Transcripts For KNTV NBC News Special The January 6th Hearings The House Investigates 20220722

Lived it. I could hear the din of the rioters in the building. The noise from the rioters became audible, at which point we recognized maybe they had gotten into the building. Now, the january 6th Committee Makes its Closing Argument to the American People. Reporting tonight, lester holt. Good evening. It was one of the most difficult days in american history. For more than a year the january 6th committee e s been investigating why and how a mob of thousands stormed the Capitol Building. They tried to make the case it was former President Trump who was directly responsible for the assault. Tonight will be the last in this series of hearings. Their Closing Argument for this phase as they Just Announced more hearings in the fall. For most of the previous hearings, the focus has been on what mr. Trump did. Tonight the focus will be on what he did not do during the 187 minutes after he spoke to the crowd on january 6th. Until the president finally tweeted out a video telling his supporters to leave. The Committee Says they will show he failed to do anything in those hours to stop the assault. Tonight theyll question two former staffers live, both in the white house that day, both resigned in protest soon after. The committee will show clips from some of the hundreds of interviews conducted with other white house staffers. The Committee Chairman congressman Benny Thompson has covid, so starting the hearing in a prerecorded video. And some of the material they present may contain explicit language. Liz cheney to preside over this evenings hearing, including maintaining order in the room and swearing in our witnesses. Over the last month and a half, thing select committee has told the story of a president who did everything in his power to overturn an election. He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath. He tried to destroy our democratic institutions. He summoned a mob to washington. Afterward on january 6th, when he knew that the assembled mob was heavily armed and angry, he commanded the mob to go to the capitol, and he emphatically commanded the heavily armed mob to fight like hell. For the weeks between the november election and january 6th, donald trump was a force to be reckoned with. He shrugs off the factuality and legality correct advice from his advisors. Instead, he recklessly blazed a path of lawlessness and corruption, the cost of which be damned. Then he stopped. For 187 minutes on january 6th, this man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved, not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters or the pleas of those facing down the riot. More tellingly, donald trump ignored and disregarded the desperate pleas of his own family, including ivanka and don junior. Even though he was the only person in the world who could call off the mob, he could not be moved to rise from his dining room table and walk the few steps down the white house hallway into the press Briefing Room, where cameras were anxiously and desperately waiting to carry his message to the armed and violent mob savagely beating and killing Law Enforcement officers and hunting down the Vice President and various members of congress. He could not be moved. Thi evening my colleagues, mr. Kinsinger will take you inside the white house in those 187 minutes. Well also tell you what happened in the capitol minute by minute as Donald Trumps scheme to cling to power unravelled while he ignored his advisors, stood by and watched it unfold on television. Let me offer a final thought about the select committees work so far. As we made clear throughout these hearings, our investigation goes forward, we continue to receive new information every day. We continue to hear from witnesses. We will reconvene in september to continue laying out our findings to the American People. But as that work goes forward, a number of facts are clear. There can be no doubt that there were a coordinated multistep effort to overturn an election overseen and directed by donald trump. There can be no doubt that he commanded a mob, a mob he knew was heavily armed, violent and angry to march on the capitol to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. And he made targets out of his own Vice President and the lawmakers gathered to do the peoples work. These facts have gone undisputed. And so there needs to be accountability, accountability under the law, accountability to the American People, accountability at every level from the local precincts in many states where donald trump and his allies attacked election workers for just doing their jobs, all the way up to the oval office where donald trump embraced a legal advice of insurrectionists that a fellow judge had already said was a coup in search of a legal theory. Our democracy with stood the attack on january 6th. If theres no accountability for january 6th, for every part of this scheme, i fear we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy. There must be stiff consequences for those responsible. Now ill turn things over to our vice chair to start telling this story. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Without objection, the presiding officer is authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. Pursuant to House Deposition Authority regulation ten, i announce the committee has approved the release of the deposition material presented during todays hearing. Let me begin tonight by wishing chairman thompson a rapid recovery from covid. He has expertly led us through eight hearings so far, and he has brought us to the point we are today. In our initial hearing, the chairman and i described what ultimately became Donald Trumps sevenpart plan to overturn the 2020 president ial election. A plan stretching from before election day through january 6th. At the close of todays hearing, our ninth, we will have addressed each element of that plan. But in the course of these hearings, we have received new evidence and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward. Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful and those continue. Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break. And now, even as we conduct our ninth hearing, we have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American People and more to gather. So our committee will spend august pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts before convening for further hearings in september. Today we know far more about the president s plans and actions to overturn the election than almost all members of congress did when President Trump was impeached on january 13th, 2021, or when he was tried by the senate in february of that year. 57 of 100 senators voted to convict President Trump at that time, and more than 20 others said they were voting against conviction because the president s term had already expired. At the time, the republican leader of the United States senate said this about donald trump. A mob was assaulting the capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him. It was obvious that only President Trump could end this. He was the only one. Leader mcconnell reached those conclusions based on what he knew then without any of the much more detailed evidence you will see today. Lawlessness and violence began at the capitol on january 6th, 2021, before 1 00 p. M. And continued until well after darkness fell. What exactly was our commander in chief doing during the hours of violence . Today, we address precisely that issue. Everything youve heard in these hearings thus far will help you understand President Trumps motives during the violence. You already know Donald Trumps goal, to halt or delay congresss official proceedings to count certified electoral votes. You know that donald trump tried to pressure his Vice President to illegally reject votes and delay the proceedings. You know he tried to convince state officials and state legislatures to flip their electoral votes from biden to trump. And you know donald trump tried to corrupt our department of justice to aid his scheme. But by january 6th, none of that had worked. Only one thing was succeeding on the afternoon of january 6th, only one thing was achieving President Trumps goal. The angry, armed mob President Trump sent to the capitol broke through security, invaded the capitol and forced the vote counting to stop. That mob was violent and destructive and many came armed. As you will hear, secret Service Agents protecting the Vice President were exceptionally concerned about his safety and their own. Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy was scared, as were others in congress, even those who themselves helped to provoke the violence. As you will see today, Donald Trumps own white House Counsel, his own white house staff, members of his own family all implored him to immediately intervene to condemn the violence and instruct his supporters to stand down, leave the capitol and disburse. For multiple hours, he would not. Donald trump would not get on the phone and order the military or Law Enforcement agencies to help. And for hours donald trump chose not to answer the pleas from congress, from his own party and from all across our nation to do what his oath required. He refused to defend our nation and our constitution. He refused to do what every american president must. In the days after january 6th, almost no one of any Political Party would defend President Trumps conduct. And no one should do so today. Thank you and i now recognize the gentlewoman from virginia. Thank you, madam vice chair. Article ii of our constitution requires that the president swear a very specific oath every four years. Every president swears or affirms to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and to the best of their ability preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. The president also assumes the constitutional duty to take care that our nations laws be faithfully executed and is the commander in chief of our military. Our hearings have shown the many ways in which President Trump tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the days leading up to january 6th. With each step of his plan, he betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty. Tonight we will further exam President Trumps action on the day of the attack on the capitol. Early that afternoon President Trump instructed tens of thousands of supporters at and near the ellipse rally, a number of whom he knew were armed with various types of weapons, to march to the capitol. After telling the crowd to march multiple times, he promised he would be with them and finished his remarks at 1 10 00 p. M. Like this. Were going to walk down. And ill be there with you. Were going to walk down. Were going to walk down. Anyone you want, but i think right here were going to walk down to the capitol so lets walk down pennsylvania avenue. At this time, the Vice President was in the capitol. The joint session of congress to certify joe bidens victory was under way, and the proud boys and other rioters had stormed through the first barriers and begun the attack. Radio communications from Law Enforcement informed secret service and those in the white house situation room of these developments in realtime. At the direction of President Trump, thousands more rioters marched from the ellipse to the capitol and they joined the attack. As you will see in great detail tonight, President Trump was being advised by nearly everyone to immediately instruct his supporters to leave the capitol, disburse and halt the violence. Virtually everyone told President Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms. And those on capitol hill and across the nation begged President Trump to help. But the former president chose not to do what all of those people begged. He refused to tell the mob to leave until 4 17, when he tweeted out a video statement filmed in the rose garden, ending with this. So go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace. By that time, two pipe bombs had been found at locations near the capitol, including where the Vice President elect was conducting a meeting. Hours of handtohand combat had seriously injured scores of Law Enforcement officers. The capitol has been invaded. The electoral count has been halted as members were evacuated. Rioters took the floor of the senate. They rifled through desks and broke into offices and they nearly caught up to Vice President pence. Guns were drawn on the house floor and a rioter was shot attempting to infiltrate the chamber. We know that a number of rioters intended acts of physical violence against specific elected officials. We know virtually all the rioters were motivated by President Trumps rhetoric that the election had been stolen, and they felt they needed to take their country back. This hearing is principally about what happened inside of the white house that afternoon from the time when President Trump ended his speech until the moment when he finally told the mob to go home, a span of 187 minutes, more than three hours. What you will learn is that President Trump sat in his dining room and watched the attack on television while his senior most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any american president. I served proudly for 20 years as an officer in the United States navy. Veterans of our armed forces know firsthand the leadership thats required in a time of crisis, urgent and Decisive Action that puts duty and country first. But on january 6th, when lives and our democracy hung in the balance, President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power. And i yield to the gentleman from illinois, mr. Kinsinger. Thank you. One week after the attack, republican leader Kevin Mccarthy acknowledged the simple truth. President trump should have acted immediately to stop the violence. During our investigation general mark milley the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff also remarked on the president s failure to act. Lets hear what they had to say. The president bears responsibility for wednesdays attack on congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump. The commander in chief had an assault going on on the capitol of the United States of america. Nothing, no call, nothing, zero. Like my colleague from virginia, im a veteran. I served in the air force and i serve currently in the air National Guard. I can tell you general milleys reaction to President Trumps conduct is 100 correct and so was leader mccarthys. What explains President Trumps behavior . Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis . Because President Trumps plan for january 6th was to halt or delay congresss official proceeding to count the votes. The mob attacking the capitol quickly caused the evacuation of both the house and the senate. The count ground to an absolute halt and was delayed for hours. The mob was accomplishing President Trumps purpose, so of course he didnt intervene. Heres what will be clear by the end of this hearing. President trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act. But there were hundreds that day who honored their oaths and put their lives on the line to protect the people inside the capitol and to safeguard our democracy. Many of them are here tonight with us and many more are watching from home. As you already know and well see again tonight, their service and sacrifice shines a bright light on President Trumps dishonor and dereliction of duty. I yield to the vice chair. Thank you very much, mr. Kinsinger. Id like to begin by welcoming our witnesses this evening. Were joined by mr. Matthew pottinger, a decorated former marine Intelligence Officer who served this nation on tours of duty in afghanistan and iraq. He served in the Trump White House from the first day of the administration through the Early Morning hours of january 7th, 2021. The last role in which he served in the white house was as Deputy National security advisor to the president of the United States. Were also joined by Sarah Matthews. Ms. Matthews started her career in communications working on capitol hill, serving on the republican staffs of several house committees. She then worked as Deputy Press Secretary for President Trumps Reelection Campaign before joining the Trump White House in june of 2020. She served there as Deputy Press Secretary and special assistant to the president until the evening of january 6th, 2021. I will now swear in our witnesses. The witnesses will please stand and raise their right hands. Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you. You may be seated. Let the record reflect that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you both again for being here tonight. Mr. Pottinger, thank you for your service to the nation, as well as for joining us this evening. Can you please briefly explain what your responsibilities were as Deputy National security advisor to the president . Thank you, madam vice chair. When i started at the white house, i was a senior director for asia on the National Security Council Staff. So that was a job that involved helping coordinate the president s asia policy. I supported the president when he met or interacted with asian leaders. Later, 2019, i was promoted to the job of Deputy National security advisor. In that role, i was the chairman of the deputies committee. Thats an nfc meeting of all the deputy cabinet secretaries. We would settle important matters of National Policy related to our National Security. We would also tee up options for the president and for his cabinet members. I felt then as i do now it was a privilege to serve in the white house. Im also very proud of President Trumps Foreign Policy accomplishments. We were able to finally compete with china. We were also able to broker peace agreements between israel and three arab states. I mean, those are some examples of the types of policies that i think made our country safer. Thank you, mr. Pottinger. Were you in the white house during the attack on the capitol on january 6th . For most of the day, i was in the white house, although when the president was speaking at the rally, i was actually off site at a scheduled meeting with indias ambassador to the United States. The National Security Council Staff was not involved in organizing the security for what was a domestic event, the rally. But i did return to the white house at roughly 2 30 p. M. Thank you. I know my colleagues will have additional questions for you about that afternoon. Let me turn now to you ms. Matthews. How did you come to join President Trumps white house staff . Thank you, madam vice chairman. As you outlined, i am a lifelong republican, and i joined the trump Reelection Campaign in june of 2019. I was one of the First Communications staffers actually on board for his Reelection Campaign. During that time, i traveled all around the country and met Kayleigh Mcenany. I formed a close relationship with her. She moved over to the white house in april of 2020 to start as White House Press secretary and she brought over a group of Campaign Staff with her. So i joined her over at the white house in june of 2020 to start as her deputy. And were you, ms. Matthews, at work in the white house on january 6th . Yes. I was working out of the west wing that day. Thank you. And now id like to recognize the gentlewoman from virginia and the gentleman from illinois. Thank you, madam vice chair. As youve seen in our prior hearings, President Trump summoned the mob to d. C. On january 6th. Before he went on stage, he knew some of them were armed and prepared for combat. During his speech, he implored them to march to the capitol, as he always planned to do. By the time he walked offer the stage, his supporters had already breached the outer perimeter of the capitol at the foot of capitol hill. Since our last hearings, weve received new testimony from a security professional working in the white house complex on january 6th with access to relevant information and responsibility to report to National Security officials. This security official told us that the white house was aware of multiple reports of weapons in the crowd that morning. We as a committee are cognizant of the fear of retribution expressed by certain National Security witnesses who have come forward to tell the truth. Weve therefore taken steps to protect this National Security individuals identity. Listen to this clip from their testimony. Message from the people about this idea to be completely honest, we were all in a state of clock. Because why . Because, one, i think the actual physical capability of doing it and also we all knew what that meant, that this was no longer a rally, that this was going to lead to Something Else if he physically walked to the capitol. I dont know if you want to use the word insurrection, coup. We all knew this would move from a normal democratic public event into Something Else. What was driving that sentiment, considering this part of it, the actual breach of the capitol hadnt happened yet . Why were we alarmed . Right. The president wanted to lead 10,000 people to the capitol. I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed. Even though he understood many of his supporters were armed, the president was still adamant to go to the capitol when he got off the stage at the ellipse. But his secret Service Detail was equally determined to not let him go. That led to a heated argument with the detail that delayed the departure of the motorcade to the white house. We have evidence from multiple sources regarding an angry exchange in the president ial suv, including testimony we will disclose today from two witnesses who confirmed that a confrontation occurred. The first witness is a former white house employee with National Security responsibilities. After seeing the initial violence at the capitol on tv, the individual went to see tony ornato, the deputy chief of staff, in his office. Mr. Ornato was there with bobby engel, the president s lead secret Service Agent. This employee told us that mr. Ornato said that the president was, quote, irate when mr. Engel refused to drive him to the capitol. Mr. Engel did not refute what mr. Ornato said. The second witness is retired Sergeant Mark robinson of the d. C. Police department, who was assigned to the president s motorcade that day. He sat in the lead vehicle with the secret Service Agent responsible for the motorcade, also called the ts agent. Heres how Sergeant Robinson remembered the exchange. Was there any description of what was occurring in the car . No. The only description i received was that the president was upset and that he was adamant about going to the capitol and there was a heated discussion about that. And when you say heated, is that your word or is that the word that was described by the ts agent . Described by the ts agent, meaning that the president was upset and he was saying there was a heated argument or discussion about going to the capitol. About how many times would you say youve been part of that motorcade with the president . [ laughter ] probably over 100 times. And in that hundred times, have you ever witnessed another discussion or argument. Or heated discussion where the president was contradicting where he was supposed to go or what the secret service believed was safe . No. Like other witnesses, Sergeant Robinson also testified that he was aware that individuals in the crowd were armed. Yes, i believe we was on special events channel and i was monitoring the traffic, so i could hear some of the units pointing out individuals that there were individuals along constitution avenue that were armed, that were up in the trees and i could hear the units responding to those individuals. So theres always a concern when theres a potus in the area. And like other witnesses, Sergeant Robinson told us that the president still wanted to travel to the capitol even after returning to the white house. At the end of the speech, what was the plan supposed to be . So at the end of the speech, we do know that while inside the limo the president was still adamant about going to the capitol. Thats being relayed to me by the ts agent. So we did depart the ellipse and we responded back to the white house. However, the potus motorcade was placed on standby. So we were told to stand by until they confirmed whether or not the president was going to go to the capitol. So i may have waited i would just estimate 45 minutes to an hour, waiting for secret service to make that decision. The motorcade waited at the white house for more than 45 minutes before being released. Committee is also aware that accounts of the angry confrontation in the president ial suv have circulated widely among the secret Service Since january 6th. Recent disclosures have also caused the committee to subpoena yet further information from the secret service, which weve begun to receive and will continue to assess. The committee is also aware that certain secret service witnesses have now retained new private counsel. We anticipate further testimony under oath and other new information in the coming weeks. After the secret service refused to take President Trump to the capitol, he returned to the white house. What you see on the screen is a photo of him inside the oval office immediately after he returned from the rally, still wearing his overcoat. A white house employee informed the president as soon as he returned to the oval about the riot at the capitol. Let me repeat that. Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the capitol was besieged and under attack. At 1 25 President Trump went to the private dining room off the oval office. From 1 25 until 4 00, the president stayed in his dining room. Just to give you a sense of where the dining room is situated in the west wing, lets take a look at this floor plan. The dining room is connected to the oval office by a short hallway. Witnesses told us that on january 6th President Trump sat in his usual spot at the head of the table facing a television hanging on the wall. We know from the employee that the tv was tuned to fox news all afternoon. Here you can see fox news on the tv showing coverage of the joint session that was airing that day at 1 25. Other witnesses confirmed that President Trump was in the dining room with the tv on for more than 2 1 2 hours. There was no official record of what President Trump did while in the dining room. On the screen is the president ial call log from january 6th. As you can see theres no official record of President Trump receiving or placing a call between 11 06 and 6 54 00 p. M. As to what the president was doing that afternoon, the president ial daily diary is also silent. It contains no information from the period between 1 21 and 4 03 p. M. There are also no photos of President Trump during this critical period between 1 21 in the oval office and when he went outside to the rose garden after 4 00. The chief white house photographer wanted to take pictures because it was, in her words, very important for his archives and for history. But she was told, quote, no photographs. Despite the lack of photos or official record, weve learned what President Trump was doing while he was watching tv in the dining room. Before we get into that, its important to understand what he never did that day. Lets watch. So are you aware of any phone call by the president of the United States to the secretary of defense that day . Not that im aware of, no. Are you aware of any phone call by the president of the United States to the attorney general of the United States that day . No. Are you aware of any phone call by the president of the United States to the secretary of Homeland Security that day . Im not aware of that, no. Did you ever hear the president ask for the no. Did you ever hear for the president ask for Law Enforcement response . No. So as somebody who works in the National Security space and with the National Security council, if there were going to be troops present or called up for a rally in washington, d. C. , for example, is that something that you would have been aware of. Yeah, i would have. Do you know if he asked anybody to reach out to any of those that we just listed off, National Guard, d. O. D. , fbi, Homeland Security, secret service, mayor bowser or the Capitol Police about the situation at the capitol . Im not aware of any of those requests, no, sir. We have confirmed in numerous interviews with senior Law Enforcement and military leaders, Vice President pences staff and d. C. Government officials. None of them, not one, heard from President Trump that day. This week we received additional testimony from yet another witness about why the president didnt make any efforts to quell the attack. The former white house employee with National Security responsibilities told us about a conversation with Senior Advisor Eric Hirschman and Pat Cipallone, the Top White House lawyer. This conversation was about a pending call from the pentagon seeking to coordinate on the response to the attack. Mr. Hirschman turned to mr. Cipallone and said, the president didnt want to do anything. So mr. Cipallone had to take the call himself. If President Trump wasnt calling Law Enforcement or military leaders, what did President Trump spend his time doing that afternoon when he first settled into the dining room . He was calling senators to encourage them to delay or object to the certification. Heres Kayleigh Mcenany, his press secretary, to explain. That says back there he wants list of senators and then hes calling them one by one. Do you know which ones he called . To the best of my recollection, no. As i say in my notes, he wanted a list of senators. I left them at that point. Because the president ial call log is empty, we do not yet know precisely which senators President Trump was calling, but we do know from Rudy Giulianis phone record that President Trump also called him at 1 39, after he had been told that the riot was under way at the capitol. Mr. Giuliani was President Trumps lead election attorney. According to the phone records, the president s call with him lasted approximately 4 minutes. Recall that fox news was on in the dining room. Lets take a look at what was airing as this call was ending. The president , as we all saw, fired this crowd up. Tens of thousands maybe 100,000 or more have gone down to the capitol or elsewhere in the city and theyre very upset. Now, i jumped down as soon as we heard the news that brett gave you. I said what do you think . One woman, an air force veteran from missouri, said she was, quote, disgusted to hear that news and that it was his duty to do something. I told her, theres nothing in the constitution unilaterally that Vice President pence could do. She said, that doesnt matter. He should have fought for trump. At 1 49, heres what was happening at the capitol with President Trumps firedup supporters. Were going to try and get compliance, but this is now a riot. Declaring a riot. Hold the line what did President Trump do at 1 49 as the d. C. Police at the same time were declaring a riot at the capitol . As you can see on the screen, he tweeted out a link to the recording of his ellipse speech. This was the same speech in which he knowingly sent an armed mob to the capitol, but President Trump made no comment about the lawlessness and violence. I yield to the gentleman from illinois. The next action President Trump took was to tweet at 2 24 p. M. What happened during the 35 minutes between his last tweet at 1 49 and 2 24 . His staff repeatedly came into the room to see him and plead that he make a strong Public Statement condemning the violence and instructing the mob to leave the capitol. He did not relent until after 4 00 when he went out to go to the rose garden to film his now infamous go home message. Pat cipallone was a Top White House lawyer. Heres his reaction to the violence and his advice through the afternoon. [indiscernible] i first realized it may have been on television or may have been i found out that people were they werent in the capitol yet, but they were, you know then i started watching it and then i was aware of it. What specifically did you think . I think there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, Public Statement that people need to leave the capitol. It sounds like you, from the very onset of violence at the capitol, around 2 00, were pushing for the strong statement that people should leave the capitol, is that right . I was. Pat, you said you expressed your opinion forcefully. Could you tell us exactly how you did that . I cant im going to have i have to on the privilege issue, i cant talk about conversations with the president but i can generically say that i said, you know, people need to be told. There needs to be a public announcement fast that they need to leave the capitol. And pat, could you let us know approximately when you said that . Approximately when . Almost immediately after i found out people were getting into the capitol or approaching the capitol in a way that was violent. Do you remember any discussions mark meadows, with respect to his view that the president didnt want to do anything, was somehow resistant to wanting to Say Something . Just to be clear, many people suggested it. Not just me. Many people felt the same way. Im sure i had conversations with mark about this during the course of the day and expressed my opinion very forcefully that this needs to be done. Your advice was tell people to leave the capitol, and it took over two hours when there were subsequent statements made, tweets put forth that were insufficient. Did you continue throughout the period of time up until 4 17, continue, you and others to push for a stronger statement . Yes. Were you joined in the statement by ivanka trump . Yes. White House Counsel wanted there to be a strong statement out to condemn the rioters. Im confident in that. Im confident ivanka trump wanted there to be a strong statement to condemn the rioters. I dont know the private conversations she had with mr. Trump, but i remember when she came to the office one time with white House Counsels office when she came to the chief of staffs office with white House Counsels office. She was talking about the speech later that day and trying to get her dad on board with saying something that was more direct than he had wanted to at the time and throughout the afternoon. I think mark also i remember him getting ivanka involved. Said get ivanka down here, because he thought that would be important. I dont think jared was there in the morning, but i think he came later. I remember thinking it was important to get him in there too. And, of course, pat philbin was expressing the same thing. Pat philbin, you know, was very, as i said, i dont think there was one of these meetings where there might have been for the most part i remember both of us going down together, going back, getting on phone calls. He was also very clearly expressing this view. Pat cipallone and Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to chief of staff mark meadows, also told us about the hang mike pence chants. Mr. Cipallone recalled conversations about those chants in the west wing, but he relied on executive privilege to maintain confidentiality over his and others direct communications with the president. Although mr. Cipallone was unable to provide more detail, ms. Hutchinson provided more information to fill in the blanks. It wasnt until mark hung up the phone, handed it back to me. I went back to my desk. A couple minutes later him and pat came back, possibly eric hihirschman too. Im pretty sure Eric Hirschman was there, but im confident it was pat that was there. I remember pat saying something to the effect of, mark, we need to do something more, theyre literally calling for the Vice President to be effing hung. And mark responded something to the effect of, you heard him, pat, he thinks mike deserves it, he doesnt think theyre doing anything wrong. To which pat said something, this is effing crazy. We need to be doing something more. Briefly stepped into marks office. Do you remember any discussion at any point during the day about rioters at the capitol chanting hang mike pence . Yes, i remember hearing that, about that, yes. I dont know if i observed that myself. Do you remember what you can share with us about the discussion about those chants to hang mike pence chants . I can tell you my view of that. Yes, please. My view of that, that is outrageous for anyone to suggest such a thing. Thats the Vice President of the United States. For the crowd to be chanting that i thought was terrible. I thought it was outrageous and wrong and i expressed that very clearly. With respect to your conversations with mr. Meadows, though, did you specifically raise your concern of the Vice President and how did he respond . I believe i raised a concern about the Vice President and the nature of his response, without recalling it exactly, was people were doing all that they could. And what about the president . Did he indicate whether the president was doing what needed to be done . You have to assert it. [indiscernible] im being shut down. I see. In addition, mr. Cipallone testified that it would have been feasible as commentators on television were suggesting, for President Trump to immediately appear at the podium in the press room to address the nation. Would it have been possible for the president to walk down to the podium in the Briefing Room and talk to the nation at any time between when you first gave him that advice at 2 00 and 4 17 . Would that have been possible . Would it have been possible . Yes. Yes, it would have been possible. We just heard mr. Cipallone say that President Trump could have gone to the press Briefing Room to issue a statement at any moment. To give you a sense of just how easy that would have been, lets take a look at the map of the west wing. As we saw earlier, the president s private dining room is at the bottom of the map. The press Briefing Room is at the top highlighted in blue. And the rose garden, where the president ultimately filmed his go home video is on the right next to the oval office and thats highlighted in green. Ms. Matthews, how quickly could the president have gotten on camera in the press Briefing Room to deliver a station to the nation . As you outlined, it would probably take less than 60 seconds from the Oval Office Dining Room over to the press Briefing Room. The Briefing Room is the room you see the White House Press secretary do briefings from with the podium and the blue backdrop. Theres a camera on in there at all times. So if the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American People, he could have been on camera almost instantly. Conversely, the White House Press corps has offices located directly behind the Briefing Room. So if he wanted to make an address from the oval office, we could have assembled the White House Press corps in a matter of minutes for an on camera address. Thank you. Other witnesses have given us their views on that question. For example, general Keith Kellogg told us some staff were concerned that a life 57 appearance by the president at the microphones at that moment could actually make matters worse. He told us he recommended against doing a press conference because during his four years in the Trump Administration, quote, there wasnt a single clean press conference we had had. President trumps advisors knew his state of mind at that moment, and they were worried about what he would say in unscripted comments. I yield to the gentlewoman from virginia. Thank you. As youve heard, by 2 00 multiple Staff Members in the white house recognized that a serious situation was under way at the capitol. Personally, i recall being evacuated from the House Office Building where were sitting before this time. It was due to the discovery of two pipe bombs in nearby buildings. Ms. Matthews, around the same time you were watching the violence unfold on television and social media with colleagues, including with ben williamson, a senior aide to mark meadows and the acting director of communications. You told us that before President Trump sent his next tweet at 2 24, mr. Williamson got up to go see mr. Meadows and you got up to go see Kayleigh Mcenany. Why did you do that . Ben and i were watching the coverage unfold and we recognized that the situation was escalating quickly and that the president needed to be out there immediately to tell these people to go home and condemn the violence that we were seeing. So i told him that i was going to make that recommendation to kayleigh. He said, he was going to make the same recommendation to the chief of staff, mark meadows. Thank you. One of your colleagues in the press office judd deer told us he went to see ms. Mcenany at this time. Lets hear from him about this critical period of time right as the rioters were getting into the capitol. Well, it appears that individuals are storming the u. S. Capitol building. They also appear to be supporters of donald trump, who may have been in attendance at the rally, were going to need to Say Something. Did you have a view as to what would be said by the white house . If i recall, i told kayleigh that i thought that we needed to encourage individuals to stop, to respect Law Enforcement and to go home. Although President Trump was aware of the ongoing riot, he did not take any immediate action to address the lawlessness. Instead, at 2 03 he called Rudy Giuliani again and that call lasted for over 8 minutes. Moments later at 2 13, rioters broke into the capitol itself. One of the proud boys charged with seditious conspiracy, dominick pazzola, used an officers shield to smash a window and rioters flooded into the building. Lets go [indiscernible] as rioters were entering the building, the secret service held Vice President pence in his office right off the Senate Chamber for 13 minutes as they worked to clear a safe path to a secure location. Now listen to some of that radio traffic and see what they were seeing as the protesters got just feet away from where the Vice President was holding. Hold. Theyve entered the building. Hold. Harden that door up. If if were moving, we need to move now. Copy. If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave. So if were going to leave, we need to do it now. They gained access to the second floor and ive got public here below. They are on the second floor moving in now. We may want to consider getting out and leaving now. Copy . Encountencounter. [indiscernible] there are six officers between the people that are five to ten feet away. Im going down to evaluate. Go ahead. Smoke downstairs, unknown smoke downstairs. By the protesters . Is that route compromised . We have the [ bleep ] is secure. However, we will bypass some protesters that are being contained. There is smoke, unknown what kind of smoke it is. Copy . Clear. Were coming out now, all right . Make way. The president s National Security Council Staff was listening to these developments and tracking them in realtime. On the screen, you can see excerpts from the chat logs among the president s National Security Council Staff. At 2 13, the staff learned that the rioters were kicking in the windows at the capitol. Three minutes later, the staff said the Vice President was being pulled, which meant agents evacuated him from the senate floor. At 2 24 the staff noted that the secret Service Agents at the capitol did not, quote, sound good right now. Earlier you heard from a security professional who had been working in the white house complex on january 6th with access to relevant information and a responsibility to report to National Security officials. We asked this person, what was meant by the comment that the secret Service Agents did not, quote, sound good right now . In the following clip of that testimony, which has been modified to protect the individuals identity, the professional discusses what they heard from listening to the incoming radio traffic that day. That last entry on this page says the secret service does not sound good right now. Correct. What does that mean . Members of the vp detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of very personal calls over the radio. So it was disturbing. There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth. For whatever the reason was on the grounds and did you hear that over the radio . Yes. What was the response by the agents that were there . Everybody kept saying, you know, at that point it was just reassurance. I think there were discussions of reenforcements coming. Again, it was just chaos. It was just yelling. What prompted you to put it into an entry . If theyre running out of options and theyre getting nervous, it sounds like that we came very close to either service having to use lethal options or worse. At that point, i dont know. Is the vp compromised . Is the detail i dont know. If theyre screaming and saying things like say goodbye to family, the floor needs to know this is going to a whole other level. As this next video shows, the rioters anger was focused primarily on Vice President mike pence. This woman comes up to the side of us and she says, pence folded. So it was kind of like, okay, well, in my mind i was thinking, well, thats it. My soninlaw looks at me and he says, i want to go in. What percentage of the crowd is going to the capitol . 100 . It has spread like wildfire that pence has betrayed on us and everybody is marching on the capitol, all million of us. Its insane. Mike pence traitor what happened . Mike pence has screwed us. Did people appear angry as you were walking to the capitol . Yeah. A lot of people seemed like they were very upset. Tell us some of the things they were saying, if you recall. People were screaming all types of stuff. They were mad that Vice President pence was going to accept the electorals. I mean, it was if you could think it up, you were hearing it. I believe the Vice President pence was going to certify the electoral votes, or not certify them. I guess thats just changed, correct . Its a very big disappointment. I think theres several hundred thousand people here who are very disappointed. President trump did not try to calm his thousands of disappointed supporters. Instead, at almost the same moment violence was getting completely out of hand, donald trump sent his 2 24 tweet. The president said, mike pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution. Despite knowing the capitol had been breached and the mob was in the building, President Trump called mike pence a coward and placed all the blame on him for not stopping the certification. He put a target on his own Vice President s back. Mr. Pottinger and ms. Matthews, when we ask you about your reaction to seeing the 2 24 tweet in realtime, you both used the same imagery to describe it. President trump was adding fuel to the fire. Mr. Pottinger, you made the decision to resign after seeing this tweet. Can you please tell us why . Yes. So that was pretty soon after or shortly before id gotten back to the white house. I had come from off site. I began to see for the first time those images on tv of the chaos that was unfolding at the capitol. One of my aides handed me a sheet of paper that contained the tweet that you just read. I read it and was quite disturbed by it. I was disturbed and worried to see that the president was attacking Vice President pence for doing his constitutional duty. So the tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, it was a deescalation. Thats why i had said earlier that it looked like fuel being poured on the fire. So that was the moment that i decided that i was going to resign, that that would be my last day at the white house. I simply didnt want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the capitol. Thank you. Ms. Matthews, what was your reaction to the president s tweet about Vice President pence . So it was obvious that the situation at the capitol was violent and escalating quickly. And so i thought that the tweet about the Vice President was the last thing that was needed in that moment. I remember thinking that this was going to be bad for him to tweet this, because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people, telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the capitol and entering the capitol was okay, that they were justified in their anger. He shouldnt have been doing that. He should have been telling these people to go home and to leave and condemn the violence that we were seeing. Im someone who has worked with him. You know, i worked on the campaign, traveled all around the country going to countless rallies with him. And ive seen the impact that his words have on his supporters. They truly latch onto every word and every tweet that he says. So i think that in that moment, for him to tweet out the message about mike pence, it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse. Thank you both. Lets watch what others also told us about this tweet. I dont remember when exactly i heard about that tweet, but my reaction to it is thats a terrible tweet and i disagreed with the sentiment. I thought it was wrong. What was your reaction when you saw that tweet . Extremely unhelpful. Why . It wasnt the message that we needed at that time. It wasnt going to the scenes at the u. S. Capitol were only getting worse at that point. This was not going to help that. Were you concerned it would make it worse . Certainly. Ms. Hutchinson, what was your reaction when you saw this tweet . As a staffer that works to always represent the administration to the best of my ability and to showcase the good things that he had done for the country, i remember feeling frustrated, disappointed and really it felt personal. I was really sad. As an american, i was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was unamerican. We were watching the Capitol Building get defaced over a lie. As you will see, at 2 26 the Vice President had to be evacuated to safety a second time and came within 40 feet of the rioters. The attack escalated quickly right after the tweet. Come on come on oh oh oh during this chaos, what did President Trump do at that point . He went back to calling senators to try to further delay the electoral count. While the Vice President was being evacuated from the senate, President Trump called senator tommy tupperville, one of his strongest supporters in the senate. As he later recalled, he had to end the call so he could evacuate the Senate Chamber himself. Lets listen. Didnt call my phone. Called somebody else. They handed it to me. I basically told him, mr. President , were not doing much work here right now because they just took the Vice President out. As a matter of fact, im going to hang up on you. Ive got to leave. Senator josh hawley also had to flee. Earlier this afternoon before the joint session started, he walked across the east front of the capitol. As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with the protesters already amassing at the security gates. We spoke with the Capitol Police officer who was out there at the time. She told us that senator hawleys gesture riled up the crowd and it bothered her greatly, because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers. Later that day, senator hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the capitol. See for yourself. 3 f2 piensen en lo que hemos President Trump, who was oath and duty bound to protect the capitol. His senior staff understood that. Do you believe, jared, that the president has an obligation to ensure a peaceful transfer of power . Um, yes. And do you think the president has an obligation to defend all three branches of our government . Uh, i believe so. And i assume you also would agree the president has a particular obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed . That is one of the president s obligations, correct. I mean, i asked what his duty is. Well, i mean, theres a constitutional duty that he has as the commander in chief. That was my Biggest Issue with him as National Security advisor. Rather than uphold his duty to the constitution, President Trump allowed the mob to achieve the delay that he hoped would keep him in power. I reserve. The gentlewoman reserves. I request that those in the hearing room remain seated until the Capitol Police have escorted members and witnesses from the room. I now declare the committee in recess for a period of approximately 10 minutes. Pleaded with President Trump to make a public announcement calling off the rioters hours before the president finally did. Were in this 10minute break right now walking you through what weve seen in this first half, the committee presenting testimony that President Trump never reached out to any agency from military to Law Enforcement to try to stop the violence. They also played testimony from a White House Security official that some members of the Vice President s security detail so feared for their lives they called their families to say goodbye. Theres a lot to get to here. With us moderator of meet the press chuck todd. Senior washington correspondent Hallie Jackson and nbc News Washington correspondent yamiche alcindor. Bombshell is too strong of a word, but i think thats the biggest moment from this hearing. It is important details of just how folks its interesting. The anonymous official there and they were very careful how to describe this woman. It sounds like this person is detailed to work at the white house. That person was listening to the raw feed of what was happening in that precarious moment of when to move pence. I thought that was a very compelling moment in this. Look, this is what we expected them to be able to do, which is to show not only that the president didnt do anything, but actually what was happening was part of the plan. You heard them end right there when they said, you know, he got the delay he was looking for. What was he doing during all of these delays . Calling senators. Its also important to note that some of the early testimony seemed to be trying to i dont want to say repair anything that Cassidy Hutchinson said but to support her testimony. Look, they dont support the details. They dont support that he grabbed the steering wheel, but he was irate. Heres what i think they certainly did a good job of indicating. There was a confrontation in that car between the president and his secret service over going to the capitol. Was it physical . Was it not . This is something that maybe the Text Messages that are missing might be able to fill in some of the blanks. But i do think youre right, repair is a little strong of a word, but reenforced. For that they had a Washington Police officer. Yes. Hallie . I think theres two micro points and a macro point here, because that new information that we got, that secret Service Members on the Vice President s detail were so scared they were literally calling for their families to be able to say goodbye to them. Do you know when it was recorded that service at the capitol did not seem good right then, meaning the secret Service Agents were not in a good place . 2 24 p. M. , which is the exact time trump sent that tweet. The committee is not just saying look at the clear danger pence was in. Theyre saying look what trump was doing while his Vice President was in a position where a security official at the white house speculated whether the Vice President would actually be compromised, meaning could his life be in danger. Liz cheney talked about a conversation between cipallone and Eric Hirschman, saying something along the lines of the president didnt want anything done. Cipallone ended up having to be the one to take the call. This is the committee looking the show and back up their assertion that donald trump not only didnt do anything at the time at the capitol, but that he actively wanted this attack to continue. Keep in mind who weve heard from here. These are all career white house folks or political appointees. These are people with links to President Trump. These are republicans. You heard Sarah Matthews say im a lifelong republican. She proudly said she was the First Communications staffer who joined the trump Reelection Campaign. Matthew pottinger has been there in the white house since day one. These are not democrats talking about how upset they are. These are people who were in that orbit. Tonight i think that takes on a real added urgency and importance. Yamiche, weigh in here. The danger that Vice President mike pence was in went from theoretical to real, went from the secret Service Looking at this and saying not only might his life be in danger, but we all might be in danger too. I think it was interesting they showed the white house was tracking the developments at the capitol. Because there are those that question, well, did President Trump really understand how bad it was . Was there a miscommunication there . I also thought it was important that the Video Montage was connected to the idea that the pentagon is calling and, by the way, the president was not looking for the National Guard or doj or fbi or anything to try and stop this. I think its important that Matt Pottinger in particular said, after this, i didnt want to be associated with the president. Juxtapose that with what were seeing right now, which is theres a gop party very much wanting to be associated with former President Trump and what they say is not an insurrection, but in fact, was them trying to get an election taken away from joe biden because they believed it was unfair results there. That, of course, isnt true. But to me its really telling that you have these people who were in the white house saying, i saw this, its ugly. Then you have a whole Political Party thats saying even today, actually were going to keep this guy, were going to keep his grip on the party. Lets bring in capitol correspondent ali vitale. She was inside the hearing room. There were Capitol Police officers there that day in this session. The thought was this could be an especially hard day. Give us a sense of the room, ali. Reporter yeah. Lester, many of those Capitol Police officers, lawmakers who were stuck and trapped in the House Chamber on that day told me they anticipated this was going to be among the hardest hearings for them, because they were going to see situations they themselves were a part of. Certainly there were a lot of moments in that room that were tense, that were hard to watch. A lot of tears from lawmakers as their colleagues held their hands in support of them, times when people like officer harry dunn had to look away from the screen and hang his head, because he couldnt continue to watch anymore. That was the emotion that played out in this room that really hung on so many of the words, as we heard, for example, people inside the white house detail time after time that the former president didnt try to call the department of defense, didnt try to call the department of Homeland Security, no military, no Law Enforcement, that there was no action taken. A lot of emotion in the room as people who were directly impacted by that lack of action reacted in realtime to getting all of this information. I also think that one of the things on display right now is the strategy of this committee to only use republicans made it very hard and were seeing tweets get deleted in realtime by republicans on twitter trying to say these are republicans who are stooges of democrats, when thats not true. Let me bring in kristin welker. There had been a big buildup to Pat Cipallones testimony. What are you thoughts about his importance . I think that former white House Counsel Pat Cipallone is critical, particularly on a night like tonight when the committee is trying to make its Closing Argument for now, because he bolsters everything we have heard in all of these other hearings. The bottom line that on january 6th there were a chorus of voices, including from him, saying that former President Trump needed to do more. Cipallone couldnt get specific about what he said, but he made it very clear that ivanka trump was involved, that a number of top officials were urging the president to get out there and call off the rioters. He was one of the top officials at the white house. Sarah matthews, as a juxtaposition is a lower level press aide. She went back and tried to convince her boss Kayleigh Mcenany that the president needed to do something. I was at the white house on january 6th after that tweet was sent out by former President Trump attacking his Vice President , Sarah Matthews had tears in her eyes, the realization that her efforts went unheeded and the president went in the opposite direction and only energized the angry and violent mob more. The bottom line that there were a chorus of voices all saying the same thing to former President Trump and those around him, it was up to the president to call off th e so i said, yeah youre saving hundreds with the home and auto bundle from progressive, but theres no saving that casserole [ both laugh ] i just love that word bundle. Its so fun. Two things coming together like a force of nature, like it was really meant to be, yknow . Yes, yes, i do. And im so glad you wanna save money. Rodney, set up a bundle for jon hamm. Mm of course jon, is it still cool if i catch a ride home with you . I never said it was. But technically you didnt say it wasnt. Its not. Yet. Heres why tribal leaders urge you to vote yes on prop 27. The act provides hundreds of millions every year for Permanent Solutions to homelessness, Mental Health and addiction in california. Prop 27 supports financially disadvantaged tribes that dont own big casinos. By taxing and regulating Online Sports betting for adults 21 and over, we can protect tribal sovereignty and finally do something about homelessness in california. Vote yes on prop 27. The january 6th hearing right now to reset. Why dont we talk about senator josh hawley. If you could say, that is a trolling moment, if you will. I think this is the committee sending a message to some of these republican lawmakers like, look, you egged these people on and you didnt realize what youve done. Hes probably the shining example. The morning of january 6th there were already people gathering at the capitol in this moment thinking it was going to be a big deal and he was obviously egging on that moment. A few people, liz cheney in particular, talks about them and wants to seem them held accountable. It got a loud laugh inside the room when that video was shown. You have to remember what happened before that, that incredibly intense, very disturbing secret service revelation. Hawley is not very popular in the senate. It used to be i dont know who would win that congeniality contest, ted cruz or josh hawley. We talked about them not wanting to seem too political. Is that walking up to the line . It is a little bit. But hawley is a safe target because hes not popular with many republicans either, including senators who thought hawley in particular sort of gave more life to the whole idea of objecting, made it a sort of test of those who wanted to run for president. And the session is back in order. Well take you there. We left at the recess just after President Trumps 2 24 tweet attacking the Vice President. By this time, the president had been in his dining room for an hour. I want you to just think of what you would have done if you were in his shoes and had the power to end the violence. You would have immediately and forcefully told the rioters to stop and leave, like stop and leave, done. As you heard, thats exactly what his senior staff had been urging him to do, but he resisted. And he kept resisting for another almost two hours. In the meantime, all the president did was post two tweets, one at 2 38 and the other at 3 13. One said, quote, stay peaceful. The other said, quote, remain peaceful. But the president already knew that the mob was attacking the police and had invaded the capitol. Neither tweet condemned the violence or told the mob to leave the capitol and disperse. To appreciate how obvious it was that President Trump was not meeting this moment, its helpful to look at the realtime reactions of his on son, don junior, to the first tweet captured in a series of Text Messages with mark meadows. Ill warn the audience these messages contain some Strong Language. As you can see, don junior first texted mr. Meadows at 2 53. He wrote, hes got to condemn this shit asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough. Mr. Meadows replied, i am pushing it hard, i agree. Don junior responded, this is when you go to the mattresses on. They will try to fuck his entire legacy on this if it gets worse. Heres what don junior told us he meant by go to the mattresses. At 2 58 when you say mr. Meadows needs to go to the mattresses on this issue, when you say go to the mattresses, what did that mean . Just a reference for going all in. I think its a godfather reference. Sean hannity agreed and he also turned to mark meadows for help after the president s second tweet. As you can see, mr. Hannity texted at 3 31 to say trump needed to deliver a statement to the nation telling the rioters to leave the capitol. Mr. Meadows responded that he was, quote, on it. Don junior and sean hannity were not the only ones who implored mr. Meadows to get the president to speak to the nation and tell the mob to leave, to go home, go home. Throughout the attack, mr. Meadows received texts from republican members of congress, from current and former Trump Administration officials, from media personalities and from friends. Like President Trumps staff, they knew President Trump had to speak publicly to get the mob to stop. Lets look at just a few of these Text Messages. Fox news personality laura ingram said, the president needs to tell the people in the capitol to go home. Former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney urged mark, he needs to stop this now. Fox news personality Brian Killmeade said, please get him on tv, destroying everything that you guys have accomplished. When we interviewed white House Counsel Pat Cipallone, he told us that he knew the president s two tweets were not enough. Lets listen to what he said. The question is did you believe the tweets were no. I believed more needed to be done. Okay. I believed that a Public Statement needed to be made. When you talk about others on the staff thinking more should be done or thinking that the president needed to tell people to go home, who would you put in that category . Well, i would put Eric Hirschman, mark meadows, ivanka, once jared got there, jared, general kellogg. Kayleigh, i think, was there. Dan scavino. And who on the staff did not want people to leave the capitol . On the staff . In the white house. I dont i cant think of anybody, you know, on that day who didnt want people to get out of the capitol, particularly once the violence started, no. I mean what about the president . Yeah. She said the staff. Hell answer. No. I said in the white house. Oh, im sorry. I apologize. I thought you said who else on the staff. I cant reveal communications. But obviously i think, you know. Yeah. Lets pause on that last statement. Although Pat Cipallone is being careful about executive privilege, there really is no ambiguity about what he said. Almost everybody wanted President Trump to instruct the mob to disperse. President trump refused. To understand how inadequate the president s tweets were, lets examine his 2 38 tweet in more detail. For context, heres what was happening at that time. [indiscernible] theres people flooding the hallways outside. We have no way out. We were just told that there has been tier gas in the rotunda and were being instructed to each of us get gas masks. We went from a peaceful protest and this is a very dangerous situation right now, that there are im being told these protesters on the inside are around both chambers and there is now tear gas inside the capitol rotunda. In fact, members locked in the house are being instructed to put on masks. Ms. Matthews, after President Trumps tweet about Vice President pence, you told us you spoke immediately to Kayleigh Mcenany. What did you tell her and where did she go afterwards . After the tweet about the Vice President , i found kayleigh and told her that i thought the president needed to immediately send out a tweet that condemned the violence that we were seeing and that there needed to be a call to action to tell these people to leave the capitol. And she agreed and walked over to the oval dining room to find the president. We interviewed ms. Mcenany and others who were in the dining room with the president urging them to put out a statement. Ms. Matthews, ms. Mcenany told us she came right back to the press office after meeting with the president about this particular tweet. What did she tell you about what happened in that dining room . When she got back, she told me a tweet had been sent out. I told her that i thought the tweet did not go far enough, that i thought there needed to be a call to action and he needed to condemn the violence. We were in a room full of people, but people werent paying attention. So she looked directly at me and in a hushed tone shared with me that the president did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet and that it took some convincing on their part, those who were in the room. She said there was a back and forth going over different phrases to find something that he was comfortable with. And it wasnt until ivanka trump suggested the phrase stay peaceful that he finally agreed to include it. The president resisted writing stay peaceful in a tweet. He told mark meadows that the rioters were doing what they should be doing and that the rioters understood they were doing what President Trump wanted them to do. President trumps message was heard clearly by stop the steal organizer ali alexander. He said potus is not ignorant of what his words would do. Rioters storming the capitol also heard President Trumps message. In this video, youll see Surveillance Footage from the rotunda that shows a group of oath keepers including Jessica Watkins whos been charged with seditious conspiracy. Youll hear his walkietalkie communications with others as they share intelligence and communicate about President Trumps 2 38 tweet in realtime. Again, we warn the audience this clip also contains Strong Language. Cnn just said that they evacuated all members of congress into a safety room. Theres no safe place in the United States for any of these motherfuckers right now, let me tell you. I hope they understand that we are not joking around. Military principle 105, military principle 105, cave means grave. Trump just tweeted, please support our Capitol Police, they are on our side, do not harm them. Thats saying a lot by what he didnt say. He didnt say not to do anything to the congress. [ laughter ] he did not ask them to stand down. Hes just said stand by the Capitol Police, they are on our side and they are good people. So its getting real down there. I got it on tv. Its looking pretty friggin radical to me. Cnn said that trump has egged this on, that he is egging it on and that he is watching the country burn two weeks before he leaves office. He is not leaving office. I dont give a shit what they say. We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. Theyre throwing grenades. Theyre shooting people with paint balls but we are in here. Be safe, be safe, god bless and god speed and keep going. Get it, jes. Do your shih. This is what we fuckin trained for. Were in the fucking capitol weve seen how President Trumps supporters reacted to his tweets. Mr. Pottinger, you told us you considered the tweets send to this point to be, quote, wholly inadequate given the urgency of the crisis. What, in your view, what you have been needed . Yeah. It was insufficient. I think you could count me among those who was hoping to see an unequivocal strong statement clearing out the capitol, telling people to stand down, leave, go home. I think thats what we were hoping for. So something a lot more kind of definitive and not ambiguous. Yeah. He has that power over his folks. Ms. Matthews, you told us about a colleague who said during the attack that the president should not condemn the violence. Can you please tell us about that moment and your reaction . Yes. So a conversation started in the press office after the president sent out those two tweets that i deemed were insufficient. And a colleague suggested that the president shouldnt condemn the violence, because they thought it would be, quote, handing a win to the media if he were to condemn his supporters. I disagreed. I thought that we should condemn the violence and condemn it unequivocally. I thought he needed to include a call to action and tell these people to go home. A debate ensued over it. And i became visibly frustrated and my colleagues were well aware of that. I couldnt believe we were arguing over this in the middle of the west wing, talking about the politics of a tweet, being concerned with handing the media a win when we had just watched all of that violence unfold at the capitol. So i motioned up at the tv and i said, do you think it looks like were effing winning . Because i dont think it does. I again reiterated that i thought that the president needed to condemn the violence, because it didnt matter if it was coming from the left or the right, but you should condemn violence 100 of the time. Weve heard this evening how everyone in the president s orbit was pushing him to do more, to tell the mob to leave the capitol. One of these people, one of those people was republican leader Kevin Mccarthy. He managed to get the president on the phone and told him to call off his supporters. As you will hear, the president refused. So leader mccarthy reached out for help to ivanka trump, who was at the white house, and jared kushner, who that afternoon had just arrived back on a flight from the middle east. So at some point in the afternoon, mr. Mccarthy placed a phone call to mr. Scavinos desk line and it was transferred to the president , is that correct . Thats generally what i recall. Okay. Were you involved in making that, transferring that call . I yes. Okay. Where was the president at the time he took that call . He was in the dining room. Would you personally reach out to the president for more support . Ive already talked to the president. I called him. I think we need to make a statement, make sure that we can calm individuals down. Did mr. Mccarthy indicate he had been in touch with President Trump . He indicated that he had had some conversation, i dont recall whether it was with the president or somebody at the white house. But i think he expressed frustration not taking the circumstances as seriously as they should at that moment. I asked Kevin Mccarthy, whos a republican leader, about this. He called donald trump he finally got through to donald trump and he said, you have got to get on tv, you have got to get on twitter, youve got to call these people off. You know what the president said to him . This is as its happening. He said, kevin, these arent my people. These are antifa. Kevin responded and said, no theyre your people. They literally just came through my Office Window and my staff are running for cover. Theyre running for their lives. You need to call them off. The president s response was chilling. Well, kevin, i guess theyre just more upset about the election theft than you are. Youve seen widespread reports of Kevin Mccarthy, he and the president having basically a swearing conversation. Thats when the swearing commenced, because the president was basically saying, no, im okay with this. Leader mccarthy, the president of the United States has a Briefing Room steps from the oval office. The cameras are hot 24 7, as you know. Why hasnt he walked down and said that now . I conveyed to the president what i think is best to do, and im hopeful the president will do it. Have you spoken with his chief of staff . I spoken to the president , ive spoken to other people in there and to the white house as well. Who else reached out that you know of about the attack on the capitol . I believe at one point mccarthy did. I heard my phone ringing, turned the shower off, saw it was leader mccarthy, who i had a Good Relationship with. He told me it was getting really ugly over at the capitol and said, please, anything you could do to help, i would appreciate it. I dont recall specific asks. Just anything you could do. I got the sense they were scared. They meaning mccarthy and people on the hill because of the violence . He was scared, yes. Think about that. Leader mccarthy, who was one of the president s strongest supporters was scared and begging for help. President trump turned him down. So he tried to call the president s children. Republican house member Mike Gallagher also implored the president to call off the attack. Mr. President , you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off. Call it off. The election is over. Call it off. President elect joe biden also went live on tv to demand that President Trump tell the mob to leave. I call on President Trump to go on National Television now to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege. It was a desperate scramble for everyone to get President Trump to do anything. All this occurred and the president still did not act. I yield to my friend from virginia. Thank you, mr. Kinsinger. President trump finally relented to the pleas from his staff, his family and capitol hill for him to do something more at 4 17, 187 minutes, more than 3 hours after he stopped speaking at the ellipse. After he stopped speaking to a mob that he had sent armed to the capitol. Thats when he tweeted a video telling the rioters to go home while also telling them that they were special and that he loved them. By that time although, the violence was far from over. Law enforcement had started to turn the tide. Reenforcements were on the way. Elected officials were in secure locations. The writing was already on the wall. The rioters would not succeed. Heres what was showing on fox news, the channel the president was watching all afternoon. Back to brett with more information. What do you have . Our Pentagon Team confirming the Defense Department has now mobilized the entire d. C. National guard, 1800 troops, takes several hours to get them up and running. The Army Secretary Ryan Mccarthy is setting up headquarters at the fbi. You just heart from david spunt that the fbi is also sending troops to the capitol. Its no coincidence then that President Trump finally gave in and went out to the rose garden at 4 03. His staff prepared a script for him to read, but he refused to use it. As you can see on the screen, you can see the script is stamped president has seen. The script said, quote, im asking you to leave the capitol region now and go home in a peaceful way. The president was urged to stick to this script, but he spoke off the cuff. Eric hirschman and nick luna went with the president to film the message in the rose garden. Lets hear what they had to say and see the raw footage of the president recording this message. Ultimate these remarks in exhibit 25 were not the remarks the president delivered in the rose garden. Do you know why the president decided not to use these . I dont know, sir. No, i do not know why. Did the president use any written remarks, to your knowledge . Or did he just go off the cuff . To my knowledge, it was off the cuff, sir. When youre ready, sir. You tell me when. When youre ready, sir. Whos behind me . Hes gone around. Were all clear now. I know your pain, i know your hurt. We had an election i know your pain, i know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We dont want anybody hurt. Its a very tough period of time. Theres never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we cant play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace. When i got there, basically the president just had finished filming the video. I think he was basically retiring for the day. Was there any discussion about the president releasing a second video that day . Not that i recall. When he finished his video, i think everyone was like, days over. People were pretty drained. Were pretty what . Drained. When you say day over, there were still people in the capitol at that point, werent there . There were people in the capitol, but i believe by this stage Law Enforcement id have to go back and look, but i believe Law Enforcement was either there or moving in or going to take charge. I just say people were emotionally drained by the time that videotape was done. Emotionally drained . At the white house . Heres what was happening at the same time at the capitol. We warn the audience this clip also contains Strong Language and violence. Keep pushing. Dont lose the momentum. [indiscernible] another officer unconscious. Everybody, we need gas masks we need weapons, we need strong angry patriots while President Trump refused to even lift another finger to help, other leaders honored their oath and acted to clear the capitol and resume the joint session. For instance, here are never before seen photos and video of congressional leaders in action during the attack. The video is a portion of a call they had at approximately 4 45 with acting secretary of defense chris miller. Were not going to let these people keep us from finishing our business. So we need you to get the building cleared, give us the okay so we can go back in session and finish up the peoples business as soon as possible. Mr. Secretary, its senator schumer. Some people here in the Capitol Police believe it would take us several days to secure the building. Do you agree with that analysis . I do not agree with that analysis. What is the earliest that we could safely resume our proceedings in the senate and House Chambers . I prefer to be on the ground. I personally would prefer to be right now, but i need to be here. If thats the case, were looking at four to five hours. The Vice President also worked the phones from his own secure evacuation location, including conversations with acting secretary of defense miller and other military leaders well past President Trumps 4 17 video. Lets look at some never before scene photographs of the Vice President during this critical time and hear about the Vice President s conversation with military leaders to secure the capitol and ensure everyone was safe. Vice president pence. There were two or three calls with Vice President pence. He was very animated and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that. And i can get you the exact quotes, i guess, from some of our records somewhere. But he was very animated, very direct, very firm to secretary miller, get the military down here, get the guard down here, put down this situation, et cetera. As you heard earlier in the hearing, the president did not call the Vice President or anyone in the military, federal Law Enforcement or d. C. Government, not a single person. But general milley did hear from mark meadows the contrast between that call and his calls with Vice President pence to tell you everything you need to know about President Trumps dereliction of duty. Lets listen. He said this from memory. He said we have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative that the president is still in charge and that things are steady or stable or words to that effect. I immediately interpreted that as politics, politics, politics, red flag for me personally. No action that i remember distinctly. And i dont do political narratives. President trump and his advisers were drained, but other leaders upheld their oath to do the right thing. Maybe it was exhausting to get the president to put out that video, but think about the Law Enforcement officers who were attacked by the mob that day. President trump had summoned them himself to washington. And what about President Trump . He watched tv, tweeted, called senators to try to delay the count of electoral votes, called Rudy Giuliani and argued with his staff, who were insisting that he should call off the attack. Ms. Matthews, what was your reaction to President Trumps message to the mob at 4 17 . I was struck by the fact that he chose to begin the video by pushing the lie that there was a stolen election. As the video went on, i felt a small sense of relief because he finally told these people to go home, but that was immediately followed up by him saying we love you, youre very special. That was disturbing to me, because he didnt distinguish between those that peacefully attended his speech earlier that day and those we watched cause violence at the capitol. Instead, he told the people who we had just watched storm our nations capitol with the intent on overthrowing our democracy, violently attack Police Officers and chant heinous things like hang mike pence we love you, youre very special. As a spokesperson for him, i knew that i would be asked to defend that. To me, his refusal to act and call off the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible. So i knew that i would be resigning that evening. So i finished out the workday, went home and called my loved ones to tell them of my decision and resigned that evening. Thank you. Indefensible. Lets hear what some of your colleagues in the press office told us of their reaction to this same 4 17 message. I feel like it was the absolute bare minimum of what could have been said at that point for something on camera. What else do you think should have been said . Um, so a more forceful a more forceful, um, dismissal of the violence, a more forceful command to go home, a more forceful respect for Law Enforcement, even a comparison to the respect that we have given Law Enforcement as it relates to what was done to them in the prior summer. And i thought it was important that acknowledgment be given to the u. S. Capitol building itself, what its a symbol of, what it means, not only to the people that work there, but to the American People generally and the work of congress that by law needed to be conducted that day. Do you wish in hindsight that the president had asked the protesters to leave the capitol earlier than he ended up asking them to do that . Of course. I would love if the go home message would have happened earlier in the day. The president s words matter. We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump. We heard from one last week, steven ayres. Listen to what he had to say and see how rioters reacted to the president s message in realtime. When we were there, as soon as that come out, everybody started talking about it. It seemed like it started to disperse some of the crowd. Im here delivering the president s message. Donald trump says to go home. Go home. He says go home. They know were here. But just as mr. Ayres said, police were still defending off the brutal assault. Everyone else was wronging to get congress back in session. What did President Trump do . At 6 01, just one minute after the citywide curfew went into effect, he posted his last tweet of the day. After officers engaged many multiple hours of hand to hand combat, with over a hundred of them sustaining injuries, President Trump tweeted at 6 01 and justified the violence as a natural response to the election. He said, quote, these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously, viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love and peace. Remember this day forever. He called the mob great patriots. He told people to remember the day forever. He showed absolutely no remorse. A few minutes later at 6 27 the president left the dining room and he went up to the white house residence for the night. On the screen is the last photograph of the president that night as he went into the residence. As he was gathering his things in the dining room to leave, President Trump reflected on the days events with a white house employee. This was the same employee who had met President Trump in the oval office after he returned from the ellipse. President trump said nothing to the employee about the attack. He said only, quote, mike pence let me down. Ms. Matthews, what was your reaction to the president s 6 01 tweet . At that point i had already made the decision to resign. This tweet just further cemented my decision. I thought that january 6th, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nations history, and President Trump was tweeting it as a ce