January 6 hearing: Ivanka Trump accepted that the election was not stolen

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Ivanka Trump rejected her father’s claims the 2020 election was stolen and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney claimed she had evidence the ex-president thought his Vice President Mike Pence ‘deserved’ to be hanged, according to videos and testimony from the January 6 committee’s first primetime hearing on Thursday night.

Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr also told the committee during their investigation that he thought his old boss’s ‘fraud’ claims were ‘bulls***’ and his allegations about rigged voting machines were ‘nonsense’ and ‘crazy stuff’.  

Jared Kushner also thought White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s constant threats to resign over fraud claims in the wake of January 6 were just ‘whining’ in one of a series of videos – including interviews and footage of the attack – seen for the first time.

The committee laid out the series of revelations in the public hearing marking that marked 17 months of investigation and more than 1,000 interviews with Trump aides, rioters and officials who they claim were directly or indirectly involved in the riot.

Democrats opened by saying January 6 was the ‘culmination of an attempted coup’, U.S. democracy is in danger and invoked the Ku Klux Klan, slavery and lynching – while Republicans have called the hearings a spectacle produced by a former ABC News executive and a distraction for the scandals engulfing the Biden administration.

Among the revelations, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley on January 6 that he wanted to ‘establish a narrative’ that Trump was still in charge and ‘kill’ the suggestion that Vice President Mike Pence was ‘making all the decisions’.

Cheney said also said there was evidence Trump said Pence ‘deserved to be hanged’, criticized him for watching the riot unfold from the dining room in the White House and said multiple members of her own party -including Rep. Scott Perry – sought pardons for their own role in ‘attempting to overturn the election’. A spokesman for Perry called the claims a ‘laughable, ludicrous, and a thoroughly soulless lie’.

She added that during the hearings the public will hear about Trump cabinet members arguing that the 25th amendment should be used to remove him from office and evidence and that he didn’t call the National Guard on January 6. 

The committee revealed video testimony of rioters claiming Trump summoned them to the Capitol, saw video of staffers fleeing Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office as the attack and unfolded and had a documentarian describe the actions of the Proud Boys. 

There were a series of other revelations in the first hearing, including: 

Trump spokesman Jason Miller claims a data staffer on the campaign told the president he would loseMiller said on Twitter that Cheney failed to show testimony saying Trump disagreed with the analysis Campaign lawyer Alex Cannon testified that by ‘mid-November’ they couldn’t find evidence of fraud  Liz Cheney suggested the White House received reports there were plans for violence ahead of January 6 Bill Barr also called Donald Trump’s claims voting machines were rigged ‘nonsense’ and ‘crazy stuff’ Capitol cop Caroline Edwards, who suffered a brain injury, said rioters called her ‘Nancy Pelosi’s dog’She added that she was involved in ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with the rioters and was knocked unconscious A note from a White House staffer seen by January 6 committee shows them asking Trump to stop riot Video from inside the Capitol shows staffers fleeing from Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s office At the start of his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson said he would not be showing the ‘propaganda’ hearings 

Democrat Bennie Thompson invokes slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching – and introduces Bill Barr’s testimony

Committee Chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, began the hearings by saying: ‘I am from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. 

‘I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021’.

‘We swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,’ he added and said the oath was put to the test.

‘Donald Trump was at the center of that conspiracy. And ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down to the Capitol and subvert American democracy,’ Thompson said.

He also criticized Trump for trying to stop the ‘transfer of power’ by comparing words from Abraham Lincoln saying he would hand over the reins of the U.S. government if he lost the election.

Thompson then turned to testimony from Barr filmed during their investigation where the former attorney general said: ‘I’ve had I had three discussions with the President that I can recall. 

‘One was on November 23. One was on December 1, and one was on December 14, and I’ve been through sort of the give and take of those discussions. And in that context, I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bulls***. 

‘And, you know, I didn’t want to be a part of it. And that’s one of the reasons that went into deciding to leave when I did what I observed. I think it was on December 1, and you know, how can we can’t live in a world where where the incumbent administration stays in power, based on its view, once supported by specific evidence that the election that there was fraud in the election.’ 

Barr also said that he told Trump campaign officials that voter fraud claim against Dominion voting machines was ‘crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that.’

Liz Cheney claims the Trump White House received reports of planned violence ahead of January 6 and claims ex-president thought Pence ‘deserved’ to be hanged

Cheney laid out what the public will hear during the January 6 committee hearings, including claims the White House was aware there was the potential for violence.

‘You will also hear that President Trump met with that group alone for a period of time before White House lawyers and other staff discovered the group was there and rushed to intervene, she said in her opening statement.

‘A little more than an hour after Ms. [Sidney] Powell, Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani, Gen. [Michael] Flynn and the others finally left the White House, President Trump sent the tweet on the screen now, telling people to come to Washington on Jan. 6. ‘Be there,’ he instructed them, ‘will be wild.’ As you will see, this was a pivotal moment, she added.

‘This tweet initiated a chain of events, led to planning for what occurred on January 6 including by the Proud Boys who ultimately led the invasion of the Capitol and the violence on that day.’

She went on to mention the Proud Boys that have been indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in the attack and went against any claims that Trump wasn’t warned about January 6. There is still no evidence that was the case.

‘Although certain former Trump officials have argued they did not anticipate violence on Jan. 6, the evidence suggests otherwise,’ she said. ‘As you will see in our hearings, the White House was receiving specific reports in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including during President Trump’s Ellipse rally, indicating that elements in the crowd were preparing for violence at the Capitol.’

Cheney then described testimony from a witness who said Trump was aware of chants to ‘Hang Mike Pence’. ‘Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence [quote] ‘deserves’ it,’ she said.

Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards says she was called ‘Nancy Pelosi’s dog’, January 6 was the first time her ‘patriotism’ was ‘questioned’ and it was ‘hand-to-hand combat’

Edwards told the committee about the moment she was knocked unconscious during the riot, returned to duty and tried to hold the line as rioters surged forward.

The officer said it was ‘chaos’, admitted she wasn’t trained in combat and the fighting was ‘hand-to-hand’.

She also told the committee about her grandfather, who fought in the Korean War and ‘lived with the rest of his days with bullets and shrapnel in his legs, but never once complained about his sacrifice’.

Edwards suffered a traumatic brain injury and has said she has since suffered fainting spells and labored speech.

‘I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days after. I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain. 

‘I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things. I was an American standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself, how many times, many, many, times, how we had gotten here? 

‘I have been called names before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question. I, who got up every day, no matter how early the hour or how late I got in the night before, to put on my uniform and to protect America symbol of democracy. I, who spent countless hours in the baking sun and freezing snow to make sure that America’s elected officials were able to do their job. I, whose literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends working in,’ Edwards said.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley says Mike Pence wanted to call in law enforcement, not Trump, and describes his phone calls with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows  

In his recorded testimony, Milley told the committee it was Pence who wanted the National Guard to come in and quell the violence on January 6, and then Meadows told him to say it was Trump who wanted backup.

‘Vice President Pence — there were two or three calls with Vice President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that, Milley said in his interview.

‘He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller. ‘Get the military down here, get the guard down here. Put down this situation, et cetera,’ he added, pointing to Pence.

He then went onto describe his phone calls with Meadows that day. ‘He (Meadows) said: We have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect,’ Milley said in his testimony.

‘I immediately interpreted that as politics, politics, politics. Red flag for me, personally. No action. But I remember it distinctly,’ he added 

Republicans say the primetime hearings are a distraction for scandals plaguing the Democrats and the White House – including surging gas prices, crime and inflation

The committee has interviewed more than 1,000 people – including Trump aides and rioters – who they believe were directly or indirectly involved in the Capitol riot 17 months ago.

Republicans have called the primetime hearing, produced by a former ABC News executive James Goldston, a distraction from scandals plaguing the Biden administration and Democrats including inflation, dire polls, gas prices, crime and the situation at the border. 

They also say security failures are also squarely to blame for the riot and have claimed Nancy Pelosi is responsible for those lapses. 

Earlier on Thursday, Trump tore into the actions of the committee in a Truth Social post saying January 6 ‘represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again’.

‘The Unselect Committee didn’t spend one minute studying the reason that people went to Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, far greater than the Fake News Media is willing to report, or that the Unselects are willing to even mention.’

In a second post, he said: ‘It was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a Country that was about to go to HELL…& look at our Country now!’

In the next post he bashes the lawmakers on the committee as ‘political Thugs’ who ‘refused to study and report on the massive amount of irrefutable evidence, much of it recently produced, that shows the 2020 Presidential Election was Rigged and Stolen.’

‘They want NOTHING to do with that topic because they cannot win on the facts,’ Trump said.

He accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser of rejecting an offer from the White House to send military reinforcements into the city that day.

‘The Unselect Committee has now learned that I, as President, suggested & offered up to 20,000 National Guard, or troops, be deployed in D.C. because it was felt that the crowd was going to be very large,’ Trump wrote in his final of three posts.

‘Crazy Nancy Pelosi turned down the offer, she didn’t like the way it looked. Likewise, the Mayor of D.C. Had they taken up the offer, there would have been no January 6th.’

Speaking at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden called January 6 a ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’.

Before a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he said: ‘One of the things that is going to occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th and as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution.

‘I think these guys and women broke the law – tried to turn around the result of an election.

‘And there’s a lot of question of who’s responsible, who’s involved,’ he added. ‘I’m not going to make a judgment on that.

Also on Thursday it was reported that Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos revealed for the first time that she spoke to Vice President Mike Pence about using the 25th Amendment to remove the president and said January 6 was the ‘last straw’ before she resigned ahead of his last day in office.