Top Trump administration and campaign officials privately tried to convince Trump he lost the 2020 election, but he continued to push the "Big Lie" anyway according to witnesses and taped depositions featured during the second public hearing of the Jan. 6 committee.

Why it matters: The committee's Day 2 goal was to reveal how deliberately the former president peddled election conspiracies and contradicted facts that were clearly presented to him.

• They did so by having those closest to Trump in the aftermath of the election present the evidence themselves.

Between the lines: Those in the former president's inner circle — including Trump's family members, campaign advisers, Justice Department appointees, and his hand-picked attorney general — shared in taped depositions how they repeatedly told Trump his claims the election were stolen were false, but he refused to listen.

The DOJ

The committee leaned heavily on former Trump Justice Department officials — a department meant to be nonpartisan and independent from the executive branch — to document in detail how Trump denied the reality he lost.

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr recounted telling Trump that had become “detached from reality ... I would tell him how crazy some of the allegations were” Barr testified.

• “There was no interest in what the facts were,” he said.
• Barr added there was “zero basis” for arguing the election contractor Dominion Voting Systems, which Trump and members of his team made a core fixture...

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