Thursday’s hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol focused on the day of the riot itself, zeroing in on former President Trump’s inaction as a mob of his supporters descended on the Capitol and put lawmakers and law enforcement in danger.
via: Business Insider
A series of video clips shown by House committee investigating the Capitol riot gave shocking insight into former President Donald Trump’s behavior behind the scenes.
The video from January 7 last year — around 24 hours after rioters swarmed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the election — was played during the January 6 panel’s eighth public hearing on Thursday.
President Trump on January 7th: "This election is now over. Congress has certified the results — I don't want to say the election's over."#January6thHearing pic.twitter.com/tZ5urGjsZZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 22, 2022
In the video, Trump was seen taking more than 10 seconds after being cued to adjust his posture and facial expression, before beginning with his statement: “I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday.”
However, this was but one of multiple takes Trump went through to record his nationwide address. Right after the first pause, Trump appeared to signal for a do-over.
In the second video shown by the panel, Trump stopped in the middle of recording after appearing to struggle with disavowing the violence during the riot.
“You can’t say that,” Trump remarked, highlighting the phrase “you broke the law,” which was presumably displayed on the teleprompter at the time.
“I’m not gonna — I already said ‘you will pay,'” he said in the clip.
In another video, the former president was seen banging on the podium in frustration after failing to say the word “defiled.”
“Demonstraters who infiltrated the Capitol — have defied the seat — it’s defiled, right?” Trump said. “See, I can’t see it very well. Ok. I’ll do this! I’m gonna do this. Let’s go.”
In the fourth clip played by the panel, Trump paused partway through his address and began debating the language with his daughter Ivanka. He refused to say four words suggested by aides: “The election is over.”
Trump read off the teleprompter: “But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results.”
He then paused and backpedaled.
“I don’t want to say the election is over,” Trump said. “I just want to say Congress certified the results announcing the election is over, OK?”
His daughter Ivanka was then heard prompting him: “But, Congress has certified…”
“Now — I didn’t say over — Go to the paragraph before,” Trump said.
The panel’s fifth video clip showed Trump flapping his arms and puffing up his chest. This time, however, he stumbled on the word “yesterday.”
“I wanna begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday,” Trump said, before stopping again.
“Yesterday’s a hard word for me,” he commented.
“Just take it out,” Ivanka said.
“Good, take the word ‘yesterday’ out. Cause, it doesn’t work with — the heinous attack — on our country. Say, ‘on our country.’ Wanna say that?” he said.
“No, keep it,” Ivanka said in the video.
In the committee’s sixth clip, Trump grimaced while attempting to make it through a line stating that his goal was to “ensure the integrity of the vote.” And in the following video, he slammed the podium in frustration after failing to get through the same line again.
The former President eventually did make it through the entire speech, which ended up being a two-and-a-half minute address.
The panel also showed two clips of Trump struggling to make it through a speech in the Rose Garden on January 6. According to testimonies from former Trump staffers, Trump had gone off-script when he called the Capitol protesters “very special” while asking them to “go home.”
Never-before-seen raw footage of Trump recording his message in the Rose Garden. pic.twitter.com/yDZsQ3zZfM
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) July 22, 2022
