During its hearing on Thursday night, the House Jan. 6 Committee will present clips of then-President Donald Trump having a hard time sticking to the script while taping his address on Jan. 7 decrying the Capitol insurrection.
Committee members Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) confirmed in separate interviews on CNN on Wednesday night that the panel will play outtakes of the video that will reveal how reluctant Trump was to hold the insurrectionists accountable for the violence.
“The President displayed extreme difficulty in completing his remarks,” Raskin said. “It’s extremely revealing how exactly he went about making those statements, and we’re going to let everybody see parts of that.”
Schiff said the outtakes will reveal “all of those who are urging him to say something to do something to stop the violence.”
“You’ll hear the terrible lack of a response from the President, and you’ll hear more about how he was ultimately prevailed upon to say something and what he was willing to say and what he wasn’t,” Schiff added.
CNN and the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the outtakes show that Trump tried to call the insurrectionists “patriots” and refused to admit the election he’d tried so hard to undo was over.
In the address that got released, Trump said he was “outraged” by the “heinous attack” on the Capitol.
“The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy,” he said. “To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.”
That fiery rhetoric against the insurrectionists has been nowhere in sight since Trump left office. On the contrary, the ex-president has tried to whitewash the entire attack and paint the insurrectionists as “great people” who are now “being persecuted so unfairly” by prosecutors.
And although Trump’s then-staff reportedly managed to convince him not to praise the insurrectionists as “patriots” when he was filming the address on Jan. 7, he’s since freely called them exactly that: Patriots.
It’s going to be a great night of viewing and promises to show the nation once and for all what an absolute low-life tfg is (sadly, about 40% of our country loves that about him).
Although it’s the last scheduled televised hearing I hope and think there will at least be one more in the future. The committee has done a fantastic job of showing the planning and intent that went into the J6 insurrection.
ETA - it’s not just tfg being exposed by these hearings, it’s the republican cult which fostered and condoned his behavior in office.
Proud Boys are to Patriots as Donald Trump is to ______________
“a decent human being” would be one acceptable answer.
This was the hostage video, right? I’m just wanting to see people waving hamberders and diet coke at the performing seal (walrus?) to make him perform…
And no one is exposing anyone, everyone knows the GQP went along with TMFWWNBN to get tax breaks for the rich, deregulation and the Taliban SCOTUS majority. With apologies to the Taliban.
He struggled because they ask him to tell the truth.
He had to ask what truth meant.
It will be interesting to see how opinions shift on Trump after this. His hardcore supporters won’t change, but if he really comes off as in favor of them sacking the Capitol I think he loses a lot more support than he already has. I just don’t see most Americans watching the president refuse to take action when the Capitol is under attack and being fine with it. And, if polling shows people turn on Trump, Republicans will turn on him too…then the question will be if enough turn that he can’t win in the primary with just his true believers.
The investigation will continue after this, I suspect at some point someone involved in the SS coverup is going to come forward and explain what really happened. It’s obvious some of the SS were turned and became Trump minions, instead of being public servants, and that’s just a dangerous place.