Witness: Donald Trump watched the attack on the Capitol from the White House
Brandi Buchman,
Daily Kos Staff
 |
| By Rob Rogers |
This bit of information is something that has been widely
suspected by those who have followed the committee’s investigation closely—and
even by some who have not. Trump’s silence and inaction for 187 minutes on Jan.
6 were palpable as the riot exploded. But precisely what he was doing, who he
spoke to, or what he said in that window remains, for now, a subject of some
mystery.
The implications are unprecedented.
Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, divulged the
firsthand witness testimony on Face the Nation this past
weekend as she fielded questions from host Margaret Brennan about the criminal
culpability of Trump’s abject failure to act that day.
Cheney said on Sunday:
“The committee is obviously going to follow the facts wherever they lead. We’ve made tremendous progress. If you think about, for example, what we know now about what the former president was doing on the 6th while the attack was underway. The committee has firsthand testimony that President Trump was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office, watching on television as the Capitol was assaulted as the violence occurred. We know that that is clearly a supreme dereliction of duty. One of the things that the committee is looking at from the perspective of our legislative purpose is whether we need enhanced penalties for that kind of dereliction of duty. But we’ve certainly never seen anything like that as a nation before.”
During a separate appearance on Sunday
with ABC News, Cheney further illuminated the committee’s
findings. Cheney said a firsthand witness testified that Ivanka Trump, the
former president’s daughter and then senior adviser, pleaded with Trump at
least twice to do something to quell the violence.
Ivanka’s pleas have been reported elsewhere before. In Peril, a book on the Trump administration by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the Washington Post reporters said that Ivanka tried to get Trump to step in no less than three times on Jan. 6.
“Let this thing go. Let it go,” Ivanka
reportedly said.
“We know, as he was sitting there in the
dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with
him to go on television, to tell people to stop,” Cheney said on ABC. “We
know [House GOP] Leader [Kevin] McCarthy was pleading with him to do that.”
McCarthy has admitted openly to calling
Trump on Jan. 6. During the former president’s second impeachment—this time for
incitement of insurrection— Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington
shared McCarthy’s
accounting of his tense phone call with Trump. McCarthy pleaded
with the president to issue a statement that could calm the mob, and Trump
effectively refused, insisting it wasn’t his supporters responsible for the
melee but antifa.
McCarthy has been asked to voluntarily comply with the committee’s requests for his records and testimony. A threat of a formal subpoena looms. So far, just two other lawmakers have been hit with a voluntary compliance request, including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Neither Jordan nor Perry have said they will comply,
queuing up a likely bitter legal showdown between Trump crony legislators and
the probe. Committee chair Bennie Thompson has indicated uncertainty over the
panel’s power to subpoena fellow legislators.
Representatives for Jordan and Perry have
not returned multiple requests for comment.
Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday,
Thompson also reiterated the committee’s findings—and concerns—about the 187
minutes that Trump went silent.
Just before Christmas, the Mississippi Democrat
told The Washington Post that the select committee believes,
based on the records, evidence, and testimony it has obtained thus far, that
Trump may have recorded several videos on Jan. 6 addressing his supporters
before finally releasing a bizarre one-minute clip.
He repeated lies
about the election results in the video and told the rioters,
“Go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Thompson has said that Trump’s many reshoots
of that clip, or one like it, were necessary because he “wouldn’t say the right
thing.”
Thompson told Meet the Press this
Sunday that the committee has already asked the National Archives
to provide investigators with any related videos it might have that have yet to
be remitted.
The anniversary of the attack falls this
week, and with it, plans are underway on Capitol Hill to hold a solemn ceremony
marking the day, including a moment of silence for lives lost. Trump has
announced plans to hold a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
“He’s doing this press conference on the
sixth,” Cheney said on Sunday. “If he makes those same claims [of election
fraud], he’s doing it with the complete understanding of what those claims have
caused in the past.”
The committee’s work meanwhile continues
unabated, with public hearings imminent. More than 300 witnesses have already
testified, and the committee has obtained reams of documents from cooperative
probe targets.
Appearing on CNN on Sunday,
Thompson said the committee would determine “whether or not what occurred on
Jan. 6 was a comedy of errors or a planned effort on the part of certain
individuals.”
Adding to the bevy of
witnesses already called, the committee also plans to haul in state
and local election officials for testimony. They also will take statements from
members of the National Guard. Much confusion and uncertainty still reign over
why assistance to the Capitol was so long delayed.
Democracy came perilously close to being
lost on Jan. 6, Thompson told CNN.
“Before we just run out with a story we
can’t defend, we will get to what we believe is the truth, and that’s the
charge that we have as a committee,” he added.
Thompson also urged that if, in the course
of its probe, committee members unearth evidence that they think “warrants
review or recommendation” to the Justice Department, then they will do just
that.
“We’re not looking for it, but if we find
it, we’ll absolutely make the referral,” Thompson said.
In
an appeal to the Supreme Court, Trump has balked at the committee’s position to
disclose evidence of criminal wrongdoing to the Justice Department if necessary.
The former president alleges the committee is acting outside the scope of its
authority by weighing such referrals and thus has no constitutionally protected
purpose.
Lower courts, however, have said the “mere
prospect that misconduct might be exposed” in the course of an investigation
does not alter the committee’s authority.
Whether the committee issues a criminal
referral for Trump or not, Cheney emphasized a profound need for legislative
review, at the least.
“I think that there are a number, as the
chairman said, of potential criminal statutes at issue here. But I think
there’s absolutely no question that it was a dereliction of duty. I think one
of the things the committee needs to look at as we’re looking at legislative
purpose is whether we need enhanced penalties for that dereliction of duty,”
she said.
Even though Trump is out of office, his
influence in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. is still being felt and has
shown no sign of slowing down. His messaging about voter fraud, for example, has
buoyed the Republican argument against the expansion of voting rights in the
U.S.
In a letter to Senate colleagues on Monday, Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer highlighted this dynamic as the anniversary of
the attempted overthrow approaches.
“It was attacked in a naked attempt to
derail our Republic’s most sacred tradition: the peaceful transfer of power,”
Schumer said.
Considering this and in reflection of a year
that found Republicans rebuffing every bid by Democrats to expand voting rights
legislatively, Schumer announced that the Senate would debate and later vote on
changes to its own filibuster rules by Jan. 17 if Republicans don’t get out of
the way.
“The Senate must advance systemic democracy
reforms to repair our republic, or else the events of that day will not be an
aberration— they will be the new norm. We as Senate Democrats must urge the
public in a variety of different ways to impress upon their Senators the
importance of acting and reforming the Senate rules if that becomes a
prerequisite for action to save our democracy,” Schumer wrote.