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Guns in America: Black and Latino community members speak out on Buffalo, Uvalde mass shootings

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, have bound in tragedy and trauma two communities of color – one Black, one Latino. Now, members of those communities are exploring potential paths forward to healing and reform.

In the ABC News Live special “Guns in America: From Buffalo to Uvalde” ABC News contributor María Elena Salinas spoke to those suffering as they work to recover after the shootings that took 31 lives just 10 days apart.

Vincent Salazar’s only granddaughter, Layla Salazar, 11, was killed in the May 24 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with 18 of her classmates and two teachers. He and the families and friends of other victims are devastated by the loss of their loved ones.

“The fact that my child, my granddaughter, was killed the way she was killed is one thing. What it did to the community; it didn’t break their hearts, it shattered the hearts of Uvalde.”

Salazar says the community has been looking for answers to how a tragedy like this has happened yet again.

“I want to know how come this hasn’t been fixed since the Columbine shootings?” he asked, referring to the April 20, 1999, shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Colorado, where seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher.

According to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s K-12 School Shooting Database there have been over 900 shooting-related incidents in schools since 1999.

“We need to take some kind of action and have some kind of responsibility and control of what we’re doing,” Salazar, a gun owner who recently started a petition for gun reform that got more than 50,000 signatures in one day, said.

Pastor Dwayne Jones of Mount Aaron Missionary Baptist Church in Buffalo, a former law enforcement officer, echoed Salazar’s sentiments, saying the recent shootings in both Buffalo and Uvalde have weighed heavily on him. Jones knew the victims of the May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, Tops Friendly Market.

Authorities are calling the massacre that left 10 dead and 3 others injured a racially motivated hate crime. A grand jury indicted shooting suspect and alleged white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, on 25 charges including 10 counts of first degree murder and one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

“This community in Buffalo, New York, where it was located at the supermarket, was the only supermarket in that geographical area. He purposely picked out this one location to hurt Black and Brown individuals,” Jones said.

Jones said he believes that people should continue to have a right to own weapons, but sees a problem with civilian access to AR-style guns like those used to carry out the shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde.

“I believe that the government needs to do more about these weapons of that mass level that’s out there,” he said. “I really feel for what happened in Texas. Those were very innocent, innocent kids. And I don’t think there’s anything we can say that could move the hurt from Texas or Buffalo, but we can do something where this won’t happen again.”

Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing the 20th District of Texas 80 miles from Uvalde, spoke to the growing calls for action from government officials.

“Americans are enraged because they keep seeing things like what happened in Uvalde and Buffalo happen over and over and over again,” he told ABC News.

Castro sees widespread support for universal background checks, ‘red flag laws’ and raised age restrictions as a step in the right direction, but says it will take unified commitment to see the change that so many have been waiting for.

Last week, President Biden addressed the nation on gun violence, urging Congress to pass “commonsense measures” on gun control. On Wednesday, the House passed “Protecting Our Kids Act”, a bill that would raise the legal age for purchasing semi-automatic firearms from 18 to 21 and further regulate weapons often referred to as ‘ghost guns’.

“It’s clear that there hasn’t been the kind of legislation that people want to see. I do believe that it’s possible to have change,” he said. “It’s possible for elected officials to actually do something. But they have to have the political and the moral courage to put the lives of Americans above their own political futures.”

ABC News’ Poh Si Teng and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

Connecticut woman dies from rare tick-borne virus in 2nd fatality this year in US

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut woman has died from the rare tick-borne disease Powassan virus, the state’s Department of Public Health announced.

This is the first fatality recorded in the state and the second in the U.S. this year after a Maine resident died from POWV in April.

According to the DPH, the patient was bitten by a tick and the insect was removed two weeks prior to the onset of symptoms.

The woman, who was in her 90s, first exhibited symptoms in early May including fever, chills, headache, altered mental state, chest pain and nausea, the department said.

She was admitted to a local hospital where her health rapidly deteriorated, according to the DPH.

She “became unresponsive over the next two weeks” and passed away May 17.

After the patient’s death, tests performed by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, confirmed she had antibodies to POWV.

POWV is typically spread by black-legged ticks and deer ticks. Most cases in the U.S. occur in the Northeast or Great Lakes regions typically between mid-spring and early fall.

Between 2011 and 2020, CDC data shows 194 cases of POWV were identified, 22 of which resulted in death.

DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani wrote in the release that the virus can be transmitted from tick to human in as little as 15 minutes after the bite, but it can take anywhere from one week to one month before symptoms emerge.

Most patients experience either no symptoms or mild flu-like symptoms, the press release said. But, in severe cases, POWV can cause encephalitis, which is inflammation of brain tissue, or meningitis, which is swelling of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

According to the DPH, approximately one in every 10 cases of severe illness result in death and around half of patients who survive severe illness report long-term health problems.

There are currently no specific treatments for POWV — aside from helping relieve symptoms — and no vaccines to prevent the disease.

“This incident reminds us that residents need to take actions to prevent tick bites now through the late fall,” Juthani said in a statement. “DPH stresses the use of insect repellent this summer and avoiding high-risk areas, such as tall grass, where ticks may be found.

She added, “It’s also important to check carefully for ticks after being outside which can reduce the chance of you and your family members being infected with this dangerous virus.”

The CDC recommends showering within two hours of having been outdoors to reduce the risk of tickborne disease and to either wash clothes in hot water or tumble dry low to kill any ticks that may have been carried indoors.

This is the second case of POWV reported in Connecticut this year after a man in his 50s fell ill with the disease in late March.

He was hospitalized with central nervous system problems, but was eventually discharged and recovered at home, health officials said.

Trump fires back at Ivanka, Bill Barr over Jan. 6 deposition testimony

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Friday rebuked his own daughter’s deposition testimony played for millions to hear during the House select committee’s prime-time hearingdetailing its Jan. 6 investigation.

Posting to Truth Social — the social media network Trump launched after being kicked off Twitter — Trump continued to repeat false claims about the 2020 election as he mocked the committee’s work and lashed out at comments Ivanka Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr made in videotaped depositions.

“Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results,” Trump wrote after she said she agreed with Barr’s assessment that there was no amount of fraud sufficient enough to overturn his loss.

“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka Trump told the committee about Barr’s assessment. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”

Trump fired back Friday that Ivanka “had long since checked out, and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!).”

It’s a shift in tone for Trump towards his eldest daughter, who served as a senior adviser in the White House, as did her husband Jared Kushner. Trump praised Ivanka’s work multiple times during his administration, calling her smart and intelligent.

Trump also once commended Barr, his second attorney general, as one of the “most respected jurists” in the nation. When Barr stepped down from his role as attorney general in December 2020, Trump said their relationship was “a very good one” and Barr had “done an outstanding job!”

Using recorded testimony from Barr and Ivanka Trump, as well as other Trump insiders, the House panel on Thursday night argued that Trump was aware of the fact that he lost but moved ahead anyway with a scheme to remain in power.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., placed Trump at the center of what he described as an “attempted coup” to try to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

In one interview aired in the hearing, Barr recounted telling Trump the idea that the presidential race was rigged was “bull****.”

Barr said he “repeatedly told the president in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud and — you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election. And frankly, a year and a half later, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind on that.”

Trump on Friday called Barr “weak and frightened” and denounced the committee once again as the “Unselect Committee.”

Teasing what else the committee learned in its 11-month investigation, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said the public will soon hear testimony from former White House staffers who saw first-hand Trump’s reaction to the rioters.

Cheney said the testimony claims Trump expressed support for threats of violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.

“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,” Cheney said.

Trump denied doing so on Truth Social, writing he “NEVER said, or even thought of saying ‘Hang Mike Pence.'”

“This is either a made up story by somebody looking to become a star, or FAKE NEWS!” he added.

Last year, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that he didn’t worry about Pence’s safety during the Capitol riot and thought he was “well-protected.”

“They were saying ‘hang Mike Pence,'” Karl reminded Trump.

“Because it’s common sense, Jon,” Trump responded. “It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?”

Millions more bottles’ worth of formula set to ship into US in June

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Millions more bottles’ worth of critically needed infant formula are set to touch down on U.S. shores later this month, as the Biden administration continues its push to replenish the supply on the nation’s empty shelves.

More than 3.2 million bottles’ worth of formula will be airlifted in on planes donated by Delta Airlines in the coming weeks, ABC News is first to report.

Those some-212,000 pounds of Kendamil infant formula, from U.K. manufacturer Kendal Nutricare, will begin shipping into the country beginning on June 20.

Donated Delta planes will shuttle those formula shipments from Heathrow Airport in London to Logan Airport in Boston and Detroit Metro Airport, a White House official told ABC.

Upon distribution, it will be available for families’ purchase at select U.S. retailers nationwide, as well as online, the administration says.

The newly announced flights are the latest in a lengthening list of formula shipments coming in through FDA’s exercised import discretion; in total, Kendal Nutricare has committed to export at least 54 million 8-ounce bottles’ worth to the U.S.

Friday’s announcement also comes on the heels of two other large shipments putting wheels down in the U.S. just a day before.

On Thursday, nearly two million bottles’ worth of infant formula came in from overseas: roughly 1.6 million 8-ounce bottles’ worth of Nestlé formula, greeted in Texas by HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra; and the first of several flights donated by United Airlines coming into Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., altogether are expected to bring in about 3.7 million 8-ounce bottles’ worth of additional Kendamil formula from the U.K., available at Target stores in the coming weeks.

It couldn’t come soon enough for so many American families still scrambling to feed their children amid the urgent supply crisis.

So far, cumulatively, the White House says it has secured commitments to import upwards of 127.5 million bottles’ worth. President Joe Biden, acknowledging the strain so many parents have been feeling, as well as political criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.

“There’s nothing more stressful than the feeling you can’t get what your child needs,” he said meeting virtually with formula manufacturers and members of his administration, saying his team will use “every tool available” to get more formula on shelves “as quickly as possible.”

“Still we have work to do,” Biden said. “But we’re making critical progress.”

US to lift COVID testing requirement for air travelers entering country: White House official

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is lifting pre-departure COVID-19 testing requirements for international travelers to the United States, according to a senior White House official.

Effective Sunday, those traveling to the U.S. will no longer need a negative COVID-19 test one day before their flight to the country.

Uvalde schools police chief defends response to mass shooting in first public comments since massacre

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo has broken his silence since the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School and is defending the police response to the mass shooting that saw 19 children and two teachers killed.

Arredondo — who was sworn in as a city council member in late May — told The Texas Tribune he didn’t consider himself the commanding officer on the scene that day, and he also claimed no one told him about the 911 calls that came in during the 77 minutes before the gunman was taken down.

This comes after a new report in the New York Times describes a briefing to state officials that “more than a dozen of the 33 children and three teachers originally in the two classrooms remained alive during the 1 hour and 17 minutes” from when the shooting began to when officers initially entered.

According to an official interviewed by the Times, “investigators have been working to determine whether any of those who died could have been saved if they received medical attention sooner.” At least one teacher and three children reportedly died after being evacuated from the school.

Arredondo claimed he didn’t bring his radios with him because time was of the essence and he said the radios would get in his way, and he wanted to have his hands free, telling The Texas Tribune one had a whiplike antenna that hit him when he ran, and one had a clip he said would cause it to fall off his tactical belt during a long run.

The chief also told The Tribune the radios didn’t work in some school buildings, which he said he knew from experience.

Arredondo said he teamed up with a Uvalde police officer when he arrived on the scene and began checking classrooms, searching for the suspected shooter.

“Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” Arredondo told The Texas Tribune. “We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”

However, state investigators, according to a preliminary assessment, believe the decision to delay police entry into the Robb Elementary School classroom was made in order to allow time for protective gear to arrive on scene, an official briefed on a closed-door presentation by the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety told ABC News.

Waiting for protective gear contradicts active shooter protocols that have been adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country in the last 20 years.

The DPS information is based, in part, on transcripts from 911 calls, dispatch audio and body camera recordings. The review is ongoing and the DPS preliminary findings have not been made public.

The official confirmed to ABC News that Arredondo appeared to be aware police needed to move faster as shots were being fired in two classrooms.

“People are going to ask why we’re taking so long,” according to one of the transcripts, as relayed by the official to ABC News. The statement is believed by investigators to have been uttered by Arredondo during the 77 minute rampage.

At 11:35 a.m. on May 24, three Uvalde Police Department officers entered the school using the same door as the shooter, which had not locked upon being closed. Law enforcement is looking into why the door did not lock.Those officers were later followed by three other Uvalde police officers and a county deputy sheriff, authorities said.

A total of seven officers were in the school and two sustained “grazing wounds” from the gunman, who fired down the hallway from behind a closed door, according to Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

At 12:03, a 911 call was made from classroom 112, according to McCraw. That person called back at 12:10 p.m. and said there were multiple people dead in the classroom. The 911 caller made another call at 12:13 p.m., according to McCraw.

In a portion of a videotape obtained by ABC News from outside of Robb Elementary School, what appears to be a police radio dispatcher details a 911 call from a student inside room 112 who describes a room “full of victims” at about 12:13 p.m.

Arredondo claimed he wasn’t aware of the 911 calls because he didn’t have his radio, and that the other officers in the hallway did not have radio communications. He also said if they had radios they would have been off to avoid alerting the gunman about their location.

He found no way to enter the classroom, called for a SWAT team from his cellphone and then waited in the hallway, according to The Texas Tribune.

However, the chief also claims he didn’t give orders not to breach the doors.

“I didn’t issue any orders,” Arredondo said. “I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”

At 12:16 p.m., the 911 caller called again and said eight to nine students are still alive, according to McCraw.

The 911 caller inside room 112 called at 12:43 p.m. and asked for police to be sent in, according to McCraw. That caller again asked for police to be sent in at 12:47 p.m., McCraw said.

Officers from the Border Patrol tactical unit breached the classroom door using a set of keys acquired from a school janitor at 12:50 p.m. Officers shot and killed the gunman in classroom 111, sources told ABC News.

A janitor first brought six keys, then eventually brought a set of 20-30 keys to the chief, The Texas Tribune reported.

“Each time I tried a key I was just praying,” Arredondo told the outlet.

ABC News has reached out to Arredondo’s attorney.

Inflation rises significantly in May, up to 8.6% year over year

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Inflation reaccelerated in May, rising at the highest level seen in four decades, according to data released by the federal government on Friday.

The consumer price index, or CPI, stood at 8.6% year over year in May, a significant increase from 8.3% the month prior, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the largest 12-month increase since the period ending December 1981.

On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose 1% in May, far outpacing the 0.3% rise seen in April, according to the bureau.

Energy, food and housing costs contributed to the surge in prices. The new data arrives a day after the nationwide average price for a gallon of gas reached $5, according to GasBuddy.

The core consumer price index, which strips out food and energy costs, rose 0.6% on a monthly basis in May, the same increase that it saw in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bucha residents try to reclaim their homes amid war

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUCHA, Ukraine) — Bucha, Ukraine is getting back to normal, but residents are still living with trauma from the war.

ABC News correspondents returned to Bucha to witness its rebirth.

In April, it took over two hours for the ABC News team to travel from Kyiv to Bucha, with bombed out bridges and checkpoints slowing their momentum. Now, the trip has returned to its swift 45-minute length.

Where charred tanks and burned out trucks littered Bucha’s streets a few weeks ago, flowers now color the city, and thick grass replaces mine-planted meadows.

The ABC News team headed to an apartment block that they remembered as bleak and frozen in April. There, they reunited with Mykola Pavlyuk, who had shared his story with ABC News in April. He had shown where he had buried his three friends in his backyard.

After being forced out of his home by Russian troops, Pavlyuk had lived underground with the other residents in his building.

One of his friends was killed by a grenade, and Pavlyuk had been in charge of picking up the pieces of his ruined body so that they could be buried.

Pavlyuk told ABC News that he left Bucha for a while after the April visit to live with his sister. Since then, doctors in the family have prescribed him medication and he has found help through his church.

“Eventually I had to get up and move on,” he said. “Thankfully I got a new job. I’m glad I have a job. I only just started. So life goes on. I try to think about the bad times as little as possible. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out. Everything reminds me of the past.”

Despite hearing about the power Pavlyuk’s April interview had over people all over the world, Pavlyuk is still struggling with what he has endured.

“I don’t feel great,” Pavlyuk said. “I start remembering. And it’s hard. I try to calm myself down. I saw my friends, my family but I feel bad.”

Outside, standing by the homemade grave of his friends, Pavlyuk acknowledges the regrowth around him.

“It helps that it’s summer,” he said. “All the destruction is hidden by the greenery. It’s hiding the terrors of Bucha.”

Like many of Bucha’s residents, Pavlyuk can’t forget the mass graves, torture, execution and alleged human rights abuses that have now defined the city.

A mass grave site has reclaimed a churchyard in the city. Small memorials are the only markings seen, and dried flowers wrapped in Ukrainian colors sit sadly at its base.

Pavlyuk doubts there will be an investigation into the atrocities.

Bucha is not the only place which has had to endure alleged war crimes inflicted by Russian troops.

Last month, a 21-year-old Russian soldier pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian in another town. It was the first war crimes trial since the war started.

As the war continues in Ukraine, citizens have no time to grieve. With Russian forces persevering in Donbas, the flowers of Bucha look frail.

Vertebra of 98-million-year-old dinosaur discovered in Egypt’s Western desert

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A fossil from a a carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 98 million years ago was unearthed by an Egyptian-led team of researchers in the country’s Western desert.

The well-preserved neck vertebra, discovered during a 2016 expedition to Bahariya Oasis in the vast desert, belongs to an Abelisaurid theropod, a species that lived during the Cretaceous period (about 145 to 66 million years ago), according to researchers.

The species were more common in parts of Europe and modern Southern Hemisphere continents, such as Africa and South America, in addition to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.

It’s the first time that remains of Abelisaurid, named after Argentinean Roberto Abel — who first discovered remains of the species decades ago — were found in Egypt. It is the oldest known fossil of the species in northeastern Africa.

In the early 20th century, fossils of other famous dinosaurs were discovered in the region, including Spinosaurus, but the samples were destroyed during the bombing in Munich during World War II.

The study was conducted by members of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP), Egypt’s Environmental Affairs Agency and U.S. researchers. The results were published in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science.

Hesham Sallam, the founding director of the MUVP and a member of the research team, told ABC News that a meticulous operation was carried out to remove iron and sand from the vertebra’s surface.

“It’s the first time we discover here a meat-eating dinosaur in over a century… teams from Pennsylvania previously found fossils of plant-eating dinosaurs in the same area,” Sallam added.

“We found other things but we are not making further announcements for the time being,” he said.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh describes Abelisaurid as a “kind of bulldog-faced, small-toothed, tiny-armed theropod that is estimated to have been roughly six meters (20 feet) in body length.”

“It has a big skull that resembles the shape of a bulldog … Its teeth look like knife blades, which enable it to grip its prey and tear off its flesh,” Belal Salem, a member of the MUVP and a graduate student at Ohio University who led the study, told ABC News.

In 2018, fossils of a plant-eating Cretaceous Period dinosaur were also uncovered in another oasis in western Egypt while remains of a 43-million-year-old semiaquatic whale were unearthed in the Fayoum province, south of Cairo, last year.

Jan. 6 hearing key takeaways: Committee warns democracy ‘in danger’

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In a prime-time hearing, the House select committee on Thursday began laying out the findings of its ongoing investigation, placing former President Donald Trump at the center of what it called the “culmination of an attempted coup” and “multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election.”

From a packed room in the Cannon House Office Building, the panel spent almost two hours unearthing new details of what members have learned behind closed doors over the course of their 11-month investigation — gathering more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews to piece together details from, and leading up to, the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.

The hearing, the first of several this month, included never-before-seen footage of the attack and distress calls from law enforcement that left some in the room in tears.

Taped depositions with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and other members of Trump’s inner circle were also aired before the committee heard live testimony from two people on the ground that day: Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and documentarian Nick Quested.

In the audience were law enforcement members who pushed back against rioters as well as widows of officers who died in the aftermath.

“Tonight and over the next few weeks, we are going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in his opening statement. “But our work must do much more than just look backwards, because our democracy is in danger. The conspiracy to defraud the will of the people is not over.”

Here are some key takeaways:

Committee places Trump at center of ‘attempted coup’

In his opening statement, Thompson — looking directly at the camera and reading from a teleprompter — called Jan. 6 “the culmination of an attempted coup” and illustrative of “President Trump’s last stand — his most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.”

“He lost in the courts, just as he did at the ballot box. And in this country, that’s the end of the line,” he said. “But for Donald Trump, that was only the beginning of what became a sprawling, multi-step conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election.”

Thompson laid out how every president in American history has carried out the peaceful transfer of power — until Trump — and previewed how the committee would use testimony from Trump’s own allies to show he directly encouraged his supporters to stop lawmakers from certifying election results.

“Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, and ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy,” Thompson said.

Vice-Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Trump “coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.”

Cheney also built a case against fellow Republican officeholders, addressing them directly: “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone. But your dishonor will remain.”

Key players offer first-hand insight into Trump’s thinking

Using recorded testimony from Trump officials including former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Trump spokesman Jason Miller, campaign attorney Alex Cannon and some of Trump’s closest family members, Cheney argued that Trump was “well aware” both that he lost the election and of ongoing violence at the Capitol yet still moved forward with a plot to stay in power.

In a video clip from an interview with Barr, Trump’s attorney general said he “repeatedly told the president, in no uncertain terms, that I did not see evidence of fraud and — you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election.”

Ivanka Trump, in another clip, was asked about Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election.

“It affected my perspective,” she said of Barr’s assessment. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”

Cheney also showed a tape of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner telling the committee that he dismissed White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s “multiple” threats to resign in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot.

“I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you,” Kushner said.

“Whining,” Cheney recounted to the hearing room. “There is a reason why people serving in our government take an oath to the Constitution… And that oath must mean something.”

Witness testimony claims Trump expressed Pence ‘deserves’ hanging

Further laying out what the committee learned in its interviews, Cheney said the American people will soon hear testimony from former White House staff about Trump’s reaction to rioters threatening violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.

“You will hear testimony that ‘the president didn’t really want to put anything out calling off the riot or asking his supporters to leave,'” Cheney said in her opening statement. “You will hear that 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,'” she recounted. “Mike Pence ‘deserves’ it.”

Capitol Police officer recounts disbelief as ‘war scene’ unfolded

Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after rioters knocked her to the ground, painted a dire picture of what took place that day, describing it as “an absolute war zone” with “hours of hand-to-hand combat.”

“I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because I — what I saw was just a war scene,” Edwards testified. “It was something like I’d seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

“There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up. You know, they had, I mean, I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell,” she said.

“It was carnage,” she continued. “It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw, never in my wildest dreams did I think as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”

Edwards was knocked unconscious during an altercation with rioters — a moment captured on video that aired during the hearing — but returned to duty at the Capitol’s west terrace. She was also later hit with pepper spray and tear gas.

Teasing what’s to come

The House select committee will hold five more hearings this month. The next one is Monday at 10 a.m.

That hearing, Cheney said, will focus on how Trump and his team knew he had lost the election but continued to spread false claims about fraud and unsuccessfully litigated the matter in court.

At the third hearing, slated for June 15, the committee plans to argue that Trump planned to replace Barr so the Department of Justice could act on his false election claims. Cheney said he even went so far as to offer Jeff Clark, an environmental lawyer at the DOJ, the role of acting attorney general.

The fourth hearing is expected to focus on Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pence not to certify the 2020 election. Pence refused and has repeatedly said he never had the authority to do so, despite Trump’s claim.

Trump’s efforts to halt the counting of electoral votes at the state level will be the focus of the fifth hearing.

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