Congressional investigators are getting closer to building a case for Donald Trump’s state of mind during the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) revealed the House select committee has “firsthand testimony” that Ivanka Trump asked her father to call off his supporters from storming the U.S. Capitol, and chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) says the panel has “significant testimony” that the White House was asked to intervene, but the former president waited nearly three hours before half-heartedly urging the rioters to go home.
“Just think about this, his daughter Ivanka asked him twice to do something and intervene to stop the riots, Don Jr. sending frantic texts asking for somebody to do something to stop the riot,” said host Joe Scarborough. “Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans begging him to do anything to stop the violence. They thought their lives were in danger and, of course, several of them, including Kevin McCarthy, going on the House floor afterwards blaming Donald Trump for the violence.”
MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire said the situation revealed how hollowed out the White House staff was in the final days of Trump’s presidency, and he said the House panel was moving closer toward establishing evidence of the twice-impeached one-term president’s thoughts about the riot being carried out on his behalf.
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“Let’s also recall when they finally were able to move the president to release a video he would push out in a tweet, he wouldn’t do that,” Lemire said. “He was indeed in that private dining room just off the Oval Office, he liked to brag about the ‘super Tivo’ setup he had and he was watching live footage and sort of cheering on the protesters. They finally got him outside to the Rose Garden to cut a few videos. The first three efforts, we’ve now learned, he didn’t really urge people to go home, he sort of saluted the protesters’ efforts at the Capitol. It took until, like, the fourth or fifth take before he finally told them to leave. He even, while doing so, said he loved them.”
“So we know the committee is also trying to get its hands on those first few cuts of the video, the unreleased versions, thinking it will also help build the case of the president’s state of mind on Jan. 6,” Lemire added.
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