The second day of public hearings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was held Monday, and focused on attacking then-President Donald Trump for questioning the 2020 election results.
The goal was a to argue that Trump inspired those who stormed the Capitol by convincing them that the election had been “stolen” and that they had to prevent an illegitimate president from being installed by stopping the certification of the result.
The panel played video depositions of various individuals who had testified before the committee behind closed doors — on pain of prosecution for contempt of Congress — about their disagreement with Trump about the legitimacy of the election.
Notable testimonies included those of former presidential adviser Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law); former Attorney General Bill Barr (whom the Democrat-run House had already voted to hold in contempt over his refusal to hand over grand jury documents in the “Russia collusion” investigation); and — speaking live — former Fox News reporter Chris Stirewalt. News interviews with Trump aides, such as former New York City mayor (and Trump later) Rudy Giluiani, were played.
Former campaign manager Bill Stepien was unable to testify due to the fact that his wife had gone into labor; video of his taped deposition was played instead.
The theme was the same throughout: Trump seized on theories that votes had been switched or that there had been massive voter fraud; individuals close to Trump were said to have counseled him against pursuing those theories; and individuals on camera during the January 6 event cited similar theories as their motivations.
No evidence was presented linking Trump directly to the Capitol riot, however, nor was any evidence presented in Trump’s defense.
The committee did not consider past Democratic efforts to oppose the certification of elections; the Democrats’ pursuit of the “Russia collusion” theory to undermine the 2016 election; and Democrats’ own preparations to challenge the results in 2020.
The committee is entirely one-sided, with members hand-picked by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who rejected Republican nominees.
Members of the panel include several former House impeachment managers, including Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led the first and second impeachments of Trump, respectively.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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