Thursday, July 21, 2022

Evidence From J6 Hearing:
Trump Was Glued To Fox, Ignoring Everyone, While His Armed Mob Raged Through Capitol; He Recorded His "We Love You-Go Home" Video Only After It Was Clear His Plan Had Failed
Before Evacuating Pence, Members Of His Security Team Phoned Their Families To Say Goodbye, Fearful They Might Soon Be Killed By Trump's Furious Supporters

(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

Selections from Seth Abramson's tweets while watching the January 6 Committee's eighth public hearing (my emphasis):

6/ Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the Committee chair, recently announced that the report the HJ6C issues in September will be a bare-bones "interim" report and that the Committee will continue working through the 2022 national elections. . . .

8/ The need for more hearings has become clear by the fact that the HJ6C continues interviewing major witnesses, discovering new evidence, and opening new fronts in its January 6 investigation. Besides publicly leaving the door open to questioning Trump, Pence and Ginni Thomas... . . .

11/ The number of Trumpworld witnesses taking the 5th—meaning they think if they answer questions honestly they may incriminate themselves—is startling. . . .

15/ We learned in the last few hours that the mass deletion of Secret Service texts covering January 5-6—done after *at least 4 warnings not to do so* from other federal entities—is now a *criminal* investigation. . . .

16/ And as all this is ongoing, we have more and more evidence that Trump is committing the federal crime of witness tampering. . . .

17/ And we just learned that Trump continues to commit crimes falling under his Conspiracy to Commit Election Fraud—for instance, within the last 10 days he called the top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly to lean hard on him to "decertify" Biden's 2020 Wisconsin election win. . . .

23/ There is also every reason to see the HJ6C hearings as the *most critical election coverage major media could offer to America*. . . .

24/ Trump recently confirmed in a magazine interview that he's running for POTUS in 2024 . . . 

26/ But it's more than this. Recent breaking news revealed that Trump . . . believes DOJ will be unwilling to charge him if he's an active candidate, and/or he'll have an easier time framing a prosecution as political.

27/ . . . Trump has *already* declared January 6 a political issue. So if Trump is going to make the 2020 election a big part of his 2024 campaign, and if Trump is going to call any prosecution of him a partisan act, voters *must* know the *real* facts of the case *now*. . . .

45/ I've no doubt the Trumpists are worried about [former Trump Deputy Press Secretary Sarah] Matthews. When former Trump adviser (and white supremacist) Garrett Ziegler recently called Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah "hoes and thots" he was likely also presaging the Trumpist counterattack against Matthews. Here's why:

46/ Because Trump was known for wanting to hire young attractive women he deemed "looked the part" for TV—i.e. telegenic folks—his minions are now misogynistically using that trend *against* ex-Trump employees by casting them as unqualified social climbers with no abiding values.

47/ Because the embedded misogyny of the contemporary far right is so predictable . . . we can already see how and why she will be attacked, and it will be risible. . . .

49/ . . . [I]t's easy to forget that the Trumpists *never* counter the HJ6C with *evidence*. They could be filing sworn affidavits from Trumpists every single day if they wanted to—if they had *anything*. . . .

51/ . .  . [T]here seems to be *no exculpatory evidence* relating to Trump and January 6, it's because we would've seen it. No one is stopping Trump or his minions from volunteering to testify, supplying affidavits, and so on. They won't. . . .

54/ . . . It's a pattern the media keeps missing: there is *never* any *substantive* contradiction from Team Trump of *anything* we hear from the HJ6C. Ever. . . .

61/ Okay, so how about tonight's big HJ6C hearing? How does it fit into the massive, sprawling, complex picture of the worst betrayal of America since the U.S. Civil War? . . .

63/ . . . [I]t goes without saying that the biggest-ticket item . . . is the question of what the sitting President of the United States was doing during an armed attack he and his team knew in advance was coming. . . .

65/ As PROOF reported in January 2021, at least six sources report that Trump was *thrilled* by the attack on the Capitol. These sources used words like "happy," "giddy" and so on. . . .

73/ . . . To most Americans, the evidence that we hear today will be absolutely shocking.

MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS/ Several Secret Service agents have retained private counsel now that the DHS investigation of the destruction of January 6 USSS texts—potentially covering Trump's employment of extremists to lead the January 6 march—has become a criminal probe. Big news. . . .

75/ As historically shocking as the House January 6 Committee hearings have been . . . what you have heard so far—if you've only watched the HJ6C hearings—is just the tip of the iceberg with respect to January 6. . . .

MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS 2/ The last few days have brought breaking news about the *corroboration* of Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, including *two* Secret Service agents and at *least* one D.C. Metropolitan Police officer whose January 6 testimony corroborates key parts of it. . . .

78/ [Rep. Bennie] Thompson says that Trump was a flurry of *activity* pre-January 6, but *suddenly stopped doing anything* the moment the Capitol was under attack. He sat in his dining room . . . brushing off calls from frantic allies, and watching TV. . . .

BREAKING NEWS/ As PROOF said would be the case almost two weeks ago, Rep. [Liz] Cheney has now *confirmed*—explicitly and on the record—that there will be a new round of House January 6 Committee televised hearings in September. . . .

90/ Rep. Kinzinger: "President Trump's *plan* on January 6 was to halt or delay the joint session of Congress....[and] the mob was accomplishing President Trump's purpose, so of *course* he failed to intervene....[then-President Trump] *chose* not to act." . . .

95/ . . . The witness confirms the White House knew members of this 10K-person crowd were armed. Luria says there are now multiple witnesses confirming Hutchinson's testimony on Trump attacking Engel in "the Beast." . . .

100/ The dining room Trump was in was the one near the Oval—not in the presidential residence—and he was there watching Fox News for *over two and a half hours* on January 6. The presidential diary and call log have *no data* on any calls to/from Trump. And there are *no photos*. . . .

102/ Now Cipollone is testifying that Trump never called the Pentagon, the AG or DHS on January 6. Now a National Security Council official (name not given) is saying Trump never reached out to the Guard or any law enforcement. Now another Trump aide testifying to the same thing. . . .

104/ . . . So what *was* Trump doing? He wanted to call senators to get them to delay.

105/ . . . Trump *did* ask advisers for the numbers of senators so he could call them. And Trump *did* talk to Rudy Giuliani—who thereafter began calling senators. . . .

106/ At a time Trump knew the Capitol was under armed attack, he first sent out a tweet with a video of his inciting speech, then issued a second tweet attacking VP Pence. Between the first and second tweet, his advisers were *begging* Trump to do something to quell the violence. . . .

108/ What Trump was told was that he needed to issue a message telling people to leave the Capitol. He was told this at 2PM—a riot was declared at the Capitol at 1:49PM. . . . Trump did nothing until after 4PM. . . .

113/ Matthews is saying that it would have taken Donald Trump fewer than 60 seconds to get from the Dining Room to the Briefing Room if he had wanted to issue a statement. Matthews says there is a camera there that is *on at all times*. So Trump could have spoken *immediately*.

114/ . . . Kinzinger quotes a Trump adviser as saying they were worried about what Trump might say unscripted—as they knew his mind at the time.

115/ . . . It is amazing to see the testimony of these aides and how blindingly obvious it was to them that Trump needed to do something and immediately. . . .

117/ We are hearing radio traffic from the VP's security detail about evacuating him from where he was in the Capitol when the rioters broke into the building. They sound extremely, extremely worried—even *scared* about what will happen if they do not evacuate Pence immediately.

118/ White House Security Official (voice and identity hidden): "Members of the VP's security detail were starting to fear for their own lives....they thought this was about to get very ugly." . . . Chilling testimony.

119/ The White House security official says there was screaming and clear fear from the security team guarding the Vice President and they feared they were shortly going to have to use lethal force "or worse" . . .

123/ Both Matthews and Pottinger compare Trump's mid-riot tweet about Pence to "pouring gasoline on a fire" (their words).

124/ Rep. Luria notes that the attack on the Capitol escalated "right after the tweet." . . .

128/ . . . Mike Pence's security detail was not only afraid for their own lives, but they were using their phones to *call their families* because they believed they might not get out of the Capitol alive. Absolutely stunning testimony.

129/ While the Secret Service calls discussed in this hearing are not what the Secret Service destroyed—it destroyed texts—what we have just heard underscores that if *this* is what we are getting from Secret Service calls, imagine what the deleted texts say? Almost unimaginable. . . .

131/ . . . [T]he audio of the VP's Secret Service detail is truly chilling—and it brings home how deeply scared those in the Capitol, no matter how trained, really were. Watching Josh Hawley hauling a** on January 6 underscores how prevalent *fear* was in the Capitol. . . .

134/ Trump's next two tweets to the rioters had the verbs "stay" and "remain" as their operative verbs. There was no request anyone leave the Capitol . . . (remember, PROOF has shown that the Stop the Steal plan was an *occupation*, not specifically violence). . . .

136/ . . . Kushner and Ivanka and Hershmann and Cipollone and McEnany and Scavino and *many others* were telling Donald Trump he *still* needed to do something. . . .

137/ It is pretty clear from Cipollone's testimony that there was only *one person* in the White House who did *not* want Donald Trump to tell the mob at the Capitol to disperse: Trump himself. . . .

147/ This is really, really key: the Committee is showing that Trump issued a video telling the rioters to go home *only after it had become clear that the cause was lost*. His video was a sham. He waited until he knew his words would have no real effect on any part of his plan. . . .

150/ It's so easy to forget that almost the entirety of Donald Trump's January 6 Rose Garden speech was about the election being stolen and fraudulent and his enemies being evil. There was so little focus on anything his speechwriters had told him to say about rioters going home.

151/ After the Rose Garden video, Trump went back to doing *nothing*—though there *was* still violence at the Capitol (in fact, in some places very bad violence). . . .

158/ A former Donald Trump aide is now saying that the beginning of Trump's 6:01PM tweet, "These are the things and events that happen..." made it sound like Trump had "culpability" for January 6. This is a Trump aide saying this! . . .

159/ Rudy Giuliani's insurrectionist work continued unabated after 6PM. He called Republican Sens. Blackburn, Tuberville, Graham, Hawley Cruz, and Haggerty—and Rep. Jordan—to tell them to "slow down" the joint session that was about to reconvene. . . .

163/ . . . Meadows told Pompeo after January 6, "[Trump] is in a very dark place." . . .

166/ On January 7, Trump refused "for hours" to record an address to the nation that day. Cassidy Hutchinson testified that her understanding was that the only reason he gave an address that day was because he was worried about being removed from office under the 25th Amendment. . . .

168/ We are now watching Donald Trump, in his outtakes, refuse to say "the election is over" and refuse to talk about the rioters having violated the law. He is very clear about what he does and does not want to say. You can tell he is angry about giving the statement. . . .

173/ Stunning text messages between Trump aides Murtagh and Wolking about being disgusted by Trump's statements during and after January 6. Hard to summarize these texts, but these men are saying Trump lacks character, is a liar, and is responsible for January 6. Shocking texts.

174/ Kinzinger is giving his closing statement now. He is underscoring how truly amazing it is that Trump refused to follow the advice of every single person in his life and do his job. Kinzinger says that Trump spoke up only—*only*—once he knew his plan for January 6 had failed. . . . The forces Donald Trump ignited that day [January 6] have not gone away....they're all still out there, ready to go." . . .

180/ Now Cheney is speaking again, lauding the "courage" of HJ6C witnesses and the cowardice of "60-, 70-year old men hiding behind executive privilege." As ever, she is pulling no punches. You can tell she wants to encourage new witnesses to come forward and *be courageous*.

181/ Cheney is underscoring that all of the evidence we have heard from the HJ6C is coming from Republicans—not Trump's Democratic political opponents—and that none of these people would've withered under cross-examination by Trump allies (like those McCarthy wanted on the HJ6C).

182/ We are now getting the secret Bannon audio PROOF has reported on, in which Bannon outlines every part of the Big Lie *pre-election*. *Pre-election*. In other words, as Cheney says, Trump "premeditated" lying about election fraud, whether he had any evidence of it or not.

183/ Cheney: "Trump was confident he could persuade his supporters to believe whatever he said, no matter how outlandish, and they could be summoned to Washington to help him remain in office for another term." She underscores Giuliani *admitting* there was no evidence of fraud. . . .

185/ It is clear that Rep. Cheney's statement is intended to be the "Closing Statement" for this entire run of (Summer 2022) hearings. This is a long—and very good—statement.

186/ Cheney: "[Trump] made a purposeful choice to violate his Oath of Office....[how can] he ever be trusted with any position of authority in this great country ever again?"

* * *

The short clip of Josh Hawley haulin' ass out of the building, in fear of the crowd he had riled up with a  raised fist a little earlier, was a bit of levity -- and instantly became a meme.

at

1 comment: