(WASHINGTON) — Editor’s note: This story was originally published in January 2022. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Hamse Warfa was the first Somali-American presidential appointee. Other Somali Americans have been appointed to presidential administrations prior to Warfa, including Hani Garabyare, during Barack Obama’s tenure. We regret the error.
The White House announced this week that Hamse Warfa will join the Biden administration — a Somali native who was inspired to enter public service because of the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment during the 2016 election cycle.
While not the first Somali-American to join a presidential administration, Warfa is one of the highest-ranking — a senior adviser to the State Department on civilian security, democracy and human rights. In that role, he will help develop strategies for protecting and promoting democracy at home and abroad.
“My acceptance of this role is in direct response to President Biden’s call to action to protect and promote democracy,” he told ABC News.
Warfa’s family fled Somalia after the country’s civil war started in 1991 and lived in various refugee camps across Kenya, he said. After arriving in the United States as a teenager in 1994 alongside his family, he received a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University and his master’s in organizational management and leadership from Springfield College in the same city. He moved to Minnesota in 2012 after he was recruited by the state’s largest philanthropic foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, he explained.
The 2016 election season inspired Warfa to become more active in civic engagement.
“The strong anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim policy and actions, motivated me to organize and get more involved at the state level,” Warfa said. “Some of the Minnesota gubernatorial candidates talked about shutting down the refugee program, and in some cases, created fear about refugees in Minnesota, especially about Minnesota’s Muslim, Somali community.”
In 2019, the Minnesota governor’s office appointed Warfa as deputy commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, making him the highest-ranking Somali American official in the state’s executive branch, according to the department.
Warfa’s list of accomplishments also includes being the co-founder of BanQu, Inc., a blockchain service created to broaden economic opportunities for low-income people across the globe, as well as the recipient of a 2016 Bush Fellowship, which is granted to help develop leadership skills, and an Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.
During his time in Minnesota government, he “successfully advocated for the largest job bill in state history, supplying workforce training to youth and adults,” according to his department.
He served as an economic adviser to the Biden campaign, helping develop the administration’s plans to reverse the Muslim ban and increase refugee admission numbers.
“When we talk about democracy, I want to make sure we talk about inclusive democracy,” he told ABC News. “I want to bring my both lived and professional experiences to help the administration expand access to those affected by government policies and actions.”
“I want to see America live through its ideals in building multiethnic and multiracial democracy that protects everyone,” he added. “I hope people see in my example — from the refugee camp to representing America — hope for democracy and value of everyone’s voice and vote.”
(WASHINGTON) — Flanked by the leaders of several countries, President Joe Biden announced the Los Angeles Declaration of Migration and Protection on the final day of the Summit of the Americas on Friday.
20 different countries signed on to the declaration, each committing to tackling different components of migration.
Biden credited the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate change as contributing factors to migration throughout the Western Hemisphere.
“Right now, migrants make up as much as 10% of the population of Costa Rica. And no nation should bear this responsibility alone, in my view, our view,” he said.
Many of the commitments under the declaration deal specifically with boosting temporary worker programs.
Canada has agreed to welcome more than 50,000 agricultural workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean this year. Mexico and Guatemala are also agreeing to expand migrant labor programs to address labor shortages.
Ecuador has issued a decree to create a pathway to regular migration status for Venezuelans who legally entered through port of entry but are currently unlawfully in the country.
At home, the Biden Administration has offered its own commitments including $300 million in funding for humanitarian assistance for countries “so when migrants arrive on their doorstep, they can provide a place to stay, make sure migrants can see a doctor, find opportunities to work, so they don’t have to undertake the dangerous journey north.”
The Biden Administration has been rattled by the continuation of hardline immigration policies installed by the Trump administration.
Unprecedented rates of migration and piecemeal approaches to stemming the flow have manifested in large groups gathering at ports of entry like Del Rio, Texas. However today, the president made clear that controlling migration is a responsibility shared among all nations in the western hemisphere. Perhaps pushing back on Republican attacks that he’s “soft on immigration,” the president also assured that the declaration includes a commitment to strengthen border security as well as the administration’s intention to expand a multilateral “sting operation” that aims to disrupt human trafficking in Latin America.
“If you prey on desperate and vulnerable migrants for profit, we are coming for you. We are coming after you,” Biden said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be launching a $65 million pilot program to issue grants for farmers hiring seasonal agricultural workers.
The administration failed in its attempts to lift Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows the government to quickly expel migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum because of the ongoing pandemic. Last month, a federal judge prevented the administration from ending the rule on May 23.
Immigration advocates and lawyers have said that Black asylum seekers are bearing the brunt of these kinds of hardline policies as they face discrimination at our border and on their journey here.
In September, photos depicting Border Patrol agents on horse back aggressively apprehending Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, sparked outrage and a lawsuit on behalf of some of the people detained that day.
The president has carved out several initiatives that deal specifically with Haitian migrants in the Declaration including resuming its participation in the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, which allows U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply for parole for relatives in Haiti. The U.S. will also be providing 11,500 H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers from Central America and Haiti.
Nana Gyamfi, the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), said the initiatives laid out in the declaration deprive Haitian migrants the right to seek asylum where they feel safe.
“When you claim asylum, you are taking agency over your life. You are saying that I’m making this journey, if I survive here is where I want to be safe,” she said. “All of the pieces that you see in this declaration are all take away agency from the people who need the support, and puts all of the decision making into government entities.”
Gyamfi also believes it fails to address institutional racism that excludes Black asylum seekers from finding refuge across the hemisphere.
“There’s no policies that are saying look, we understand that a you know, anti blackness exists and that it’s being expressed not just in the United States policy, but the policies of Mexico the policies and Central America,” she said.
The announcement of the Declaration comes as some of the controversy over notable absences at the Summit have threatened to overshadow the collaborative work the administration intended to do on issues like climate change, recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic, and migration.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei boycotted the summit over the administration’s decision to not invite leaders of the authoritarian governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
During a plenary session, Prime Minister of Belize Johnny Briceño slammed the president, as he was seated from a few feet away, over his “incomprehensible” and “un-American” exclusion of Cuba and Venezuela.
The administration is touting the declaration as proof that countries in the region can work together to achieve common goals.
Belize has committed to launching a program in August to legalize some Central American and CARICOM migrants who have been living illegally in the country.
“Our security is linked in ways that I don’t think most people in my country fully understand, and maybe not in your countries as well. Our common humanity demands that we care for our neighbors by working together,” the president said.
(NEW YORK) — When Alaska’s only House member, Rep. Don Young, died in March, it opened the floodgates to replace him.
Since Young — the longest serving Republican in the House — was first elected in 1973, this is the first time in nearly half a century that Alaska’s House seat is vacant.
Forty-eight candidates are now running in a special statewide primary Saturday, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Palin and fellow Republican Nick Begich III, as well as independent Al Gross, are among among the four likely to advance to the general election in August, according to FiveThirtyEight, which notes that since the election is primarily being conducted using mail ballots due June 21, the results won’t be known until later this month.
The Alaska Division of Elections is holding the “Nonpartisan Top 4 Primary to determine the top four vote getters that will advance to the General Election, regardless of party affiliation.” The winner in August will serve only the remainder of Young’s term; the regularly scheduled election to decide who will serve a full two-year term starting in 2023 will be held in November.
Palin has the most name recognition in the relatively crowded primary field. Her return to national politics comes 14 years after she and then-GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain lost the 2008 election to Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
In 2009, a few months after that loss, she resigned as Alaska’s governor. But Palin gained popularity along with the “tea party” movement that same year. Two years later, in 2010, she was the keynote speaker at the National Tea Party Convention.
The “tea party,” though rooted in an opposition to taxation and big government, also included radical elements — with some adherents supporting the fabricated and racist birtherism theory that Obama, the first Black president, is not a United States citizen.
In many ways, Palin’s shoot-from-the-hip style and the tea party were precursors to Trump and the MAGA movement. Both tapped into voters’ anger during the Obama era and used it to their advantage.
Palin supported Trump’s 2016 presidential run, and only two days afer Palin launched her House campaign this year, Trump returned the favor. In early June, Trump held a statewide telerally for Palin.
Palin’s main platform includes making America energy independent, getting inflation under control and protecting Second Amendment rights. In an interview with the Associated Press, she said she’s committed to the people of Alaska.
When she announced her run for Congress in April, Palin said she entered the race because she believed “America was at a tipping point.”
Even though Palin’s candidacy is high profile, she faces competition. Begich, who is running as a Republican, comes from a prominent Democratic family. His grandfather, Democratic Rep. Nick Begich Sr., was Alaska’s sole representative before Young — from 1970 to 1972. The older Begich was presumed to have died in 1972 when his plane disappeared en route to a rally in Alaska — a plane also carrying then-House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. Nick Begich’s siblings served in the Alaska legislature and the U.S. Senate as Democrats; Mark Begich was a senator for a single term, elected in 2008.
Before running for Congress, Begich held several political roles, including co-chair for Young’s 2020 reelection campaign, the 2020 OneAlaska campaign and the Alaska Republican Party’s Finance Committee.
Another candidate who could advance to the general is Gross, running as an independent.
Gross told the Anchorage Daily News he is running for Congress because he wants to do what is best for Alaskans and his top priorities include creating jobs, diversifying the state’s economy and making the U.S. energy independent.
Thirty-one candidates have filed for the general election.
(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?”
(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.”
(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.
(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.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature 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 results of the 2020 presidential election.
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.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature 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 results of the 2020 presidential election.
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.
