According to a congressional committee, a tweet by Donald Trump prompted far-right supporters to travel to the US capital, Washington, on the same day that Capitol Hill, home of the US Congress, was occupied.
A lawmaker who was part of the commission said the former president, who ruled the country from 2017 to 2021, took office after “the craziest meeting in the presidency”.
On this occasion, Trump made a call to his supporters, despite repeatedly saying by his aides that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
The committee accuses Trump of trying to stage a coup to stay in power.
Donald Trump supporters stormed Congress on January 6, 2021, as lawmakers gathered to formally confirm Biden’s victory.
Hours before Tuesday’s (12/7) hearing, Trump attacked the Democrat-led House of Representatives (equivalent to the Brazilian House of Representatives) committee that opposes his government on social media platform Truth Social. The president at the time described Democrats as “hacks and thugs” who would “scam”.
The Commission has been conducting an almost a year-long investigation into the attack on the Capitol.
The hearing on Tuesday, the seventh since June, focused on a tweet by Trump released in the early hours of December 19, 2020, and a tense six-hour White House meeting before the inauguration.
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat on the committee, said the meeting was described as “unbalanced” and “not normal”.
Trump had already been told by White House aides and people on his campaign team that he needed to give Biden victory.
However, on December 18, he received some unofficial advisers at the White House urging him to pursue baseless allegations of election fraud. The group, which includes his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggested that Trump order the military to seize state elections.
Helpers respond
The meeting was interrupted by his aides and then White House attorney Pat Cipollone.
“I don’t think any of these people gave good advice to the president,” Cipollone said in the statement recorded to the commission. Said.
The argument lasted for hours, and Cipollone said he was “verbally” attacked but continued to “resist”. “Where is the evidence?” she asked. According to their testimony to the committee, they did not present any evidence of election fraud.
The meeting ended after midnight when the idea of confiscating the ballot boxes was rejected. Trump’s tweet, sent at 1:42 p.m. local time, told his supporters: “Losing the 2020 election is statistically impossible. [Washington] DC on January 6th. Be there and you will go crazy (can be translated as “wild”, “crazy”, “wild” or “violent”).
Raskin argues that the article “excited and mobilized his supporters” who believed in Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.
The commission concluded that the tweet was a call to action for extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Two members of these groups await trial on conspiracy charges related to the Capitol rebellion.
An anonymous Twitter official told the committee that he saw an increase in violent rhetoric online following the tweet. Raskin said some of the backlash was “clearly murderous.”
Committee members are trying to draw a direct line between the social media post and the violence on 1 January. The commission is seeking to gather evidence that Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat constitute illegal conduct.
At Tuesday’s hearing (7/12) it was also said that Trump was trying to contact a congressional committee member to increase the possibility of interfering with the witness selection process.
Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the committee, said she informed the Department of Justice (the equivalent body to the Department of Justice in Brazil).
The congressman representing the state of Wyoming said the person Trump tried to contact did not answer his phone and instead alerted a lawyer.
Another witness on Tuesday was Ohio State resident Stephen Ayres, who was convicted of participating in the capital raid.
Ayres surprised those in the courtroom when he approached the two police officers injured in the shootout and shook hands. More than 140 police officers were injured in the incidents.
Image: Getty Images
One of the officers, Harry Dunn, described the conversation to BBC News reporter Tara McKelvey, who was attending the hearing.
“He apologized,” Dunn said. “I’m trying to process it.”
Implying that he could run for the White House again in 2024, Trump said the hearings were an attempt to distract Americans from the “disaster” that was Joe Biden’s Democratic administration amid rising inflation.
A New York Times poll conducted this week in partnership with a Gallup pollster said only 33% of voters approve of President Biden – a lower popularity rating than Trump after the Capitol rebellion.
– This text was originally published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62147147.
source: Noticias
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