Leaders of the bipartisan House select committee examining Donald Trump’s drive to subvert the election — and the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that marked its climax — argued in the panel’s first prime-time hearing Thursday night that the former president bears responsibility for the attack on the seat of American democracy, which left several people dead and threatened to interrupt the transfer of power.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman, called the day’s violence the “culmination of an attempted coup.” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice-chair of the committee, said Trump oversaw a “sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election” even as his top aides told him there was no evidence to support his fantastical claims.
Trump resisted entreaties from his staff to call off the mob, Cheney said, and gave no order to deploy the National Guard. Instead, he issued tweets that were read aloud by members of the mob, according to video presented by the committee, which also showed aides in the office of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House minority leader, running in fear.
Trump expressed agreement with the chants of his supporters to “hang Mike Pence,” said Cheney, who previewed evidence that the president responded with the sentiment: “maybe our supporters have the right idea.”
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