January 6th Committee Holds Last Public Hearing Before The Midterms

The House select committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, held its ninth and final public hearing before the midterm elections.

Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said the hearing is a "formal committee business meeting," allowing lawmakers to "potentially hold a committee vote on further investigative action."

According to NBC News, the committee is expected to vote on issuing a subpoena to former President Donald Trump.

During his opening remarks, Thompson said the hearing would focus on former "President Trump's state of mind, about his motivation and about his intent."

"Donald Trump knew he lost. Despite this knowledge, Donald Trump went to court to contest the 2020 election, and he lost in court," Thompson said. "The Electoral College met and declared Joe Biden, the winner. Yet Donald Trump continued to pull out all the stops in his attempt to stay in power."

Committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney said that Trump had plans to dispute the results of the election long before election day.

"Trump had a premeditated plan to declare that the election was fraudulent and stolen before Election Day. Before he knew the election results, he made his stolen election claims," Cheney said during her opening remarks. "Then over the next two months, he south to find those who would help him invent and spread lies about widespread fraud."

The committee said that Trump knew he lost the election but continued to push the false narrative that the election was stolen. Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria said that Trump "maliciously repeated this nonsense to a wide audience, over and over again. His intent was to deceive."

"This happened over and over again," Luria said. "Purposeful lies, made in public, directly at odds with what Donald Trump knew from unassailable sources."

The committee also revealed evidence showing that the Secret Service knew members of the crowd at the Capitol were armed and knew about threats made against Vice President Mike Pence.

"On the morning of the 6th, agents received alerts of online threats that Vice President Pence would be, quote, 'a dead man walking if he doesn't do the right thing,'" Rep. Adam Schiff said. "By the time [Trump] incited that angry mob to march on the Capitol, he knew they were armed and dangerous. All the better to stop the peaceful transfer of power."

At the end of the hearing, the committed voted unanimously to issue a subpoena to Trump.

"It is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony," Thompson said. "There is precedent in American history for Congress to compel the testimony of a president. There is also precedent for presidents to provide testimony and documentary evidence to congressional investigators."

You can watch the full hearing below.