The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol will share video of former President Donald Trump attempting to condemn the violence.
Trump issued a statement one day after a mob made up of loyalists attacked the Capitol Building. criticizing the attackThe program aired later that night. However, the January 6th committee has unaired video evidenceTrump made the statement only reluctantly.
“The President displayed extreme difficulty in completing his remarks,” committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) said on CNN Wednesday night.
During the outtakes of the video that the committee plans to show on Thursday evening, Trump struggled to denounce the Capitol mob’s actions, and at one point tried to call them patriots. He also refused to refer to the election results as final.
The video is “extremely revealing how exactly he went about making those statements, and we’re going to let everybody see parts of that,” Raskin added.
Trump reportedly only made the video due to worries about how his own cabinet would react if he didn’t say something about the attack. Trump was concerned about the possible use of the 25th AmendmentThis would have enabled his advisors and former Vice-President Mike Pence to declare him incapable of leading and remove him from office before he could.
Trump’s most loyal advisers urged him to make the videoThis is to stop such an outcome. His final message lasted approximately three minutes and included remarks condemning violence.
Trump has since supported those who attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification for his presidential election loss. He has even suggested that He may pardon those who were charged with crimes related to the attackIf he is elected president again.
Trump’s reluctance to condemn the violence is in line with his refusal to take immediate action as the January 6 attack was unfolding, committee members have suggested. The video, alongside other evidence the panel plans to show, makes it “very clear that watching this violence was part of the plan,” said committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia) earlier this week.
“He wanted to see it unfold. And it wasn’t until he realized that it was not going to be successful that he finally stood up and said something,” Luria added.
Members of the January 6 committee will also be displaying video outtakes. how Trump was responsible for the overall violence at the Capitol that dayHow his inaction following the attack began was a violation of his oath. This will be the second primetime hearing by the committee.
