The Jan. 6 committee investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first primetime public hearing on Thursday night — the first of six that lawmakers hope will reveal what the committee has learned over the past 11 months about how the Capitol was breached and about former President Donald Trump’s role in the events that led to the insurrection.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House committee, opened the night, and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, took the spotlight in her opening remarks.
What were some of the most shocking revelations?
Cheney revealed Trump had “a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.” She said during the upcoming hearings, “you will see evidence of each element of this plan.”
Cheney said that future hearings would feature testimony from Trump Cabinet members “discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment and replacing the president of the United States.”
Cheney also revealed new details about the White House’s response to the riot, including a video clip of the deposition given by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley told House investigators that it was then-Vice President Mike Pence who gave the order to send National Guard troops to respond to the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that the White House instructed him to say that Trump made the call.
In one of the most highly anticipated moments of the hearing, the committee showed a clip of its interview with Trump’s daughter and former White House adviser, Ivanka, in which she said she accepted her father’s defeat in the 2020 election. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying,” she said.
Cheney said the committee has obtained evidence that, in the wake of Jan. 6, “multiple” Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., pursued pardons from the outgoing president.
It was revealed that in the weeks before Jan. 6, Trump met with Gen. Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and others at the White House “alone for a period of time before White House lawyers and other staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene.” According to Cheney, after this meeting was when Trump tweeted to his supporters of Jan. 6: “Be there, will be wild!”