Jan. 6 committee holds eighth hearing

Matt Pottinger, former National Security adviser, said that former President Trump's tweet calling then-Vice President Mike Pence a "coward" essentially was "fuel being poured on the fire" the day of the insurrection.

"Shortly before I had gotten back to the White House, I had come from off site. I began to see, for the first time, those images on TV about the chaos that was unfolding at the Capitol. One of my aides handed me a sheet of paper that contained the tweet that you just read.  And I read it and was quite disturbed by it," Pottinger said.

Pottinger said that the tweet led to him resigning from his post that day, stating, "that was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign, that that would be my last day at the White House. I simply didn't want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol."

Former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews said that a tweet from former President Trump attacking his then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6 was effectively a "green light" to rioters storming the Capitol.

The committee asked Matthews for her reaction to a tweet Trump sent that day in which he accused Pence of not having courage. This came as Trump had tried to enlist Pence in his pressure campaign to try to overturn the election results — which Pence resisted.

She went on to say, "I've seen the impact that his words have on his supporters. They truly latch on to every word and every tweet that he says."

Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria said of the tweet, "Despite knowing the Capitol had been breached and the mob was in the building, President Trump called Mike Pence a coward and placed all the blame on him for not stopping the certification. He put a target on his own vice president's back."

The House Jan. 6 committee illustrated during Thursday’s hearing how former President Trump made repeated calls to his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, even as he was aware that the attack on the Capitol was unfolding.

While the White House call logs have a seven-hour gap on Jan. 6, Rep. Elaine Luria said that Trump spoke with Giuliani by phone at 1:39 p.m. ET and 2:03 p.m. ET, citing Giuliani’s call logs obtained by the committees.

Trump also sought to contact a list of senators, according to testimony from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany aired during Thursday’s hearing.

“He wanted a list of the senators, and I left him at that point,” McEnany said in her video deposition, adding that she didn’t know which senators he called.

The committee contrasted Trump’s calls to his personal attorney with what White House officials were learning. The committee showed chat messages from National Security Council staff being told that the Capitol was breached, that the vice president was “being pulled” and that the Secret Service “at the Capitol did not ‘sound good right now.’”

Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, said that Trump had the ability to make a statement from the White House press briefing room "almost instantly" if he wanted to the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

She continued, "For folks that might not know, the press briefing room is the room you see the White House press secretary do briefings from with the podium and blue back drop. There is a camera that is on in there at all times. So, if the President had wanted to make a statement and address the American people, he could have been on camera almost instantly."

Matthews added, "And conversely, the White House press corps, has offices that are located directly behind the briefing room. And so, if he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office, we could have assembled the White house press corps., probably in a matter of minutes, to get them into the Oval for him to do an on-camera address."

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the House select committee that on Jan. 6 he was joined by a number of top Trump advisers in pushing the former President to issue a strong condemnation of the attack. The group included Ivanka Trump and Mark Meadows, he said.  

“I think I was pretty clear there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now,” he said. 

A committee investigator then asked him: "So your advice was tell people to leave the Capitol, and that took over two hours when there were subsequent statements made, tweets put forth, that in your view were insufficient. Did you continue ... up until 4:17 continue, you and others, to push for a stronger statement?" 

"Yes," Cipollone responded. 

"Were you joined in that effort by Ivanka Trump?" 

"Yes," Cipollone said again—before the investigator could even finish the question. 

He confirmed with a series of sharp “yeses” that White House adviser Eric Herschmann, another White House counsel's office attorney Pat Philbin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were echoing him as well. 

Cipollone declined to describe his direct conversations with Trump. Then he described “generically” saying people should be told to leave the Capitol, and fast. 

But Cipollone said he spoke to Meadows, "expressing my opinion very forcefully, that this needs to be done," he said, according to the video. 

Watch moment here:

Former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews is now testifying. She previously served as deputy White House press secretary until resigning shortly after Jan. 6, 2021.

When she resigned, CNN previously reported Matthews said she was honored to serve in Trump's administration but "was deeply disturbed by what I saw." She said at the time, "Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power."

After another former Trump White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, publicly testified before the committee last week, Matthews tweeted, "Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson's role or her access in the West Wing either doesn't understand how the Trump (White House) worked or is attempting to discredit her because they're scared of how damning this testimony is."

Thursday's hearing will mark the panel's second prime-time session, and committee members have said it will examine Trump's inaction for 187 minutes while the US Capitol riot was unfolding.

Several witnesses with first-hand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on Jan. 6 told the House Select Committee that former President Donald Trump did not place a single call to any of his law enforcement or national security officials as the US Capitol attack was unfolding, according to previously unseen video testimony played during Thursday’s hearing. 

Former officials who were with Trump as he watched the riot unfold on television, including then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s body man Nick Luna, told the committee they had no knowledge of the former President making a single call to the heads of various agencies who could have responded to the violence, including the Secretary of Defense or Attorney General. 

Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser who was also with Trump that day, testified that he never heard the former President ask for the National Guard or a law enforcement response. 

Kellogg also reaffirmed that he would have been aware if Trump had made such an ask. 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told the House Select Committee that he was astonished by the fact that he never heard from Trump as the Capitol attack was unfolding – suggesting his failure to act amounted to an abdication of his duties as commander in chief, according to previously unseen video from his close-door deposition.

“You know, you’re the Commander in Chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America and there’s nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero?” he said in the clip.

Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the committee in a closed-door interview under a subpoena at the beginning of July.

Clips of the eight-hour testimony were played at the House select committee's prime-time hearing on Thursday. Some video from the testimony was already shown at the committee's seventh hearing last week that focused on how the violent mob came together and the role of extremist groups.

Here are some of the key things he has said in the pieces of the deposition played at the previous hearing:

After the Secret Service refused to take then-President Donald Trump to the Capitol with his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, he went back to the White House, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria said. The committee's eighth hearing this summer is focusing on what Trump was doing for more than three hours after finishing his speech at the Ellipse.

The committee showed a photo of Trump inside the Oval Office with his coat on, after returning from the rally. A White House employee told Trump "as soon as he returned to the Oval" about the riot at the Capitol, Luria said.

At 1:25 p.m. ET Trump went to the private dining room off the Oval Office, Luria said, adding he stayed there until 4 p.m. ET.

She said witnesses told the committee that then-President sat at his "usual spot" at the head of the table facing the television on the wall.

"We know from the employee that the TV was turned to Fox News all afternoon," she said. Luria said other witnesses also confirmed that Trump was in the dining room with the TV on for more than two and a half hours.