After a right-wing mob stormed the Capitol in Washington, a committee of inquiry questioned hundreds of witnesses behind closed doors for more than ten months. In the public session, excerpts from the surveys were shown for the first time – which once again provide disturbing insights into the attempts by then US President Donald Trump to remain in office despite losing the presidential election.
At the first public hearing of the investigative committee on Thursday evening, a video recording of an interview with former US Attorney General William Barr was shown. In it, Barr said he had several conversations with Trump on the subject after the November 2020 presidential election. “I have made it clear that I do not agree with the claims that the election was stolen and the spreading of this stuff that I told the President was bullshit.”
Barr said he had repeatedly told the president in no uncertain terms that he saw no evidence of voter fraud. Even a year and a half later, he sees nothing that would change his mind. He called claims of this kind “crazy”.
The committee also showed the video recording of an interview with Trump’s daughter Ivanka. When asked about Barr’s statements, she said his assessment certainly had an impact on her perspective. You respect Barr. “So I accepted what he said.”
According to one lawmaker, Trump also spoke positively about efforts to hang his Vice President Mike Pence during the storming of the Capitol. This was stated by the deputy chair of the committee on the investigation of the storming of the Capitol, Republican Liz Cheney. Trump was aware of his supporters’ threats against Pence, Cheney said at the first public session of the House of Representatives panel. “The president responded with this assessment, I quote, ‘maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence, I quote, ‘deserves it,'” Cheney said, citing the committee’s investigative findings.
Pence chaired the January 6, 2021 session that confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the victor in Congress. This session is actually a purely formal act. However, incited by Trump, his supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent this confirmation. They also searched the building for Pence, whom they called a traitor and threatened to hang him for failing to prevent Biden’s confirmation. The attack on the heart of US democracy shook the country. Several people were killed in the attack. Trump was facing impeachment for inciting his supporters in a speech before the attack. At the end of the trial he was acquitted.
Vice Chair Liz Cheney during the first public hearing of a committee of inquiry.
(Photo: Andrew Harnik/dpa)
Trump claims to this day without any evidence that he was deprived of victory in the 2020 presidential election by electoral fraud. For weeks he tried to use the most questionable methods to subsequently overturn the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden. On Thursday, just before the committee’s first public hearing, ex-President Trump described the storming of the Capitol as the “biggest movement in our country’s history.” That reports the news agency AFP.
Democratic committee chair Bennie Thompson said the panel will remind American society at public hearings in the coming weeks what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. But it’s about much more than just looking back. “Because our democracy is still in danger.” The conspiracy against the will of the people is not over yet.