Jan. 6 committee interviews aides who quit

Thursday night’s hearing by the House Jan. 6 select committee showed two videos of former President Donald Trump during and immediately after the Capitol riot and interviewed two former White House employees who resigned later that day. The videos appeared to show Trump’s refusal to use a script that said he had lost the election. Matt Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, said they quit because they believed Trump could have stopped the attack on the Capitol by telling rioters to go home or acknowledging the election was over. The panel’s attitude toward Trump’s actions was summed up by Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “President Trump didn’t fail to act, he chose not to act,” but many Republicans have said the panel is illegitimate because it did not follow proper procedure. In statements posted on Truth Social the night of the hearing, Trump and spokeswoman Liz Harrington continued to question the election results, the individuals testifying at the hearing, and the committee.

What was Mike Pence doing during the riot? The committee also compared Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 to those of former Vice President Mike Pence. The vice president made several calls from the besieged Capitol to the Pentagon to try to bring in the National Guard and increase security at the Capitol, while Trump watched the events of the day from his private quarters at the White House. The committee watched an interview of an unnamed White House security official who said members of Pence’s security detail were sending goodbye messages to their families over their radios. The hearings for the select committee will reconvene in September.

Dig deeper: Listen to Kent Covington summarize some of the issues with the Jan. 6 hearings on The World and Everything in It podcast.