Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said in her opening remarks of the first Jan. 6 committee hearing June 9 that former President Donald Trump’s intention as the violence unfolded “was to remain president of the United States, despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election.”
The hearing June 9 was the first of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee in the coming weeks. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.
Cheney added that the committee learned that Trump “oversaw and coordinated” a seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election despite advisors being aware Trump had lost. Despite that, Cheney said, the president embarked on a campaign to spread the lie that the election had been stolen.
“Over a series of hearings in the coming weeks, you will hear testimony, live on video, from more than half a dozen former white house staff in the trump administration. All of whom were in the west wing of the white house on January 6th. You will hear testimony that ‘The president did not really want to put anything out, calling off the riot or asking his supporters to leave.’ You will hear President Trump was yelling and ‘really angry’ at advisers who told him he needed to be doing something more. And aware of the rioters chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea, Mike Pence deserves it.’”
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