it has reminded us of this. laws are just words on paper. they mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law, and who are held accountable by a public that the leaves over this matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points. —— oaths. we must demand more of our politicians and ourselves. boths matter, character matters, truth matters. if we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of hours, our shining beacon on a hill, will not endure. i yield to that gentlewoman from virginia. thank you. throughout our hearings we have provided many facts and painted a vivid picture of the events of january 6th. the violence, the human toll, both emotional and physical, including the tragic loss of life. the threat to our constitution, the rule of law and the danger to this nation. a nation we all love as americans. and tonight's hearing, we have gone into great detail about the events inside the white house on january 6th. we have described how the president of the united states, who was bound by oath to the constitution and my duty to the constitution and my duty to ensure the laws are executed, took no action when the cornerstone of our democracy, a peaceful transition of power, was under attack. but it is more than that. donald trump summoned a violent mob and promised to lead that mob to the capitol to compel those he thought would cave in to that kind of pressure. and when he was thwarted in his effort to lead the armed uprising, he instigated the attackers to target the vice president with violence. a man whojust target the vice president with violence. a man who just wanted to do his constitutional duty. so in the end of this is not as it may appear a story of inaction in a time of crisis. instead it was the final action of donald trump's own plan to usurp the will of the american people and remain in power. not until it was clear that his effort to violate donor violently disrupt or delay in the counting of the election results have failed did he send his message, a message to his supporters, in which he commence rated with their pain and told them to go home. affectionately. that was not the message of condemnation and just punishment for those who broke the law that we expect from the president, whose oath and duty is to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, but instead it was his newest version of stand back and standby. to me, this is personal. the first sworn oath to support and defend the constitution against enemies foreign and domestic when i entered the us naval academy at age 17. i spent two decades on the ships at sea, defending our nation from known and identifiable foreign enemies who sought to do us harm. i never imagined that enemy would come from within. abraham lincoln, 23 years before the civil war said, lincoln, 23 years before the civilwarsaid, if lincoln, 23 years before the civil war said, if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and its finisher. donald trump was the author and we, the people, for ourselves and our posterity, should not let donald trump be the finisher. thank you, and i yield to the vice chair. thank ou yield to the vice chair. thank you very _ yield to the vice chair. thank you very much- _ yield to the vice chair. thank you very much. i _ yield to the vice chair. thank you very much. i want - yield to the vice chair. thank you very much. i want to - yield to the vice chair. thank. you very much. i want to thank our witnesses were joined us today. the members of the select committee may have additional questions for the witnesses and we ask that you respond expeditiously in writing to those questions. without objection members will be limited to ten business days to submit statements for the record, including opening remarks and additional questions from our witnesses. i would now like to turn things to sharon thomson for a few closing words.— to sharon thomson for a few closing words. the members of the committee _ closing words. the members of the committee and _ closing words. the members of the committee and i _ closing words. the members of the committee and i appreciatej the committee and i appreciate and thank all persons who have come forward voluntarily to provide information to help protect our democracy. our work continues. as we have made clear throughout these hearings, our investigation is going forward. we continue to receive new information every day. we are pursuing many additional witnesses testimony. we will reconvene in september to continue laying out our findings to the american people and pushing for accountability. in the first hearing of this series, i asked american people to consider the facts and judge for themselves. the facts are clear and unambiguous. for themselves. the facts are clearand unambiguous. i for themselves. the facts are clear and unambiguous. i think the american people for their attention over the past several weeks. i wish you all a pleasant evening.- weeks. i wish you all a pleasant evening. weeks. i wish you all a leasant evenina. ., ., pleasant evening. let me again thank our witnesses _ pleasant evening. let me again thank our witnesses today. - pleasant evening. let me again thank our witnesses today. we | thank our witnesses today. we have seen bravery and honour in these hearings and miss matthews and mr pottinger, both of you will be remembered for that. as will cassidy hutchinson. she sat here alone, took the oath and testified before millions of americans. she knew all along that she would be attacked by president trump and by 50,60 and 70—year—old men who hide themselves behind executive privilege. but like a witnesses today, she has courage and she did it anyway. cassidy, today, she has courage and she did itanyway. cassidy, sarah, and our other witnesses, including officer caroline edwards, seamus, and her mother it ruby freeman, are an inspiration to american women and two american girls. we owe and two american girls. we owe a debt to all of those who have and will appear here. that brings me to another point. this committee has shown you the testimony of dozens of republican witnesses. those who served president trump loyally for years. the case against donald trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who won't his political enemies. it is instead a series of confessions by donald trump's own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials stop people who worked for him for years and his own family. they have come forward and told the american people the truth. and for those of you who seem to think the evidence would be different if republican leader mccarthy have not withdrawn his nominees from this committee, let me ask you this. do you really think bill barr is such a delicate flower that he would wilt under cross examination, passive baloney, eric hershman, jeff rosen, richard donohue was not of course they aren't. none of their witnesses are. at one point in 2016, when he was first running for office, donald trump said this. i could stand in the middle of fifth ave and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters. that quote came to mind last week when audio from trump adviser steve bannon surfaced from october 31, 2020, just a few days before the presidential election. let's listen.- election. let's listen. jump will declare _ election. let's listen. jump will declare victory. - that doesn't mean he's a winner, he is. the early votes will count, they voted in may, so don't have an actual disadvantage. when you wake up on wednesday morning it is going to be a fire. also, if trump is losing by 10pm, leven pm, it will be crazier. he will sit right there and say they will have stolen it. if biden is winning it trump will do some crazy is winning it trump will do some cra_ some crazy expletive. residential _ some crazy expletive. residential declare - some crazy expletive. i residential declare victory when his own campaign advisers told him he had absolutely no basis to do so. they knew steve bannon audio demonstrates that donald trump's plan to falsely claim victory in 2020 no matter what the facts actually work was premeditated. perhaps worse, donald trump believed he could convince his voters to buy it. whether he had any actual evidence of fraud or not. the same thing continue to occur from election day onward untiljanuary 6th. donald trump is confident he could convince his supporters the election was stolen no matter how many lawsuits he lost, and he lost scores of them. he was told over and over again in immense detail that the election was not stolen. there was no evidence of widespread fraud. it didn't matter. donald trump was confident he can persuade his supporters to believe whatever he said, no matter how outlandish, and ultimately that they could be summoned to washington to help him remain president for another term. as we showed you last week, even president trump's legal team led by rudy giuliani, knew they had no actual evidence to demonstrate the election was stolen. again, it didn't matter. here is the worst part. donald trump knows that millions of americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation, where it threatened. they would put their lives and their freedom at stake protect her. and he is praying on their patriotism. he is preying on their sense of justice. and onjanuary 6th, donald trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our capital and our constitution. he has purposely created the false impression that america is threatened by a foreign force controlling voting machines, or that the wave of tens of millions of false ballots were secretly injected into our election system or that ballit workers have secret thumb drives and i stealing elections with them. all complete nonsense. we must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation. in late november of 2020, while president trump was still pursuing lawsuits, many of us were urging him to put any genuine evidence of fraud forward in the courts and to accept the outcome of those cases. as january 6th approached, i circulated a memo to my republican colleagues explaining why our congressional proceedings to count electoral votes could not be used to change the outcome of the election. but what i did not know at the time was that president trump's own advisers also republicans, also conservatives, including his white house counsel, his justice department, campaign officials, they were all telling him almost exactly the same thing i was telling my colleagues. there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities sufficient to change the election outcome. 0ur courts had ruled it was over. now we know it didn't matter what any of us said because donald trump was not looking for the right answer legally by the right and set factually. he was looking for a way to remain in office. let's put that aside for a moment and focusjust on what put that aside for a moment and focus just on what we saw today. in our hearing tonight you saw an american president faced with a stark and unmistakable choice between right and wrong. there was no ambiguity, no nuance. donald trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office. to ignore the ongoing violence against law enforcement, to threaten our constitutional order. there is no way to excuse that behaviour. it was indefensible. in every american —— and every american must consider this. —— and every american must considerthis. can —— and every american must consider this. can a president who is willing to make the choices donald trump made during the violence of january 6th ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again? in this room in 1980 the committee on women's suffrage convened to discuss and debate whether women should be granted the right to vote —— 1918. this room is full of history and we on this committee know we have a solemn obligation not to ideally squander what so many americans have fought and died for. ronald reagan's great ally margaret thatcher said this. let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it. let me assure everyone of you this. our committee understands the gravity of this moment, the consequences for our nation. we have much work yet to do and we will see you all in september. i request those in the hearing room remain seated until the capitol police have escorted witnesses and members from the room. without objection at the committee stands adjourned. studio: you have been watching the live hearing into the january 6th riots and we would like to reiterate that we felt it was important to take the event live and unedited. 0f event live and unedited. of course as you probably heard that included some offensive language. we would like to apologise again for that but again we did feel it was important to present the hearings in their entirety. well, with me are still my panellists. we are also joined by a formerfederal panellists. we are also joined by a former federal prosecutor. i would like to go straight to you, joe. compelling narrative, powerful testimony, you, joe. compelling narrative, powerfultestimony, but you, joe. compelling narrative, powerful testimony, but has this committee managed to prove to a legal threshold that donald trump intended to undo democratic election? that donald trump intended to undo democratic election?— democratic election? that is the ultimate _ democratic election? that is the ultimate question, - democratic election? that is | the ultimate question, right? it is what this leads to. i am sceptical. the committee has done great work, it has listed facts and testimony and documents we ordinarily would not have seen. it is not a perfect system but it is the system we have that is doing its best. that being said, the task of criminally prosecuting a former presidents, which has never been done before, is monumental. i remain sceptical based on what we have seen that there is the basis for criminal prosecution that should or will be brought by this justice department. it is possible that the department ofjustice has information we don't know, it is possible they will keep investigating and find things. based on what we have seen i don't think so.— don't think so. what did you make of cerro _ don't think so. what did you make of cerro matthews' . make of cerro matthews' testimony, the deputy press secretary, who said she had worked with donald trump throughout the campaign, she had seen the impact of his words on supporters. they latch on to what she says —— he says and he was pouring gasoline on the fire. does that mean anything legally?- the fire. does that mean anything legally? the fire. does that mean an hinu leaall ? . ., anything legally? that reeks to me of recklessness. _ anything legally? that reeks to me of recklessness. maybe - me of recklessness. maybe criminal negligence. that is not enough. if you want to bring seditious conspiracy type or insurrection type charge, you need to show intent, you need to show the president specifically intended for his supporters to be armed and caused violence on capitol hill that day. you can try to infer that, you can say he was grossly negligent because he said certain things and knew people would take his tweets and speeches and run with them and, yes, you possibly knew some of them were armed, but did he tell them to cause violence, did he tell them to use weapons at the capitol? i am sceptical, i don't see it. there are other charges that could be brought but they are a lot less dramatic. 0bstruction lot less dramatic. obstruction of congress, obstruction of justice. you can pursue the fake electors scheme. there are charges that they could prosecutor could build but on the incitement, the insurrection, violent type charges that we are focused on today, i don't see it.— today, i don't see it. amanda, do ou today, i don't see it. amanda, do you see — today, i don't see it. amanda, do you see it? _ today, i don't see it. amanda, do you see it? if, _ today, i don't see it. amanda, do you see it? if, as _ today, i don't see it. amanda, do you see it? if, as joe - do you see it? if, asjoe suspect, no criminal charges will come as a result of these hearings that this evidence does not meet the legal threshold, what will democrats have achieved? i threshold, what will democrats have achieved?— have achieved? i think what they have — have achieved? i think what they have laid _ have achieved? i think what they have laid out _ have achieved? i think what they have laid out is - have achieved? i think what they have laid out is a - have achieved? i think what they have laid out is a lot i have achieved? i think what they have laid out is a lot of different avenues. the department ofjustice can now take. they have different tools. the reality is congress only has a certain amount of tools to work with in order to bring people in, to understand what happened, to really drive those angles come in. it is a bit of a different story. i agreed today if people were looking for a clear smoking gun, there was not. i think it will be a hard leap and i know the department ofjustices all around the country, if you are going to take this case you have to make sure you away. i don't know what the justice department can get and i don't know what this hearing would look like if they have different tools. what i do know is they have been able to bring a timeline together, they have been able to cover different things that happen and where donald trump was at those key moments, and have started a path by the justice moments, and have started a path by thejustice department to really dig in and that will be the question of what does the department ofjustice now, when they pull the thread and keep learning? having been part of the california doj, i know attorneys are very good at figuring out how to follow different trails that were laid out today, we will see what the department ofjustice does, but one thing is clear, the role that trump played here was a much bigger and people now understand it in a way they didn't before these hearings. ron christie, how much of the problem what is before republicans? all the testimony we had tonight where republicans who worked for donald trump, supported donald trump and ultimately were forced to realise that his actions onjanuary 6th were unconscionable. where does that leave republicans who still support donald trump, including some of the people we have heard from tonight?- heard from tonight? good evening- _ heard from tonight? good evening. to _ heard from tonight? good evening. to the _ heard from tonight? good | evening. to the republican party writ large, i don't think this is particularly damaging. i think people have made their assessment of the for the president, taken a measure of the man. i agree with my two friends and colleagues here. it is very difficult as lawyers for a criminal proceeding to form, that you need to convince the jury that there is culpability beyond a reasonable doubt. and i don't know that what we heard this evening will prove the american people beyond reasonable doubt that president trump had led an insurrection. does it look bad? yes. does this look damaging to his legacy? yes. the two things i say to my students, facts matter. we saw credible witnesses this evening and we saw a lot of facts we haven't previously heard in this record that i think the president will sit and fume at mara largo. at thisjuncture, i don't see it. you are all agreed on that but what about the politics, will this have changed any minds, will it affect them at times, the space republicans to dare i see it, being a divided nation as we are, vote democrat or not vote for donald trump, more to the point, should he stand again stocking up once again, i think the folks who have looked at donald trump and taken the measure of him, either you are with him or you are not. i think his partisans will say this is a witch trial, nancy pelosi making sure he can't run again. if you don't like the president he will never vote for him again. at the end of the day is this going to make a difference in the mid—term elections swaying this way or that way the republican party? i don't believe so.— i don't believe so. amanda renteria. _ i don't believe so. amanda renteria, we _ i don't believe so. amanda renteria, we have - i don't believe so. amanda renteria, we have only - i don't believe so. amanda renteria, we have only a i i don't believe so. amanda - renteria, we have only a minute left. who for you was the star of this hearing? i left. who for you was the star of this hearing?— of this hearing? i kind of thing the _ of this hearing? i kind of thing the laying - of this hearing? i kind of thing the laying out - of this hearing? i kind of thing the laying out of i of this hearing? i kind of. thing the laying out of the of this hearing? i kind of- thing the laying out of the 187 minutes, i still think what passive alone it had to say about them very key moments, he was closest. the culmination, watching some of those scenes still hits everyone in a way that's really saying someone could have done something about it and when you say everyone in the room knew, the one person that didn't want something to change happen to be the president. nobody could change it but every single staff member knew how dangerous it was —— what pat cipollone said. i wonder if you will all be tuning in in september when there will be further hearings, i am sure we will be providing full coverage as usual. i would like to thank all three of you forjoining me and this brings us to the end of our special coverage, and indeed to the end of this chapter of january 6th investigation. 0ver six weeks and eight hearings, the committee set out to make the case that donald trump bear direct responsibility for the violence of that day. for the past few hours we heard about what the former president did and did not do over a vital187 minutes, as events unfolded. we now know there will be more of these hearings in september but, for now, i am jayne 0'brien, but, for now, i am jayne o'brien, and thank you very much indeed for watching this special bbc news event. hello. we are certainly ending this working week on a much cooler note than we started it, temperatures gradually dropping over recent days after heatwave earlier in the week. friday will be cooler than we have seen recently. some thunderstorms possible for some areas but not everyone will see outbreaks of rain. we start friday morning miles in the south, 17 or so, fair that night 11 or 12 typically. through the day some showery rain developing, particularly across the central parts of england and wales, some of the showery rain drifting into northern england and southern scotland. the other rumble of thunder almost anywhere but most likely for the south—west of england into wales. northern ireland having a largely dry with some sunshine and sunshine for the final of the scotland up for the final of the scotland up towards shetland in particular. temperatures ranging between 15 to 23 degrees for most, a cooling breeze for the northern isles, eastern scotland and north—east england. 0vernight friday we still have some of the showery rain around, drifting off with an east—west, but the next area of low pressure will spread rain towards northern ireland by the early hours of saturday. temperatures are cooler than recent nights by first thing saturday, the mid—teens for most, cooler than that across parts of scotland. during the weekend, as this area of low pressure approaches from the west it will mean the winds pick up, wet weather working in, but ahead of that it will help draw in this is flow of air. some fairly warm air spreading in from continental europe heading up towards eastern parts of england in particular, where we will see some of the highest temperatures through saturday into sunday. this is how saturday shapes up, rain initially for northern ireland and spreading into western parts of scotland and england. central and eastern england probably stay dry with sunny spells all day and temperatures a bit warmer on saturday compared to friday. highs, the mid to high 20s. lots of cool breeze from the likes of newcastle. high teens or low 20s for scotland and northern ireland. by sunday, low pressure spread further east that quite a few heavy showers on sunday, could be thundering to the north—west, the breeze picking up the south—east remaining dry for a good part of the day, when we could really do with some rainfall around and it will feel warm in the south—east with temperatures as high as 30 degrees, typically the low 20s towards the north—west. goodbye for now. you are watching bbc news with me, ourtop you are watching bbc news with me, our top stories: you are watching bbc news with me, ourtop stories: in you are watching bbc news with me, our top stories: in its latest prime—time hearing, the committee investigating last year's attack on the capitol accuses donald trump. for 187 minutes on _ accuses donald trump. for 187 minutes on january _ accuses donald trump. for 187 minutes on january six, - accuses donald trump. for 187 minutes on january six, this i minutes onjanuary six, this may him and unbridled destructive energy could not be moved, not by his aides, not by his allies. moved, not by his aides, not by his allies-_ moved, not by his aides, not by his allies-— his allies. not only was the former president _ his allies. not only was the former president accused l his allies. not only was the | former president accused of sitting idly by while the violence raged, witnesses say his actions made things worse. i think that in that moment for him to tweet out the message about mike pence, it was him pouring gasoline on the fire. hopes of a deal between ukraine, russia and turkey to