Trump spoke with not less than two Republican lawmakers through the early phases of the rebel: McCarthy and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
Whereas there was earlier reporting about McCarthy’s heated telephone name, together with that Trump advised him that the rioters have been “extra upset in regards to the election than you might be,” McCarthy has not spoken at size in regards to the dialog. The committee issued a subpoena to McCarthy and 4 different lawmakers in an unprecedented transfer earlier this 12 months, although McCarthy has not agreed to testify or hand over paperwork.
Questions additionally stay about who else Trump spoke with by telephone on January 6 through the interval when the Capitol was breached. There are gaps within the White Home name logs on January 6, offering incomplete public accounting of the conversations Trump had that day.

One other key query the committee is more likely to dive into is the way it was Pence — and never Trump — who ordered the Nationwide Guard to reply to the riot. At a listening to final month, the committee performed testimony from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley saying it was Pence who gave him “very direct, unambiguous orders” to get the Guard to the Capitol.

However Milley testified that Meadows advised him to say that it was Trump, not Pence, who gave the order. “He stated: Now we have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the choices,” Milley stated in his video deposition about what Meadows advised him. “We have to set up the narrative, you understand, that the President remains to be in cost and that issues are regular or steady, or phrases to that impact.”

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