“Final” January 6th Committee Hearing focuses on Trump timeline

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) -ANCHOR:

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th (2021) attack on the U.S. Capitol presented a timeline of what President Trump was doing and not doing that day. Thursday, July 21 marked the final January 6th committee hearing of the summer.

187 minutes.

The committee focused on 187 minutes Thursday night, from when then President Donald Trump left his rally at the Ellipse until 4:17 p.m. Eastern when he posted a video message asking his supporters to depart the Capitol. During those three critical hours, the President sat and watched as hundreds descended on the capitol.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) chaired the committee as Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) is in isolation due to testing positive for COVID-19.

“Donald Trump’s own White House counsel, his own White House staff, members of his own family, all implored him to immediately intervene, to condemn the violence and instruct his supporters to stand down, leave the Capitol and disperse for multiple hours. He would not.”

Committee members laid bare the timeline of what was occurring in the White House as violence erupted at the Capitol. Rep. Cheney added, the testimony the panel has gathered showed that, “for hours, Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party, and from all across our nation to do what his oath required. He refused to defend our nation and our Constitution.”

In the 74th minute of the attack, more than an hour in, the president tweeted this, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country.”

Both witnesses Thursday used the imagery of that tweet adding fuel to the fire.

Thursday also provided first-hand accounts of those charged with protecting the Vice President, the radio calls of Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail.

“That left entry in the Secret Service. The Capitol does not sound good right now. Correct. With them the members of the BPP tell it this time we’re starting to fear for their own lives. There were a lot of there was a lot of yelling, a lot of a lot of very personal calls over the radio. So I’m It was disturbing. I don’t like it, but there were calls to say goodbye to family members and so forth.”

One of two Republicans on the committee, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (D-Ill.) didn’t mince words while condemning the President, saying, “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”

The committee says they will continue their investigations through August, with a specific focus on lost and destroyed communications between Secret Service on January 6th and additional testimony the panel is gathering.