The seventh public hearing held by the Select Committee of the United States Congress investigating the 6 January Capitol riot was held on Tuesday, 12 July.
The hearing focused on a tweet that was posted by former President Donald Trump a month before the attack, aimed at inciting his supporters who eventually went on to storm the Capitol.
It also described the verbal encounter between two factions in the White House in mid-December. On one side were the pro-Trump lawyers and aides who continued to push the theory of the 2020 election being stolen by the Democrats, and on the other side were those who refused to believe any theory regarding the same due to the lack of evidence.
Here are the three takeaways from the seventh hearing.
The Role of a Tweet
"Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" is what the former president had tweeted on 19 December 2020.
The House Committee went on to detail how that tweet functioned as a war cry for the Trump-supporting mob that rioted at the US Capitol on 6 January. From right-wing commentators to incendiary websites, Trump's tweet was cited to assemble the mob.
For instance, as reported by The New York Times, Matt Bracken, a right-wing commentator, aroused passions in a video clip saying:
"We are going to only be saved by millions of Americans moving to Washington, occupying the entire area, if necessary, storming right into the Capitol. We know the rules of engagement. If you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall."
The committee revealed another tweet, one that was never sent, that suggests that Trump and his team planned the march to the Capitol.
"Making a big speech at 10:00 A.M. January 6 south of the White House. Please arrive early. Massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" the draft tweet read.
Then Congressman Jamie Raskin of the Democratic Party went on to show the video testimony of the founder of a website called "thedonald.win" (now defunct), that de facto functioned like a platform for any and all claims related to the (false) allegations of electoral fraud made by Trump and his team.
“After it was announced that he was going to be there on the sixth to talk, yes, then everything else was kind of shut out, and it was just going to be on the sixth,” Jody Williams, the founder, told the committee.
The committee also showed posts from the website that asked Trump supporters to bring handcuffs and weapons to the 6 January rally.
Infighting in the Oval Office
"At times, there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other. It wasn’t just people sitting around on a couch chitchatting," Derek Lyons, the then White House staff secretary, told the Committee while describing the events of 18 December 2020.
Four days after electors in the states voted in the Electoral College to all but confirm Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, a verbal clash erupted in the White House.
The committee narrated that ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn were pushed by former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone for evidence to back their claims of election fraud.
Cipollone even reportedly called out Powell's "general disregard for the importance of actually backing up what you say with facts."
The screaming match went on for a quite a while, with the panel even showing a text by ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson describing the meeting in the West Wing as "unhinged." You can read all about Hutchinson's bombshell testimony here.
More Witness Tampering
"President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation – a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings," said Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans (along with Adam Kinzinger) who is sitting on the Select Committee.
The committee detailed how one witness, whose identity Cheney declined to reveal, had received a call in the last two weeks from Trump, after the damning hearing of Cassidy Hutchinson was held.
While the witness refused to answer the call, they alerted their lawyer, who alerted the Select Committee.
"Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously," Cheney said, in what appeared to be a direct warning to Trump.
(With inputs from the New York Times and the Washington Post.)
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