borders for the purposes of law enforcement - to allow for paramilitary action on Jan. Rhodes sees himself as “a paramilitary leader” and wanted Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act - which lets a president deploy the military inside U.S. He called the Oath Keepers “a very dangerous organization” controlled personally by Rhodes. Van Tatenhove left the organization before the lead up to Jan. The mob Trump summoned “came prepared to do battle against police and politicians alike,” Thompson said.Ī former Oath Keeper, Jason Van Tatenhove, testified that the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, routinely sought ways to legitimize the organization and said Trump’s messaging would have encouraged him. “Seizing upon his invitation to fight, they assembled their followers for an insurrectionary showdown against Congress and the vice president,” he said. None answered Trump’s call faster than dangerous extremist groups, who interpreted it as a call to arms and immediately began organizing, Raskin said. “If he would have done that earlier in the day, we wouldn’t be in this bad of a situation.” “We literally left right when that come out,” he told the panel. “So we basically were just following what he said.”Īyres and the crowd expected Trump to join them, he said.Īyres only left the Capitol after Trump tweeted a video instructing his supporters to do so. “Basically, the president got everybody riled up, told everybody, ‘Head on down,’” he said. He joined an angry group that marched to the Capitol after Trump directed them there. 6, Ayres said he “was worked up” by Trump’s speech on the White House Ellipse. He believed Trump and was angered by the president’s claims that the election was stolen, he said. Stephen Ayres, a northeast Ohio man who participated in the assault on the Capitol, testified that Trump’s tweet inspired him to travel to Washington.Īyres told the panel he’d been interested in his family affairs and ordinary hobbies but was “pretty hardcore into the social media,” he said. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said both violent extremists and “average Trump supporters swept up in the fervor of the day” participated in the attack, and the panel heard testimony from one of each type. “When Donald Trump sent out his tweet, he became the first president to call for a crowd to descend on the capital city to block the constitutional transfer of power,” Raskin said.Ĭhairman Bennie G. Much of the committee’s discussion centered on a 1:42 a.m. The three-hour session touched on the former president’s social media influence, a militia group’s desire for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and a shouting match between White House staff and outside Trump advisers over whether to try to cancel the results of the election. Murphy jointly led questioning at the hearing, alongside Maryland Rep. 21 White House meeting in which Trump and senior officials discussed a plan to “encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6,” according to testimony at the hearing from Rep. 6 rally in Washington as a call to arms to fight election certification, according to testimony at the wide-ranging hearing, the seventh by the panel.Īnd for the first time, the committee revealed Maryland Rep. 19 tweet from Trump to attend a “wild” Jan. Members of the violent extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and other Trump supporters interpreted a Dec. Many dispersed only when Trump asked them to do so, hours after mayhem broke out. Trump exerted extraordinary influence over the mob, who marched to the Capitol on his orders and undertook the violent attack, testimony showed. 6, 2021 for a “wild” protest - resulting in an insurrection. House panel investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results described Tuesday how the president explicitly called on his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. Capitol for almost a year, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence related to the attack at the U.S. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) depart after the seventh hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S.
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