Primetime Jan. 6 Committee Hearing Focuses On Trump's Inaction During Riot

The House select committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, held a primetime hearing on Thursday (July 21) to detail how former President Donald Trump reacted after a group of his supporters stormed the building during a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, who both resigned following January 6, provided in-person testimony to provide insight into Trump's actions that day.

"For 187 minutes, on January 6, this man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved — not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters or the desperate pleas of those facing down the riot," committee chairman Bennie Thompson said during his opening remarks.

Thompson appeared remotely because he has COVID-19.

Rep. Elaine Luria said that Trump ignored numerous calls from his closest advisors to condemn the violence at the Capitol. Instead, he waited over three hours to urge the rioters to go home.

"Virtually everyone told President Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms," Luria said. "And those on Capitol Hill, and across the nation, begged President Trump to help. But the former president chose not to do what all of these people begged. He refused to tell the mob to leave until 4:17 when he tweeted out a video statement filmed in the Rose Garden."

Luria said President Trump learned that the crowd at the Capitol had turned violent about 15 minutes after his speech at the Ellipse.

"Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack," she said.

After learning about what happened, Trump retreated to the West Wing dining room, where he stayed until just after 4 p.m. During that time, there were no calls in the official log, and no photographs were taken.

While no official calls were logged, President Trump did make several phone calls, though none of them were to law enforcement, national security advisors, or members of his Cabinet.

"We have confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, Vice President Pence's staff, and DC government officials — none of them, not one, heard from President Trump that day. He did not call to issue orders. He did not call to offer assistance," Luria said.

During that time, President Trump did tweet, including one that attacked Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to prevent the election from being certified. Matthews said that the tweet was the "green light" for the rioters to storm the building.

"I remember thinking that this was going to be bad for him to tweet this because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people — telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol and entering the Capitol was okay, that they were justified in their anger," Matthews said. "He should have been telling these people to go home and to leave and to condemn the violence that we were seeing."

Pottinger told the committee that he was on his way to the White House when he saw the tweet and made the decision to resign.

"I was disturbed and worried to see that the President was attacking Vice President Pence for doing his constitutional duty. So, the tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, which was a de-escalation. And that's why I—I, it said earlier that it looked like fuel being poured on the fire."

"That was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign, that that would be my last day at the White House. I simply didn't want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol," he added.

Luria said that Trump only agreed to record a video calling on the rioters to leave after it was clear they would not succeed.

"By that time, although the violence was far from over, law enforcement had started to turn the tide, reinforcements were on the way, and elected officials were in secure locations," Luria said. "The writing was already on the wall: the rioters would not succeed."

She said that when Trump went to the Rose Garden to film a short video for Twitter, he changed the script that was written for him.

"It is no coincidence, then, that President Trump finally gave in and went out to the Rose Garden at 4:03. His staff had prepared a script for him to read. He refused to use it," she said.

She showed a photo of the script, which was marked, "President has read."

The script included the line, "I am asking you to leave the Capitol Hill region NOW and go home in a peaceful way," which Trump did not read. Nick Luna, who served as Trump's personal aide, told investigators that the president was "off the cuff" during the taping of the video.

Matthews told the committee she was disturbed by the video that Trump tweeted out and said it was the reason why she decided to resign.

"I was struck by the fact that he chose to begin the video by pushing the lie that there was a stolen election. And as the video went on, I felt a small sense of relief because he finally told these people to go home, but that was immediately followed up by him saying, 'We love you. You're very special.' And that was disturbing to me because he didn't distinguish between those that peacefully attended his speech earlier that day and those that we watched cause violence at the Capitol," Matthews said.

"Instead, he told the people who we had just watched storm our nation's Capitol with the intent on overthrowing our democracy, violently attack police officers and chant heinous things like 'Hang Mike Pence' — 'We love you, you're very special.' And as a spokesperson for him, I knew that I would be asked to defend that. And to me, his refusal to act and call off the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible. I knew that I would be resigning that evening, and so I finished out the work day, went home and called my loved ones to tell them of my decision, and resigned that evening," she said.

Matthews added that her decision was solidified when President Trump sent out another tweet at 6:01 p.m. ET, which read: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever."

"I thought that January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation's history, and President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion with that tweet, and so it just further cemented my decision to resign," Matthews said.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger blasted Trump for failing to act during his closing remarks.

"Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this: Donald Trump's conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation," he said. "It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonor to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy."

Rep. Thompson said that the committee will reconvene in September.