Courtesy of Los Angeles Times
Ava Wahl
Ever since our nation’s founding, this country has set an example for other democracies to follow; a bold representation of the benefits which determination, persistence, and courage can reap. Freedom and equality are meant to reign in this country’s policy and institutions, and these values are never more present than in our electoral process. Or at least, they should be. In American history, no president has ever tried to forcibly disrupt the peaceful transfer of power that defines democracy as we Americans have come to know it. No president except one.
On January 6, 2021, the moral fabric of America was tested as thousands of rioters stormed our Capitol building in an attempt to stop the public counting of electoral votes. This insurrection was encouraged by former president Donald Trump and his incessant quest to overturn the 2020 election results. To probe his role in the instigation of the attempted coup, Congress formed the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The Committee is headed by Chairman Bennie Thomas (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), and the board’s most recent- and possibly last -hearing took place on September 28th, 2022. The Committee’s goal was to find factual evidence demonstrating Trump’s role in inciting the January 6th riot. They pulled a mass amount of information from a plethora of sources, including recorded depositions, electronic messages, and White House documents.
The first hearing took place on June 9, 2022, and served as a stirring introduction to the broadcasted investigation. We heard from USCP Officer Caroline Edwards and filmmaker Nick Quested, and both helped paint a vibrant picture of the staggering violence which unfolded during the insurrection. Armed members of rightwing extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers gathered outside the building, trampling police officers and smashing windows to enter. A noose was constructed amid calls to “hang Mike Pence”, who had rightly done his duty as vice president and denied Trump’s demands to stop counting electoral votes.
Five people lost their lives during the attack, several of them police officers bravely fighting to protect their country from what many consider a domestic enemy.
“What I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had seen out of the movies,” Officer Edwards admitted with feeling. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up,” (PBS, 2022).
In subsequent hearings, different aspects surrounding the January 6th attack were given special focus, one being Trump’s attempts at pressuring state electing officials, Vice President Mike Pence, and the Justice Department to undermine and decertify election results. Trump, along with his personal lawyers Rudy Guiliani and John Eastman, made unreliable and baseless claims about lost ballots, rigged voting machines, and other ridiculous theories former DOJ official Richard Donoghue categorized as “pure insanity.” The former President continued to press even when other attorneys, White House staff members, and the Vice President told him his plans to overturn the election were illegal. This tension continued to spiral as January 6th, 2021, and the inauguration loomed ever closer.
On the morning of January 6th, Trump held a rally at the Ellipse near White House grounds. In her testimony on June 28th, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide at the White House, explained that Trump knew crowd members had come with weapons, and ordered the metal-detectors to be removed, claiming attendees were not there “to hurt him” (CNN, 2022). Trump excited his fans, telling them they had to “fight like hell” (Naylor, 2021), and instructed them to walk to the Capitol for a demonstration he had previously mentioned in a Tweet, stating “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” (PBS, 2022).
“Basically, the president got everyone riled up, told everyone to head on down, so we were following what he said,” said Stephen Ayres, a Trump supporter who was present during the riot on January 6th and pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol. He spoke during the July 12th hearing (PBS, 2022).
After rioters breached the capitol and forced their way inside a little after 2:00 PM, Congress was swiftly halted and some members were able to evacuate, while others remained trapped within the chamber as the screaming mob pounded on the doors. Footage shown on September 28th depicted Congress members’ persistent efforts to handle the situation calmly and resume the session to finish verifying election results.
As chaos ensued, Trump did nothing to stop or condemn the actions of his fanatic supporters. After his speech at the Ellipse, Trump had physically resisted secret service members to join his fans at the Capitol protest, and when his efforts were unsuccessful, he spent the rest of the day at the White House in his private dining room, watching as the events of the insurrection unfolded before his very eyes. Finally, at 4:17 PM, more than three hours after the first barriers were breached, the former President tweeted a video in which he told the rioters to leave the capitol. Still, he continued to spread his false narrative. The original draft of his speech contained language about prosecuting rioters, calling them violent, and also acknowledged the reality of the 2020 election. Hutchinson told the committee Trump was reluctant to give a speech to begin with, and had the draft of the video revised. In the final version, Trump told his supporters, “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. … So go home. We love you, you’re very special. … I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace,” (Fink, 2022).
Yes, even after a blatant act of insurrection resulting in destruction, fear, and loss of life, Trump refused to tell the truth. During the July 21st hearing, Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary to Trump, explained her reaction to his behavior during the insurrection: “I knew that I would be asked to defend that. And to me, his refusal to act and call off the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible. And so I knew that I would be resigning that evening,” (PBS, 2022). She wasn’t the only one. Throughout Trump’s campaign to “Stop the Steal” and in the aftermath of January 6th, many White House employees chose to resign, unwilling to put up with Trump’s lies any longer.
The September 28th meeting provided a satisfying conclusion to the prior eight hearings. It was revealed that Secret Service members knew about the possibility of violence on January 6th, in an email reading, “[The Proud Boys] think that they will have enough people to march into D.C. armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped…their plan is to literally kill people,” (Sprunt, 2022). Recent evidence also showed that, long before the election, Trump had planned to declare victory no matter the results. However, according to close acquaintances of Trump, the former president privately admitted he had lost in the aftermath of the 2022 race. He was acutely aware that his campaign to overturn the election was based on falsehoods.
At the closing of the last hearing, the nine-member Committee voted unanimously to subpoena former president Donald J. Trump. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion, and every American is entitled to those answers so we can act now to protect our republic,” explained Liz Cheney (Sprunt, 2022).
Will Trump finally face the consequences of his unpresidential and unpatriotic behavior and face legal action? Or will the former leader of the United States come off scot-free, protected by his wealth, fame, and the support of Republican legislators too afraid to admit the truth? It is unknown whether Trump will concede to the subpoena, but if he does, you can be sure everyone will be watching as he takes the stand.
Despite virulent polarization in Congress, some progress has been made in protecting our electoral institutions and ensuring that the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 presidential election does not repeat itself. In late September 2022, the House passed the Presidential Election Reform Act, a bill amending the Electoral Count Act of 1877 to ensure the Vice President’s role in counting Electoral College votes is merely ceremonial. In addition, the law would raise the number of votes needed to discount electoral votes from one per chamber to one-third of members in each house, and would force governors to send electors of the candidate who won to Congress (Kapur, 2022). Although the majority of the GOP opposes this legislation, nine Republicans, including Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, voted to support the bill (Kapur, 2022). Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, also expressed his support to alter the Electoral Count Act, claiming January 6th “certainly underscored the need for an update. It’s clear the country needs a more predictable path,” (Lutz, 2022).
The brave individuals cited in this article today are only a fraction of the people involved in the hearings, all of whom contributed greatly to the investigation by standing up for what was right and telling their side of the story. These witnesses helped communicate the truth about the events leading up to and on January 6th.
In the last hearing, Vice Chair Cheney urged us to “consider where our nation is in its history. Consider if we can survive another 246 years,” (Sprunt, 2022). It is clear that without the resolute dedication to the preservation of honesty and justice, Americans simply cannot hope to fix our country’s deep wounds and close the ever-widening political gap in our society. It takes the strength and courage of both politicians and ordinary citizens to raise public awareness and forge the path to stability and national consensus. Yes, our system of government has its flaws, but it’s worth fighting for.
As Winston Churchill once said, “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others”.
Who are the witnesses testifying at the Jan. 6 hearings? | PBS NewsHour
The Jan. 6 Committee has voted to subpoena Trump. Here’s what else happened
House passes bill to prevent stolen elections, despite strong GOP opposition (nbcnews.com)
Insurrection at the Capitol: A Timeline of How It Happened – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Transcript Of Trump’s Speech At Rally Before Capitol Riot : NPR