Donald Trump

2022 - 7 - 21

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Image courtesy of "Missouri Independent"

Billy Long's chances in Missouri GOP Senate primary depend on ... (Missouri Independent)

U.S. Rep. Billy Long is running for U.S. Senate in Missouri, but he is hoping for former President Donald Trump's help.

And he accuses Hartzler of “voting like a RINO,” a Republican in name only, until she launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate. “He’s Liz Cheney’s attorney on the January 6 committee, and if he follows through and runs, no Republican can win this seat.” “But I guaranteed to voters that I would be the part, that I would do the right thing for the right reason every day. He talks about securing the border, specifically finishing Trump’s border wall and reinstating the “remain in Mexico” policy. “And you can put that in the newspaper. He cruised to victory that fall, joining a massive class of freshmen Republicans who swept into office in the Tea Party wave. When most considered Trump’s candidacy a joke or publicity stunt, Long said, he was all in, touting Trump to foreign leaders and GOP insiders who snickered at the notion that the real estate mogul and reality TV star would be the next president. “You know, it looks to me like it’s going to be Sen. Eric, either Greitens or Schmitt,” Long said. “My phone lights up and it’s Donald Trump. I pick it up and say ‘Yes, Mr. President.’ I’m sure the store manager was like, “Call 911. “This is a typical Billy Long story. “When Eric Schmitt polls, he’s the leader,” Long said. And to be an auctioneer and real estate broker, you got to be upbeat, positive, optimistic.”

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Here's proof that Donald Trump didn't get it on January 6 | CNN Politics (CNN)

Hours after rioters overran the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump released a video message to them.

But we now know that wasn't the speech he initially wanted to give. Trump refused to say the election results had been settled and attempted to call the rioters patriots. Turns out, Trump wasn't sorry about the tone of his remarks that day.

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Analysis: Trump's infamous obsession with TV helped define Jan. 6 ... (NPR)

Donald Trump's TV fixation led him to the White House. The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will show that ...

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Trump had 'extreme difficulty' with his speech on the day after ... (CNN)

The House committee investigating the insurrection plans to show footage at Thursday's hearing of then-President Donald Trump having difficulty working ...

from the depositions that will be aired as part of the hearing. The California Democrat said the outtakes will show "all of those who are urging him to say something to do something to stop the violence. by The Washington Post, were part of production of a speech Trump gave the night after the riot.

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House panel to play outtakes of Donald Trump struggling with post ... (Washington Times)

The House Jan. 6 committee plans to show late Thursday outtakes of former President Donald Trump struggling to complete a recorded speech to the nation on ...

Mr. Trump says the committee is a witch hunt designed to blunt his political fortunes. Advisers urged Mr. Trump to make the speech, but it did not go well. Reps. Elaine Luria, Virginia Democrat, and Adam Kinzinger, Illinois Republican, are expected to outline, minute by minute, Mr. Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol riot. The Jan. 6 committee is holding a prime-time session Thursday to conclude its summer series of blockbuster hearings. The House Jan. 6 committee plans to show late Thursday outtakes of former President Donald Trump struggling to complete a recorded speech to the nation on the day after the U.S. Capitol riot. He wanted to call the Capitol rioters patriots, did not want to hold them to account and refused to say the election was over, according to The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the footage.

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Jan. 6 Panel Probes Donald Trump's 187 Minutes as Capitol ... (WTTW News)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee aims to show in what could be its final hearing Thursday night that Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election ...

The panel is expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and even Cabinet members who resigned after Trump failed to call off the attack. The hearing will show never-before-seen outtakes of a Jan. 7 video that White House aides pleaded for Trump to make as a message of national healing for the country. The panel has said its investigation is ongoing and other hearings are possible. Trump has dismissed the hearings on social media and regarded much of the testimony as fake. “We have to get this right,” Garland said. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and will attend by video. So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment. Trump reluctantly condemned the riot in a three-minute speech that night. The prime-time hearing will dive into the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas from aides, allies and even his family. He did not call his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security,” Cheney said. “He did not call the military.

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Tonight's January 6 Hearing Will Show Donald Trump Lapping Up ... (Vanity Fair)

The evidence will make it clear that the attack was “exactly” what Trump “wanted to have happen,” one committee member says.

Representative Adam Schiff, another member of the panel, told CNN on Wednesday that the outtakes “will be significant in terms of what the president was willing to say and what he wasn’t willing to say.” The clips, he said, will show “all of those who are urging him to say something to do something to stop the violence. “And after all of this, I’m convinced that this is exactly what he wanted to have happen.” In other evidence of presidential inaction, the committee is expected to hone in on Trump waiting until 4:17 p.m. to tell his supporters to leave—in a video address in which he told them, “We love you. Or was it exactly what he wanted to have happened?’” Representative Elaine Luria told the Post this week. Instead, it reportedly took an hour for his team to come up with something usable, as Trump “resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over,” according to people familiar with the matter. Thus far, those hearings have included new granular details of things we already knew—like that Trump and his cronies pressured state officials to throw out the election results—and stunning revelations about things we didn‘t—like that the president of the United States allegedly knowingly sent armed supporters to the Capitol and attempted to physically assault a Secret Service agent when he was told he couldn’t join the mob.

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January 6 panel to show Trump violated law by refusing to stop ... (The Guardian)

The committee will demonstrate the ex-president was 'derelict in his duty' to protect the US Congress as supporters mobbed building.

Meanwhile, Cipollone told top aides that Trump might have legal liability, the sources said. Or he could have sent a tweet trying to stop the violence far earlier than he actually did, during the 187-minute duration of the Capitol attack. “But Mike Pence did each of those things.”

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Illinois congressman leads “final” January 6th Committee hearing ... (KPLC)

Kinzinger and panel expected to reveal what Trump was doing as the Capitol attack unfolded.

A public part of this investigation.” WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - In the past six hearings, the American people have learned what led up to January 6th. “What was he not doing in trying to stop what was unfolding at the Capitol,” said Molly Reynolds, a Senior Fellow for the Brookings Institution.

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If Trump was 'Joe Blow from Kokomo,' he would have been charged ... (CNBC)

Pomerantz and another prosecutor resigned over the decision by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. not to seek a grand jury indictment of Trump for the ...

"And there wasn't a reasonable expectation that the facts were going to change in any big way in the foreseeable future. Of course, we could have lost the case. "Now, inevitably, that leads to the question, well, what's going to change? You know, could we have lost the case? "That's ridiculous. "We were told the investigation would continue. That criminal case is pending and the defendants have pleaded not guilty. "We weren't told the case would be closed," Pomerantz said on the podcast. Was there a reasonable likelihood that things would change?" So I agreed to get involved and then went to work," he said. Vance in January 2021 enlisted Pomerantz, who at the time was retired from private legal practice, to work on the probe. Trump's attorney, Ronald Fischetti, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

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Jan. 6 panel prepares to reveal how Trump sat on his hands during ... (Politico)

The Jan. 6 select committee will take on a tall order Thursday night: Trying to prove not just that Donald Trump delayed calling off the violent Capitol mob ...

The panel is also likely to turn the lens on the post-Jan. 6 period in the White House, when a still defiant Trump continued to consider ways to overturn the election. Aides have testified about his communications with Trump during the riot. But rather than contact security agencies or military leaders, Trump called allies in his quest to overturn the election. Several aides, including Cipollone, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s executive assistant Molly Michael and national security adviser Keith Kellogg confirmed to the panel that Trump was watching news coverage of the riot as it unfolded. Rioters had already breached police lines when Trump pressed a crowd — which he knew included armed supporters, according to at least one witness — to descend on Congress as former then-Vice President Mike Pence oversaw the certification of Biden’s election. Thursday night’s hearing was supposed to be an explosive finale for the select panel.

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Ex-Prosecutor Says Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Jr. Donald Thought ... (Daily Beast)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. decided it was too risky to indict former President Donald Trump and was hung up on the idea he might lose the ...

“And I was utterly convinced that if the defendant had not been Donald Trump or the putative defendant, if it had been Joe Blow from Kokomo, we would have indicted without a big debate.” “I think it was a case that should have been brought. And a main witness, former Trump consigliere Michael Cohen, has stated emphatically that he is no longer willing to testify in the case due to Bragg’s timidity. It was very easy to do that under federal law, but, of course, we weren’t sitting as federal prosecutors,” Pomerantz told the Columbia law professor. “The devil was really in the details, and the details couldn’t be explained in kind of short form… The evidence, Pomerantz admits, was complicated and far-reaching.

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Illinois congressman leads “final” January 6th Committee hearing ... (FOX 8 Live WVUE)

Kinzinger and panel expected to reveal what Trump was doing as the Capitol attack unfolded.

A public part of this investigation.” WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - In the past six hearings, the American people have learned what led up to January 6th. “What was he not doing in trying to stop what was unfolding at the Capitol,” said Molly Reynolds, a Senior Fellow for the Brookings Institution.

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Watch live: Jan. 6 hearing to focus on what Donald Trump was doing ... (Chicago Tribune)

The House Jan. 6 committee is headed back to prime time for its eighth hearing — potentially the final time this summer that lawmakers will lay out evidence ...

Among the questions the committee may leave unanswered: Will the committee call Trump to testify? If Republicans take control of the House in November’s midterm elections, they are expected to shut down the committee. The Justice Department has asked the committee for some of its interview transcripts. Two former White House aides who resigned immediately after the insurrection will testify at the hearing. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is one of two members leading the hearing, said he expects it will “open people’s eyes in a big way.” The committee has tried to fill in that gap with witness interviews and other sources, such as subpoenaing private phone records.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Jan 6 hearing live updates: panel to show Trump broke the law by ... (The Guardian)

House committee will hold its final scheduled hearing, making the case Donald Trump may have violated the law by not stopping Capitol attack.

The proportion of Republicans who think Trump shouldn’t stand for office again also increased, to 32 percent from 26 percent in early June. Forty percent of Republicans say Trump was at least partly to blame for the attack, an increase of about seven percentage points from before the hearings. Or he could have sent a tweet trying to stop the violence far earlier than he actually did, during the 187-minute duration of the Capitol attack. Today’s rulings indicates the special grand jury will continue to remain one potential avenue for allies of the former president, or perhaps Trump himself, to face criminal charges over his meddling in the 2020 election. “Donald Trump ignored and disregarded the desperate pleas of his own family, including Ivanka and Don Jr,” Thompson said. Photographers gathered beneath the dais to take close-up shots of the witnesses. During a previously aired clip of tesimony he gave, he said he decided to quit after seeing a Trump tweet saying that Mike Pence should have had more courage. Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack.” Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful, and those continue. “In the course of these hearings, we have received new evidence and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward. Pottinger resigned as deputy national security adviser in response the January 6, the highest-ranking White House official (other than cabinet secretaries) to do so. She resigned, saying she was “was deeply disturbed by what I saw” on January 6.

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Trump 'chose not to act,' Sen. Hawley 'riled up' the crowd, then fled ... (USA TODAY)

Watching Fox News: The in-person and videotaped testimony detailed what President Trump was doing during the height of the Jan. 6 violence, and witnesses said ...

Said the report: "The House January 6th Select Committee hearings have presented powerful, compelling evidence that former President Donald Trump led a criminal conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election." Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former national security advisor, and Molly Michael, former executive assistant to the president, both told the committee that Trump was watching television as the Capitol came under assault. Committee members are expected to zero in on the 187 minutes between Trump’s speech that morning and his tweet for rioters to go home. “In the course of these hearings, we’ve received new evidence, and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward,” Cheney said. The White House photographer wanted to take pictures for historical purposes but was not allowed, she said. "We have confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, VP Pence’s staff, and D.C. government officials: None of them heard from President Trump during the attack on the Capitol," the committee statement said. He added: “White House Counsel's Office wanted there to be a strong statement out to condemn the rioters' violence. “We have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions. “The nature of his response, without recalling exactly, was that he, you know, people were doing all they could,” Cipollone said in his interview. Schumer said Capitol Police believed it would take several days to secure the building, and he asked Miller if he agreed with that analysis. The last tweet that Trump sent on Jan. 6 at 6:01 pm said: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously, viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. One national security aide, who was kept anonymous by the panel, said if the former president had been allowed join the rioters it would have turned into a “insurrection, coup"

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Image courtesy of "Bloomberg"

Trump Spurned Aides' Pleas to Quell Jan. 6 Rioting, Panel Told (Bloomberg)

“President Trump did not fail to act,” Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said. “He chose not to act.” The ...

PolitiFact - No, Trump didn't speak in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on ... (PolitiFact)

What looks like a speech given by Donald Trump in Arizona on July 18 has been viewed more than 16000 times on Facebook.

His July 16 event there was rescheduled for July 22. No, Trump didn’t speak in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on July 18, 2022 No, Trump didn’t speak in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on July 18, 2022

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Pence seeks distance from Trump as he considers 2024 presidential ... (The Washington Post)

As the Jan. 6 committee focuses on Pence's role in certifying Biden's win, the former vice president is making moves toward a campaign for the White House ...

But he is unlikely to participate directly in any of the Jan. 6 hearings, and he remains reticent to criticize Trump publicly. Pence’s chief of staff said he warned the Secret Service that the president’s rhetoric would put Pence in danger, and the vice president was forced to flee the Senate chamber seconds ahead of rioters, egged on by the chant, “Hang Mike Pence.” The two men have not spoken in more than a year, and Pence has resisted entreaties to meet with Trump at one of his clubs, people close to him say. They had come to view the bargain he struck with Trump as a profitable one, yielding three conservative Supreme Court justices and four years of mostly conservative governance. Pence’s team has watched closely as polls have shown Trump’s hold on the party waning, with more Republicans looking for other candidates and fewer Republicans supporting a 2024 run by the former president. Nonetheless, should Pence run, his advisers say he would be prepared to criticize Trump and differentiate himself from the man he faithfully served in key moments. In one, Pence’s team argued that abortion was harmful because access resulted in increased sexual activity out of wedlock, resulting in more children “born into homes with more limited resources than if a sexual ethics of commitment and exclusivity were the norm.” Advisers say he plans to get involved in state abortion fights. To watch Pence on the campaign trail today, as a yet unannounced candidate, is to witness a throwback to an earlier time in Republican politics — broadly saccharin, full of homages to Ronald Reagan and attempts at small-town humor. It is a delicate dance, dependent on not directly picking a fight with the still reigning personality-in-chief, who has in recent months shown more than a bit of ambivalence toward his former running mate. He and Trump are both scheduled to travel Friday to Arizona to rally for rival gubernatorial candidates, after Pence’s pick for Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, soundly defeated Trump’s favored candidate in May. And next week, both men return to Washington for separate policy addresses about the post-2024 Republican agenda at two dueling think tanks. It’s a space that has attracted praise from a passel of conservative activists like Gingrich, but there is little evidence of broad appeal among Republican voters and most GOP election strategists see him as a long shot for the nomination. A six-term congressman and former governor of Indiana, Pence spent nearly five years as Trump’s obsequious sidekick — a quiet badge of conservative credibility next to the volatile political newcomer, always ready with a display of fealty or a look of solemn assent.

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Image courtesy of "Arizona Mirror"

Donald Trump and Mike Pence will hold dueling campaign events in ... (Arizona Mirror)

Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence will hold dueling events in Arizona on Friday, each supporting a different Republican ...

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January 6th Committee Shows How Donald Trump Resisted Action ... (Deadline)

UPDATE: The committee played never-seen video outtakes of Donald Trump's speech the day after the Capitol siege, as Trump, after much delay, admitted that ...

They will try to f— his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.” Trump’s son told the committee that “go to the mattresses’ was a Godfather reference. “He refused to do what every president must.” She was working with a team of photographers who were taking shots of White House renovations. “If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave,” one officer was heard saying. They were among the administration officials who resigned in protest on January 6th. An unnamed witness, described as a White House employee with national security responsibilities, told the committee that there was a “heated discussion” between the president and his security detail. We have to establish the narrative that the president is still in charge.” But then they showed another clip of Hawley running out of the Senate chamber as the mob approached. He chose not to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) at the start of the hearing. I just want to say Congress has certified he’d results without saying the election is over, okay,” Trump said. VP may be stuck at the Capitol.” Congress has certified the results — I don't want to say the election's over."

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Why Donald Trump can't be prosecuted for 'dereliction of duty' for his ... (The Conversation AU)

With the exception of a few states, dereliction of a duty is mostly used in military law and does not apply to citizens, including US presidents.

A more precise way to consider the legality of President Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 is to determine whether he wanted the rioters to commit a criminal act and engaged in some speech or behavior that urged them to do so or assisted them in some way. Given that most people believe dereliction of duty is a failure to take action that is legally required, the phrase can be used in this context to summarize a broader behavior and offer a way to cast blame. The House committee investigating President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 may find that he did not fulfill his duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” a requirement of each president, detailed in Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution. Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, didn’t use “dereliction of duty,” but he detailed Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes between the time the president ended his speech at the rally near the White House at 1:10 p.m. and when he asked the rioters to leave in a video taped message from the Rose Garden at 4:17 p.m. The justification for using that term is that Trump encouraged attendees at a rally to march on the Capitol and then failed to do anything to stop the violence once they had invaded the U.S. Capitol building, despite the pleas of his staff, political leaders and his family to do so. “But he refused to do anything…It was a dereliction of duty.”

Donald Trump refused to say he lost the election in a video on Jan. 6. (Deseret News)

Outtakes shown to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 showed Trump wrestling with his wording after ignoring pleas to call off the attack.

“The dam has begun to break,” Cheney said.. “I am asking you to leave the Capitol Hill region NOW and go home in a peaceful way,” the prepared remarks obtained by the committee read. “Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened,” she said. “We had an election that was stolen from us. “It appears that individuals are storming the U.S. Capitol building,” former White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere recalled saying in a taped interview shown by the committee. “I know your pain, I know your hurt,” Trump said in an outtake. It was stolen from us. “If you broke the law... “We have far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather.” White House staff prepared remarks for Trump to deliver in his taped Rose Garden address, but he didn’t stick to it. “They also appear to be supporters of Donald Trump who may have been in attendance at the rally [at the Ellipse]. We’re going to need to say something.” “To those who broke the law, you will pay,” Trump said in an outtake.

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

Trump 'chose not to act' as mob terrorized the Capitol, panel shows (The Washington Post)

Eleven minutes after he returned to the White House from his speech on the Ellipse urging supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump ...

“So the tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, which was a de-escalation.” “I don’t want to say the election’s over,” Trump said, as Ivanka coached him on his words. Five people died on that day or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election’s over.” Congressional hearings: The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has conducted a series of hearings to share its findings with the U.S. public. On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the probe dealt with a fundamental challenge to American democracy. Matthews said she was told by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany that Trump agreed to use the word only after Ivanka Trump intervened. A security professional working at the White House told the committee that there were mentions over the radio of “saying goodbye to family members” as the Capitol was breached, then overrun. “And there was a heated discussion about that.” “He chose not to act.” “I got the sense that they were scared.” “He told me it was getting really ugly over at the Capitol and said, ‘Please, you know, anything you can do to help, I would appreciate it,’ ” Kushner recalled.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

The January 6 panel put on a gripping 'finale' full of damning details ... (The Guardian)

Whereas the first seven hearings set out unforgivingly what Trump had done, this one told a gripping story about what he did not do.

The answer was Republican Senator Josh Hawley. The big screen showed a photo of him with fist raised in support of the insurrectionists earlier on January 6 – haughty, preening, self-satisfied – and cut to a video of Hawley running for his life from the rioters as if auditioning for Chariots of Fire. Priceless. He is responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6.” Thompson and Cheney announced that more evidence is being gathered and hearings will resume in September. Will this be a sequel that lives up to expectations, like The Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2 or Top Gun: Maverick? Or will it be Jaws 2? It is a dishonour to all those who have sacrificed and died in the service of our democracy.” A photo of Trump in the Oval Office had the caption: “Minute 11.” At 2.24pm, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election in his favour. But it was another brilliant piece of choreography, guaranteed to provide fodder to late-night TV hosts and go viral on social media. And from outtakes on 7 January there was the defining image of Trump struggling to read a teleprompter, stumbling over simple words such as “yesterday”, and especially those that acknowledged he was a loser, and banging the presidential lectern like a frustrated child. If the president wanted to address people, he could have done so.” For whatever reason on the ground the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.” And the presidential photographer was told “no photographs”. Whereas the first seven hearings set out unforgivingly what Trump had done, this one told a gripping story about what he did not do, for 187 minutes on 6 January 2021.

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Image courtesy of "NPR"

Jan. 6 panel sheds light on the 187 minutes Trump went dark during ... (NPR)

The hearing detailed what former President Donald Trump did and did not do in the hours after his Ellipse speech and before he tweeted a video asking his ...

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The damning case against Trump that the House committee has ... (CNN)

(CNN) Stay tuned. Season two is coming. The prime-time finale of the compelling and highly produced television saga otherwise known as the House January 6 ...

You have to get people ready for something as unusual as the prosecution of a former President." What message will it send to future generations if Trump escapes political and criminal accountability for trying to incite a coup against the US government that he was sworn to protect? Some seasoned lawyers believe that the committee has indeed established evidence of intent by Trump to precipitate the horrendous events leading up to and on January 6 -- an important component to any court case. Then there is the question of whether a potential prosecution of Trump, as a former President, would be in the national interest -- since it could potentially rip even deeper partisan divides in an already internally estranged nation. The panel is able to select snippets of information most advantageous to its case. On Thursday, the committee played footage from Fox showing the carnage that Trump watched in real time. But that may only have opened a spigot to more testimony and evidence. The committee enlisted experienced TV producers to shape its hearings -- two of which unfolded on prime time. And he further incited the crowd with a tweet. It has also embroidered a broader narrative of an out-of-control President who put his own fantastical belief he won an election above more than two centuries of democratic tradition and the national interest. - According to witness testimony, Trump thought Pence, rushed to safety by the Secret Service as the rioters invaded, deserved the calls for him to be hanged. A committee witness, whose identity was obscured, testified in a recording on Thursday that members of Pence's detail genuinely feared that they would be killed.

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Image courtesy of "Newsweek"

Donald Trump Fought Over Saying 'Election Is Over,' Jan. 6 Hearing ... (Newsweek)

"I just want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election is over, OK?" Trump said during a video recording session on January 7, ...

"The tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment," said Pottinger. "It looked like fuel being poured on the fire. "I remember thinking that this was gonna be bad for him to tweet this because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people." "You have to conform with the law, no matter how bitter the result," Pottinger testified. "I don't want to say the election is over. "To those who broke the law, you will pay. Outtakes of video that Trump made the day after his supporters ransacked the Capitol, on January 7, 2021, were shown during a primetime hearing of the committee on Thursday night.

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Image courtesy of "Financial Times"

'Star of the show': how Liz Cheney led the charge against Donald ... (Financial Times)

Vice-chair of January 6 committee has played crucial role in denting support for the former US president.

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Image courtesy of "The New Yorker"

Liz Cheney's Revenge on Donald Trump—and Her Own Party (The New Yorker)

Donald Trump projected on a large screen. The real villain of the hearing on Thursday night, as in all the others, was the former President.Photograph by Al ...

I’ll leave the final word, though, to Cheney, who as a direct consequence of her insistence on not shutting up about Trump and the tragedy of January 6th will likely lose her House seat in Wyoming’s Republican primary next month, before the House committee convenes again, in September. “We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation,” Cheney said. Of course, the hearing started out with a built-in problem: we already knew that Trump did not do a damn thing to stop the attack on January 6th, and that he had, in fact, incited and encouraged it. “The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies,” Cheney pointed out, but it came instead in the form of “confessions” by his own team. The committee brought two members of that team into the hearing room in person—Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s former deputy national-security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, his former White House deputy press secretary—to testify how they were so disgusted by the President’s refusal to take action on January 6th that they quit in protest that same afternoon. On Thursday night, the House select committee charged with investigating January 6th concluded a two-month run of blockbuster hearings with a searing, minute-by-minute account of what Trump did—and didn’t do—in the dining room that awful afternoon. It was also where Trump, on January 6, 2021, remained holed up for a hundred and eighty-seven minutes, as his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol until he finally, reluctantly, released a video urging them to go home and telling them he loved them.

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Image courtesy of "Axios"

Cheney: "Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office" (Axios)

Why it matters: Cheney's closing remarks come after a primetime hearing during which committee members tied Trump's actions to the violence that day — and his ...

Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office," Cheney said. We have much work yet to do, and will see you all again in September," Cheney said. - "The case made against him is not made by his political enemies. Driving the news: "In our hearing tonight, you saw an American president faced with a stark and unmistakable choice between right and wrong. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said her work on the Jan. 6 committee is "the most important thing" she's done in her career, according to a new interview with the New York Times. Cheney: "Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office"

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