The chair recognizes the
gentleman from Florida for an
opening statement.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
President trump efforts to
unlawfully overturn the results
of the 2020 election were not
limited to the big lie in
pressuring the state officials
and the department of justice
officials.
Another key part of the
president effort was a scheme to
assemble fake electors to cast
false electoral votes in the
states that president trump
lost.
This was something done not only
with the president's knowledge
and also with his direct
participation.
Mcdaniel, chair of the
Republican national committee,
testified before this committee
that president trump and his
attorney, Dr. John Eastman,
called her and asked her to
arrange for the electors to meet
and hurt the process of casting
their fake votes.
>> When I received the call,
again, I don't remember the
exact date, it was from the
white house switchboard and it
was president trump who had
contacted me.
>> Did president trump have
anyone else on the line with
him?
>> He introduced me to a
gentleman named John Eastman so
I vaguely remember him
mentioning that he was a
professor and he turned the call
over to Mr. Eastman who then
campaign gather these contingent
electors in case any of the
legal challenges that were
ongoing changed the result of
any states.
>> These fake electors were
ultimately part of the
president's plan to replace
genuine Biden electors with
trump electors on January 6.
As part of this plan, the false
electoral states were sent to
the national archives and to the
capitol.
The fake electors plan was also
tied to another plan, the
coercive pressure campaign to
make vice president Mike pence
reject or refuse to count
certain Biden electoral votes so
that president Donald Trump
would "Win reelection instead."
Here is what vice president
pence has said about this
scheme.
Mr. Pence: President trump said
I had the right to overturn the
election.
President trump is wrong.
I had no right to overturn the
election.
Presidency belongs to the
American people and the American
people alone.
Frankly, there is more idea more
un-american than the notion that
any one person can choose the
American president.
>> Make no mistake, president
trump knew that what he was
demanding vice president pence
do was illegal.
He was informed of this
repeatedly and specifically on
January 4.
Even his lawyer, John Eastman,
admitted in front of president
trump that this plan would rake
the law by violating the
electoral count act.
>> Did John Eastman ever admit,
as far as you know, in front of
the president that his proposal
would violate the electoral
counting?
>> I believe he did, on the
fourth.
>> Dr. Eastman confirmed this in
writing.
Recall this email written on
January 6 in which vice
president pence's counsel asked
Dr. Eastman, did you advise the
president that the vice
president does not have power to
decide things unilaterally?
Dr. Eastman replied, he has been
so advised.
Of course, president trump stone
white house counsel, pat
Cipollone, also recognized that
this plan was unlawful.
Here is his testimony.
Pat: My view is that the vice
president did not have the legal
authority to do anything.
>> There is no doubt that
president trump pressure
campaign on vice president pence
was significant.
On the morning of January 6,
president trump called vice
president from the oval office
and demanded that he overturn
the results of the election.
Numerous witnesses told the
select committee about the --
president trump leveled at his
own vice president.
>> Something to the effect that
the wording is wrong, I made the
wrong decision for five years
ago.
>> The word the president called
the vice president, I apologize
for being impolite, but do you
remember what she said her
father called him?
>> The p-word.
>> Vice president pence did not
waver even when his own
life was in danger on January 6.
As you will see in more detail
later.
A federal judge concluded based
on this and other evidence that
president trump's campaign
against the vice president
likely violated multiple
criminal statutes.
In the end, all these people,
department of justice officials,
state elections officials, his
own vice president, stood strong
in the face of president trump
Simmons pressure -- president
trump's immense pressure.
He had already summoned tens of
thousands of his supporters to
Washington on January 6 to take
back their country.
On December 19, president trump
first told his supporters to
come to Washington.
In this and numerous other
tweets, he fraudulently and
repeatedly promoted January 6 as
the day Americans could come and
change the election outcome.
For weeks, president trump
worked with others to plan the
rally.
Intending all along that he
would send an assembled crowd of
angry supporters to the
capitol after his speech on
January 6.
We obtained a text message that
one rally organizer sent on
January 4.
In part, it reads that "POTUS is
going to have us March there and
POTUS is going to just call for
it unexpectedly."
Again, each of these examples,
the big lie, the pressure
campaigns against state
officials, the pressure campaign
against the department of
justice and his vice president,
the fake electors, summoning the
mob, all of this demonstrates
president trump's personal and
substantial role in the plot to
overturn the election.