After a little more than two months following the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) went from saying that the twice-impeached ex-president who lost the popular vote twice was absolutely, unequivocally, responsible for that attack to insisting that Trump didn’t even know the attack was happening until McCarthy told him by phone. No one actually bought it, but the Jan. 6 committee now has proof that he, as well as Trump, are lying.
On ABC, Liz Cheney says Jan 6 committee has first-hand testimony that Trump watched assault on the Capitol on TV & resisted pleas from McCarthy & Ivanka asking he call for a stop to the violence.
Cheney adds that she thinks Trump returning to office could be the end of democracy pic.twitter.com/iz8Ibydb3u
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2022
Of course, the phone call between House Minority Leader McCarthy and Donald Trump has been characterized quite differently than he has been willing to admit. Those in the vicinity during the call say that the conversation between the two men was more a shouting match with Trump refusing to call off the attackers. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who went to Trump to try to get him to release a statement and stop the violence.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves on the Jan. 6 committee, told George Stephanapolous in an interview that one member of Trump’s family tried to get him to call it off, as well.
‘We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence. Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States is clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.’
Ivanka may soon getting a new piece of mail served to her, but the comments by Cheney show that Trump was very much aware of what was happening and that he did nothing to stop it for over three hours.
Twitter reacted to the news, with some thanking the committee for their work and others impatient that no one in any position of power has been held to account yet. Read some of their comments below:
