From left: Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney.Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
In a last-minute announcement Monday, the committee investigating the events of theJan. 6, 2021, Capitol riotssaid they would be holding another hearing Tuesday afternoon.
The announcement states that the meeting is being held to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”
As part of theopening remarksin the first hearing, Vice Chair Liz Cheney — the top Republican on the committee — shined a light on how Trump responded to the incident that put Capitol officers and elected officials in harm’s way.
“As you will see in the hearings to come, President Trump believed his supporters at the Capitol, and I quote, ‘were doing what they should be doing,'” Cheney said. “This is what he told his staff as they pleaded with him to call off the mob, to instruct his supporters to leave.”
The committee has also heard testimony fromJustice Department officialswho detailed Trump’s unrelenting pressure to find evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general during the final months of Trump’s presidency, said he said he faced pressure almost daily to uncover evidence thatJoe Bidenand Democrats had stolen the 2020 presidential election.
“Between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3, the president either called me or met with me virtually every day, with one or two exceptions,” Rosen testified. “The common element of all of [these meetings] was the president expressing his dissatisfaction that the Justice Department had not done enough to investigate election fraud.”
Rosen said that the Justice Department declined all of Trump’s requests of them to declare fraud, “because we did not think that they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them.”
Nearly six in 10 Americans believe formerPresident Donald Trumpshould be criminally charged for his alleged role in theJan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
According to a newABC News/Ipsos poll, 58% of the nation now supports charging Trump, who helped incite the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stopJoe Bidenfrom becoming president.
That percentage is up from a similarABC News/Washington Postpollconducted in late April — before the Jan. 6 committee began hosting public hearings on its investigation.
source: people.com
