(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, 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.
(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.
(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.”
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.
(WASHINGTON) — A filmmaker who witnessed firsthand the clashes between pro-Trump rioters and police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 said former President Donald Trump had “enormous power” over the rioters and could have prevented the violence that day.
“I believe he had enormous power over that crowd,” documentarian Nick Quested said in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl ahead of his testimony before the House Jan. 6 select committee Thursday night.
“I think that there’s a high probability that things would have been a lot calmer if he’d have asked people to stop,” he said.
Quested, a veteran filmmaker who has covered conflicts around the world, has spent his career documenting other people living through dangerous and difficult situations.
A producer of visceral documentaries Restrepo and Korengal, he followed U.S. service members through a deployment to a remote region of Afghanistan.
Quested has also covered the rise of ISIS in Syria and the dangerous journey of migrants through Central America.
But he said his experience following the Proud Boys and other pro-Trump rioters to the Capitol and their combat with police officers on Jan. 6 was one of the most violent situations he’s ever faced.
“I’m astounded that people say it wasn’t violent, because I’ve been in a lot of violent situations in my life, and I don’t think I’ve seen something that’s been that persistently violent for such a long period of time,” he said.
War zone firefights “don’t last very long,” he said. “There’s moments of panic and then hours of boredom.”
“This is hours of panic,” he said of the experience on Jan. 6.
Quested was so close to the action on Jan. 6 that he was initially considered a suspect by the FBI.
“For the first few weeks I was a subject of investigation,” he said. “They couldn’t figure out how I wasn’t part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government.”
His camera was rolling as a rioter was pushed off the balcony outside the Capitol, and as others used flag poles and makeshift weapons to attack Capitol Police officers and break into the building.
“For anyone that really didn’t think that there was extreme violence in that day, I filmed it. I saw it and was subject to it. The violence was real. And it was exceptionally powerful,” Quested said.
“When you see two people die on one day, you know… it’s not normal political discourse,” he said.
The footage, which was shared with the select committee and played during the public hearing Thursday night, showed rioters attacking Capitol Police officers with flag poles and other makeshift weapons, and pacing through the halls of Congress.
One member of Quested’s team filmed rioters screaming out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as they entered her offices, just minutes before she was evacuated from the Capitol by her security detail.
Quested, who spent weeks with members of the Proud Boys and former leader Enrique Tarrio, followed Tarrio to an underground parking garage in Washington on Jan. 5, where he met with Stuart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia also linked to the Capitol attack.
Quested and his crew did not capture any audio of the exchange between the two far-right leaders.
“I don’t know whether it’s a smoking gun or not, the optics of having a meeting with Stewart Rhodes the day before the events of January 6 is terrible,” he said.
Tarrio, Rhodes and members of both groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Quested said it was “unnerving” to be in front of the camera before the committee’s investigation.
“I’m usually the fly on the wall. I’m not the fly on the wall anymore,” he said.
Quested said he agreed to cooperate and testify publicly because “the truth is important.”
“If my testimony can help establish … a basis of truthfulness about what really happened on that day, then I’ve done my job as a journalist,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, New York have started a criminal investigation into Wells Fargo to determine whether the nation’s third largest bank’s hiring practices broke the law, a source briefed on the investigation confirmed to ABC News.
The criminal investigation follows a report last month in The New York Times, in which current and former employees said they were told by superiors to interview women and people of color even though the hiring decision had already been made.
The allegation is similar to that of Brian Flores and other black football coaches who have accused the NFL of conducting sham interviews to satisfy diversity requirements with no intention of actually hiring someone of color. The NFL has defended its hiring practices.
The investigation into Wells Fargo is in its early stages and no charging decisions have been made, the source said, adding that the investigation is being led by a recently created civil rights unit within the office.
A spokesman for Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.
The New York Times based its story, in part, on former Wells Fargo employee Joe Bruno who said bank managers interviewed applicants considered diverse for jobs already promised to others. The Times reported Bruno was fired after speaking out.
In the United States, Wells Fargo employs more than 235,000 people, 13% of whom are Black, according to 2020 company statistics. Another 17% are Latino and 55% are white.
“No one should be put through an interview without a real chance of receiving an offer, period. The diverse slate guidelines we put in place are meant to increase diverse representation across the company and we can see meaningful results in our hiring data since 2020,” Wells Fargo said in a statement provided to ABC News that did not directly address the reported opening of a federal criminal investigation.
“At the same time, it’s important that implementation of our guidelines is consistent. Earlier this week, the company temporarily paused the use of its diverse slate guidelines. During this pause, the company is conducting a review so that hiring managers, senior leaders and recruiters fully understand how the guidelines should be implemented – and so we can have confidence that our guidelines live up to their promise,” the statement continued.
(NEW YORK) — As summer travel booms and prices for gas, hotel rooms and flights skyrocket, taking to the sea this summer season could save travelers big bucks.
Despite rising prices in most sectors, Chris Gray Faust, the managing editor of online industry publication The Cruise Critic, says prices for cruises “are some of the lowest that we’ve seen in a very long time.”
Right now, a five-day cruise around the Caribbean costs approximately $500 per person, Gray Faust said. Some experts says that’s a great way to get big bang for your buck.
“That works out to about $100 per day, including lodging, meals and entertainment,” Gray Faust told ABC News. “And with the way that land vacations have been … [with] airfares more expensive, you’re really hard pressed to find a vacation for a similar price on land.”
Some of the best deals right now include a three-day Carnival cruise from Miami to the Bahamas, for just $118 per person; a four-night Royal Caribbean cruise from Miami to the Bahamas starting at $198 per person; and a seven-day Holland America cruise in Alaska at $399 per person.
Gray Faust also recommended checking for additional deals that could make a cruise an even better buy.
“Not only are the fares low, but a lot of the cruise lines are putting in a lot of extra value type of things — like, they’re throwing in free gratuities, free Wi-Fi, free drink packages, things like that,” Gray Faust said.
Compared to skyrocketing prices for hotels and airfare, cruises are, for the time being, a steal. According to Hopper, an online travel booking platform, hotels are currently averaging $204 a night, up from $150 per night in 2021.
On top of that, Hopper estimates the average price of a round-trip domestic flight at around $397 and more than $1,000 for a round-trip international flight.
As pandemic-related restrictions relax, cruise lines are looking to fill their cabins and sail more of their ships, which lowers costs as well.
“What that means for [people] looking for a good vacation this summer is that there’s plenty of room on these cruise ships because there’s more ships back, there’s more rooms available and the prices are lower,” Gray Faust said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed its risk assessment of cruise ship travel in late March of 2022, but still advises travelers to be aware of a particular ship’s risk designations and stay up to date with their vaccinations. The agency has also recommended purchasing travel insurance before a trip and has advised travelers to continue masking up indoors.
Though pandemic protocols have eased on board most ships, passengers should still check with their cruise line ahead of time to see whether there are specific vaccine or testing requirements.
Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, or those awaiting COVID-19 test results, should not travel, according to the CDC.
Travelers hoping to snag a good deal should move soon. According to Gray Faust, prices will begin to increase as the holiday season approaches this fall.
“Summer is a good time for a value vacation like this, partially because of hurricane season,” Gray Faust said, adding that “we should see these prices last until October” and that “now is that time to go.”
Libby March for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where a gunman opened fire killing 10 Black people last month, could reopen by the end of July, a representative for Tops Friendly Market confirmed to ABC News Thursday. Three people were also wounded in the shooting.
Reporters had asked Tops President John Persons what the timeline for reopening the Buffalo store is, and he told them the “hope is for the end of July,” Tops told ABC News.
New York authorities alleged the shooting was a “racially motivated hate crime,” carried out by a heavily armed white teenager.
According to a prosecutor, the alleged gunman is the first person in state history to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate. He faces a total of 25 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder.
Persons told reporters the store was emptied out of its product and equipment, and when the store reopens, it will be completely remodeled with a different feel and look, according to ABC local affiliate WKBW-TV.
“Our effort has been towards trying to reopen the store as soon as possible and we will do it in a respectful way. We will do it properly,” Persons said at the event, according to WKBW.
Persons also told reporters supply chain issues have created problems with securing some equipment for the store, according to WKBW.
(NEW YORK) — This summer, Americans across the country are going to have to find new ways to beat the heat. A nationwide lifeguard shortage is expected to leave thousands of public pools closed and beaches under “Swim At Your Own Risk” rules.
“To start off, this is the worst I’ve ever seen it and I’ve been in the industry a long time,” said Bernard Fisher II, who has been the director of health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association for over 25 years.
According to data collected by the American Lifeguard Association, Fisher estimated that nearly half of all the pools in the U.S. will be affected this summer.
“Here we are this year, everybody wants to take a vacation, they want to go to their hotel with a garden pool. They want to go to their community pool. They wanted to go to the beach,” said Fisher. “But the problem is, we’re almost starting from ground zero.”
Although exacerbated by the pandemic, Fisher said that lifeguarding has been on the decline for decades. Some of this is in part to the decline in teenagers working summer jobs.
In 2000, more than half of the teenagers in the U.S. were working a summer job. In 2019, only 35.8% of teens worked over the summer. The number dropped even more during the pandemic and fewer than a third of U.S. teens worked in the summer of 2020, according to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center.
Fewer teenagers are entering the workforce, and, due to the pandemic, many lifeguard certification training sessions were postponed or canceled. Now entering the third summer of COVID-19, for those who may have already been certified, their two-year lifeguard certificates have expired, leading to an even larger deficit of working lifeguards.
“[Lifeguard] candidates come into the workforce at the age of 15, 16, 17 years of age, and usually stay with us until their junior or senior year of university,” said Fisher. “With the first year of the pandemic. We didn’t get the new recruits. We didn’t have the ability to renew the certifications that were expiring from two years prior.”
Fisher said that the pandemic also disrupted seasonal lifeguards who come to the U.S. through the J-1 visa program over the summer. The program was established In 2011 by the federal government for scholars, professors and visitors obtaining medical or business training within the United States.
Before the pandemic, the American Lifeguard Association would train about 300,000 new candidates every year, including nearly 50,000 lifeguards who were sponsored through the J-1 visa program.
“Because of the lack of training that we had over the past two years, and also the lack of the J-1 visa candidates coming in as strongly as they they were… We haven’t even reached pre pandemic enrollment times,” said Fisher. “So with that said, we have a very serious problem in enrollment now.”
Fisher said he worries that not only will there be a lack of lifeguard supervision in public places with water, but also fewer people learning how to swim.
“In order to be a swim instructor, you have to be a lifeguard,” said Fisher, who said that the few swim instructors may be pulled to sit as a lifeguard rather than teach classes this summer due to the shortage. “The first thing you want to do is teach a child how to swim to prevent drowning… Some of these kids have not been in the water for two years, or ever.”
Every year in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 4,000 people will die from unintentional drownings, meaning an average of 11 drowning deaths per day.
For kids who don’t know how to swim, Fisher suggested that family members designate a responsible adult during pool and beach days to watch the water and to get a properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard life jacket for novice swimmers.
“It’s very important, especially this year and the future years until we can overcome [the lifeguard shortage.] Life jackets save lives and of course proper supervision is always necessary,” said Fisher.
Ultimately, Fisher said that pool and beach closures are a loss to the community, but a larger loss for kids and summer joy.
“Our kids, our youth, the young ones that enjoy getting out to the neighborhood pools and having a great time with their parents. Some of my fondest memories are being at the pool, being at the beach with my parents. It’s true bonding,” said Fisher. “Also what better place to meet your neighbor than down at your community pool on a hot, hot summer day?”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first prime-time hearing on Thursday.
The hearing featured never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Here is how the hearing unfolded:
Jun 09, 10:30 pm
‘He called me there’: Teasing next hearing, committee shows video of rioters voicing intent
Chairman Bennie Thompson wrapped up the hearing with a video compilation of rioters’ interviews with the committee, with more than half-a-dozen Capitol rioters explaining in their own words why they marched on the Capitol last Jan. 6.
“Trump only asked me for two things,” said Robert Schornack, who was arrested last March and pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor last December. “He asked me for my vote, and he asked me for January 6th.”
“He asked us to come to come to D.C. and said things are going to happen,” said Daniel Herendeen,” who pleaded guilty last year to illegally entering the Capitol.
Thompson closed by teasing the committee’s next hearing, scheduled for Monday, June 13, at 10 a.m.
“We’re going to examine the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol,” he said.
-ABC News Benjamin Siegel and Alex Mallin
Jun 09, 10:24 pm
Historic hearing gavels out
In a nearly two-hour hearing in prime time, the House select committee placed Trump at the center of an “attempted coup” and “multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election,” with the panel’s chairs emphasizing how Trump and his allies repeatedly tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Never-before-seen footage and graphic testimony from a Capitol Police officer, who described the crowd as an “absolute war zone,” brought some in the hearing room to tears, as the committee laid out how it will explain in subsequent hearings a “sophisticated seven-part plan” by Trump to steal the election.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the 11-month-long investigation with more than 1,000 interviews revealed that Trump was “well aware” of the violence at the Capitol and security risk to Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers but chose to do nothing.
“Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended,” she said. “The vice president — Pence — did each of those things.”
Jun 09, 10:02 pm
‘It was carnage’: Capitol Police officer recounts ‘slipping in people’s blood’
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after rioters knocked her to the ground, described in detail what she called a “an absolute war zone” as officers struggled to hold the line.
“I can just remember my — my breath catching in my throat, because I — what I saw was just — a war scene,” she said. “It was something like I had seen out of the movies.
WATCH: “What I saw was just a war scene,” Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testifies of Capitol attack.
“There were officers on the ground, they were bleeding, they were throwing up…I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood.” pic.twitter.com/xqll4Ww1GT
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing … I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood,” she continued.
“I was catching people as they fell … It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw,” she added. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think as as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”
Jun 09, 9:56 pm
Video shows Capitol Police officer getting knocked unconscious
The committee aired a video showing the moment Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was knocked out as she tried to hold the line from a crowd of rioters pushing up against barricades and bike racks.
Edwards winced as the video began.
“I felt the bike rack come on top of my head and I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, and my chin hit the handrail,” she said. “At that point I blacked out but the back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me.”
Edwards returned to duty after regaining consciousness, saying “adrenaline kicked in” as she went to the West Front of the Capitol to protect the Senate steps. There she helped people who had gotten pepper sprayed and others injured before she was hit herself with pepper spray and tear gas.
Jun 09, 9:54 pm
Documentarian notes Proud Boys went to Capitol before Trump spoke
Documentarian Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, noted in his testimony that the group headed to the Capitol long before Trump spoke on the Ellipse.
“The was a large contingent, more than I would expect, and I was confused to a certain extent while we were walking away from the president’s speech, because that’s when I felt we were there to cover,” Quested said.
Chairman Bennie Thompson emphasized that point to argue the Jan. 6 attack was not purely spontaneous but a “coordinated plan” and the “culmination of a months-long effort spearheaded by President Trump.”
“They were not there for President Trump’s speech,” Thompson said of the hundreds of Proud Boys who descended on Washington. “We know this because they left that area to march toward the Capitol before the speech began.”
NEW: Chair Bennie Thompson: “We’ve obtained substantial evidence showing that the president’s December 19 tweet calling his followers to Washington, D.C., on January 6 energized individuals from the Proud Boys and other extremist groups.” https://t.co/W2f3oCDYwhpic.twitter.com/0SzTWNparj
Jun 09, 9:34 pm
Witness testimony begins, officer recounts insults hurled at her during attack
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards told lawmakers that her patriotism was called into question as she pushed back against rioters, sustaining a serious head injury in the process.
“I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain,” Edwards testified. “I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things.”
She continued, “I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself how many times — many, many times — how we had gotten here.”
Edwards recounted her own grandfather’s experience fighting in the Korean war, telling lawmakers she will “gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come.”
Jun 09, 9:32 pm
Cheney slams Kushner for downplaying resignation threats by WH lawyers as ‘whining’
Among several clips of taped testimony with Trump aides, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., played one of Jared Kushner telling the committee that he dismissed White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s “multiple” threats to resign when asked if he was aware on any instances.
“Like I said, my interest at that time was on trying to get as many pardons done, and I know that he was always, him and the team, were always saying oh we are going to resign,” Kushner said. “‘We are not going to be here if this happens, if that happens’ … . So, I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you.”
Cheney slammed Kushner’s response.
Asked about White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatening to resign in weeks before Jan. 6 attack, former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner tells House committee in taped interview, “I kind of took it up to just be whining.” https://t.co/lcaaCa2vg6pic.twitter.com/7vWGLL8pXs
“There is a reason why people serving in our government take an oath to the Constitution,” she said. “And that oath must mean something.”
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jun 09, 9:16 pm
Powerful video compilation prompts short recess
The House select committee played a 10-minute video compilation including never-before-seen footage of rioters violently breaching the Capitol overlaid with law enforcement officers calling for backup, and Trump calling the crowd “loving.”
In chronological order, the video followed the timeline of the day: from Trump speaking at his “Save America” rally to the joint session of Congress being gaveled in — leading up to rioters clashing with police and storming the Capitol, prompting lawmakers to take cover.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, one of several officers in the hearing room who defended the Capitol, was seen wiping away tears before Chairman Bennie Thompson called a short recess.
Some members of Congress watching in the public seats teared up, clearly rocked with emotion by the horrific memory.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., held tissues in her hands. Around the hearing room, people shook their heads yet intently watched the footage.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders
Jun 09, 9:05 pm
Committee says multiple Republicans sought presidential pardons after attack
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said for the first time publicly that multiple Republican members of Congress reached out to the Trump White House to ask for presidential pardons in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, including Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
“Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” she added.
As with other House Republicans, Perry has refused to cooperate with the committee’s investigation through voluntary requests and a congressional subpoena.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders
Jun 09, 8:55 pm
Cheney issues warning to fellow Republicans
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., had a message for her colleagues who continue to defend Trump and his false election claims.
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said.
Cheney also had a message for the American people as they watch these hearings unfold over the next several weeks.
“The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot.”
“Please remember what is at stake,” she said. “Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of law and not the rule of men.”
Jun 09, 8:52 pm
Trump ‘well aware’ of violence but ‘placed no call’ to defend Capitol: Cheney
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, shared snippets of what White House aides told the committee Trump said to them while the attack at the Capitol was ongoing, laying out what she called Trump’s “sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election.”
“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. You will hear that President Trump was yelling and “really angry at advisers who told him he needed to do 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,” she said.
She then added, in new detail, “Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element to the United States government to instruct at the Capitol be defended.”
Jun 09, 8:38 pm
With Ivanka Trump tape, panel argues Trump was aware he lost
Using taped testimony from Trump officials including Attorney General Bill Barr and campaign attorney Alex Cannon, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and his team were well aware that he lost the election but still carried out a plot to stay in power.
“In our second hearing, you will see that Donald Trump and his advisers knew that he had in fact lost the election,” Cheney said, explaining how the committee will lay out its case. “But despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him.”
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.”
The committee also aired a taped interview with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump commenting on Barr’s statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election.
“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka said of Barr’s assessment. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
Jun 09, 8:35 pm
Cheney says Trump ‘lit the flame of this attack’
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said Americans will learn new details about what Trump was doing before, during and after the attack at the Capitol in his effort to remain in power despite his 2020 election loss.
“Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power,” she said.
The Wyoming Republican asserted Trump told his staff during the riot that it’s what people “should be doing” and that he agreed with protesters urging violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence.
After the dust settled, Cheney said, Trump continued to ignore the statements from the Department of Justice, election officials and his own staff telling him the election result was legitimate.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in her opening statement.
Jun 09, 8:22 pm
Committee places Trump at ‘center of this conspiracy,’ deems attack ‘attempted coup’
In his opening statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson — looking directly at the camera — called Jan. 6 an “attempt to undermine the will of the people” and “only the beginning of what became a sprawling multistep conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election.”
“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 Capitol and subvert American democracy,” he said.
Thompson said the attack on the Capitol was “the culmination of an attempted coup” and a “brazen attempt … to overthrow the government”
“The violence was no accident,” he said. “It represents President Trump’s last stand, his most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.”
Jun 09, 8:01 pm
Historic hearing underway
Chairman Bennie Thompson has gaveled in the committee’s first prime-time hearing intended to “remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”
“But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson will say in his opening statement, according to an excerpt released by the committee. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
Americans will hear live testimony from a Capitol Police officer and documentarian who were on the scene of the attack and watch never-before-seen video footage in a rare congressional hearing made for television.
Jun 09, 7:50 pm
Cheney arrives on Capitol Hill
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, was the first member to arrive on Capitol Hill through the member entrance, according to an NBC pool reporter.
Asked how she was feeling, Cheney said, “Good, thank you,” as she walked inside.
Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the only other House Republican to accept a seat on the panel, have faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for their participation. Cheney was removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year, and both were formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate what it controversially called “legitimate political discourse.”
Jun 09, 7:49 pm
Demonstrators rally outside Capitol
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of the House select committee’s first prime-time hearing of its Jan. 6 investigation.
Participants held signs reading, “Not above the law.”
The panel is looking to explain what it calls a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss.
From legal action to name-calling, Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime time.
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts hours ahead of the hearing on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Jun 09, 7:22 pm
Just before hearing, 3 Capitol rioters express regret in federal court
Three rioters convicted on federal charges for participating in the Capitol attack appeared in court just hours ahead of the prime-time event and asked for mercy before federal judges deciding their punishments.
“I made one mistake in my life and I have immediately took responsibility for it,” said Michael Daughtry, a gun store owner and former police officer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge this past March. “I apologize to the court for my indiscretion. But does a person not get to make at least one mistake in their entire life?”
The sentencing hearings just blocks away from the Capitol offer a noteworthy split-screen as lawmakers and their staff are in the midst of final preparations to put their investigation’s findings on full display for the American people. Click here for more.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Jun 09, 7:00 pm
‘Our democracy remains in danger’: Opening statement excerpt
Chairman Bennie Thompson will warn the American public of the ongoing threat from “those in this country who thirst for power” when the Jan. 6 committee soon kicks off a series of public hearings laying out its investigation, according to an opening statement released by the committee.
“So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson is expected to say. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here,” read the excerpt.
Jun 09, 6:57 pm
Officers and widows plan to attend hearing
Several police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and widows of law enforcement members who died in the aftermath will be present at the hearing.
Among them are Erin Smith, the widow of Metropolitan Police Department officer Jeffrey Smith; Serena Liebengood, the widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood; Sandra Garza, partner of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn; Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges.
Dunn told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott the hearing will be “triggering.”
“I think about Jan. 6 daily and tonight we are going to find out stuff we didn’t know,” he said.
Garza told Scott she’s preparing to painfully “relive the nightmare of the day.” Her longtime partner, Officer Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after engaging with rioters.
“Everybody should watch the hearings because they need the truth of what happened that day,” Garza said. “These are the facts — it’s important for them not to only hear the witnesses but see it again.” She added, “There has to be some accountability, people are dead because of what happened.”
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
