trump electors. we are going to hear from four witnesses this afternoon, including the secretary of state for georgia, brad raffensperger and his chief operating officer, gabriel sterling, big public figures in the wake of the november election in 2020. the committee says it s going to show evidence that former president trump put undue pressure on legislatures to try to put forward alternative slates and electors. for president trump, the strategy did not work, legislatures did not go along with it. you see betty thompson taking it there, much of the questioning will be handled by california congressman adam schiff as he questions the witnesses and makes the majority of the presentation. liz cheney there seated to betty thompson s left-hand side, adam schiff on the right-hand side. we expect the hearing will last at least a couple of hours. let s pause now while chairman thompson gavels in today s hearing. the select committee to investigate the january 6th attack on the u
wanted the evidence. he never got it. he said he had a conversation with giuliani, giuliani said we have a lot of theories but don t have evidence and yet he was asked to decertify the election something he said by his oath to the state of arizona and could not do. i know arizona well, we made the call on election night and a lot of tweets and emails i still get. so i hear about what speaker bowers is talking about, but the evidence was never, never materialized and what the january 6th committee is doing is laying out all that was happening behind the scenes before that day, january 6th, in an effort to overturn an election that the officials inside, including the white house counsel, and other trump campaign officials, were saying is not there. it s just not there. anita: and it is so interesting he is a long time republican, he s been speaker of the house since the early 1990s, he said he voted for trump, he
those funding it and organizing it. but it doesn t get you to the broader question that happened over the months before about whether there was a criminal conspiracy to try to overturn the election. that is, frankly, what the january 6th committee is doing, and an odd, perverse turn of events where the house committee designed to figure out what happened on january 6th is spending a lot of time figuring out what happened in the lead up to january 6th and the department of justice, which is charged with preserving the safety of our elections, among other laws, seems at this point and to this point to be narrowly focused on january 6th itself. but we just don t know. and, hopefully, what we got today is an indication that they are working their way through it. it s not the best way to investigate a crime, is to let things lie and circle back to it later because memories fade, evidence gets destroyed, stories can be friend up. but based on what that statement
part of much bigger efforts the biggest thing now is the january 6th committee to really bring home the truth of what happened. there are a lot of republicans or some republicans who say it happened, it was bad. you wrote this in a column. in order to save our democracy there needs to be a reckoning about january 6th. what do you mean by that? what does a real reckoning look like? it means finding out exactly what happened, how it was planned, how it was organized, how it was funded, how it was directed and how it happened. so all the work that the january 6th committee is doing has to be done. at the same time the the justice department has to continue with prosecutions of the insurrectionists who committed these violent acts at the capitol, assaulted police
planned, how is organized and how is directed. and how it happened. so all of the work that the january 6th committee is doing has to be done. the same time the justice department has to continue its prosecutions of the insurrectionists who committed these violent acts at the capitol and salted police officers and he filed the capitol, break and tons of laws on the process. and has to go beyond that has attorney general garland said today, he is certainly not shy of doing look at the plots in the planks and the orders. to see if there are criminal charges that need to be files on some of the higher ups. and then there also has to be a reckoning in terms of what almost happened.