Today marked the seventh day of hearings for
the house select committee investigating Donald Trump's efforts to
overturn the presidential election in 2020.
And the capital riots that ensued on January sixth.
Now, the timeline of today's hearing focused on December
14th of 2020 through the morning of January 6th.
December 14th was when electors met.
And of course the electors had determined based on
the votes that Biden had in fact won the presidential election.
Something that Donald Trump didn't wanna accept.
Now before I get to the video clips and you don't wanna miss them.
I just wanna note that Liz Cheney made a statement in the very beginning of
today's hearing that I thought was amusing to say the least.
She talked about how the defense for
Trump has kinda shifted a little bit in terms of their messaging, right?
So they first went from defending Trump by claiming that he had
absolutely no role in any of this.
To now alleging that Trump was manipulated by the people around him, okay.
He was misled, he was deceived, he's a poor victim.
But as Cheney says in the beginning of today's hearing,
President Trump is a 76 year old man.
He is not an impressionable child, just like everyone else in our country,
he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.
Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.
Now with that said, let's get to some of the highlights from today's hearing.
Now, this is something that we had already heard about.
But we have more detail about it.
Now thanks to this investigation and this hearing.
Trump, wanted to seize voting machines in states where he lost.
And that is very clear in this next clip where his attorney general at
the time William Barr shot the idea down.
Let's watch.
>> The President had something well some people say we could get
to the bottom of this if the department sees the machines.
It was a typical way of raising a point and I said absolutely not.
There's no probable cause and I'm not gonna seize any machines.
And that was that.
>> That's crazy not gonna seize any machines.
That's that.
Now William Barr has made all sorta strong statements in his depositions.
And publicly in regard to Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the election.
We haven't heard too much from White House Counsel Pat Cippolini though.
And this was the hearing where we saw videos from his deposition and
he addressed the idea of essentially seizing these voting machines.
Here's what he thought about it at the time.
Executive order behind me on the screen was drafted on December the 16th,
just two days after the Electoral College vote.
By several of the President's outside advisers over a luncheon at
the Trump international hotel.
As you can see here.
This proposed order directs the Secretary of Defense to seize voting
machines quote effective immediately.
But it goes even further than that.
Under the water, President Trump would appoint a special
counsel with the power to seize machines.
And then charge people with crimes with all resources
necessary to carry out her duties.
The specific plan was to name Sydney Powell as special counsel.
>> After the attorney general had reached the conclusion that there was a sufficient
election fraud to change the outcome of the election.
When other people kept suggesting that
there was, the answer is what is it?
And at some point you have to put up or shut up.
That was my view.
>> Why was this on a broader scale a bad idea for country?
>> The federal government, these voting machines,
it's a terrible idea for the country.
That's not how we do things in the United States.
There's no legal authority to do that and
there is a way to contest elections.
That happens all the time.
But the idea that the federal government could come in and seize election machines.
Now I don't understand why we have to tell you why that's a bad ideas.
It's a terrible idea.
>> So there you have it the evidence of the executive order to seize
the voting machines.
And then you have White House Counsel Pat Cipollini e saying no,
this is a terrible idea.
You don't even have the authority to do that.
So Jake thoughts.
>> So first of all,
let's note that conservatives say that they are in favor of states rights.
Here they were saying the states have no rights the federal government will seize.
They're voting machines and by the way, there's a very important part of that.
The plan was to then say that anyone who objected would be charged civilly and
criminally.
So they literally had a plan to lock up their political prisoners or
anyone who objected to the coup.
So the White House Counsel remember they're all republicans,
they're all deep right wingers.
White House Counsel says you guys are nuts.
We know what kinda sees their machines.
Bill Barr says no, you need probable cause.
You don't have probable cause.
Why would we go and seize their machines?
Are you guys nuts?
Meanwhile Trump is saying, I don't care.
I think you guys are weak.
What does he mean by week?
He means you're not breaking the law for me.
I don't care about democracy or the laws I want power.
He genuinely doesn't understand why they're not on his side because he
thinks the objective is for him to keep power.
They think the objective is for him to keep power within a democracy.
And I think what these hearings are being clear to everyone that didn't watch
the young Turks.
Trump has never cared about democracy.
And that becomes screaming through all of this even.
And by the way, I'll say that there was one thing that I did not get right, Okay.
I thought almost all of his advisers were as nuts as he is.
It turns out that's not true.
They were deeply right wing but a lot of them including Mark Meadows Cipollini
explained Mark Meadows also didn't believe there was any evidence, okay.
And Bill Barr the worst of the worst.
All these guys were like no we're not gonna illegally end democracy for you.
And so that's a silver lining right there.
But that leads you to understand the most important part.
Trump is patient zero.
He is the one that is the craziest.
He is the one that brought in the lunatics like Rudy and Sidney Powell and
he even as you saw there.
He even wanted to make Sidney Powell special counsel so
she could seize the machines instead of Bill Bar.
And Cippolini knowing what an idiot Trump is was like yes sir you have the ability
to do that sir, walked out of the room and then didn't do it.
He's like, you know why?
Because like you need paperwork to do that, there's other steps.
>> You need documents.
>> And he knew that Trump was too stupid to do the paperwork or ask for
the paperwork.
So basically they ignored him on that.
And thank God they did.
>> Yeah and I agree with you.
I felt that by the time Trump reached the end of his term.
He had surrounded himself with so many yes men, lapdogs and
lackeys that they would just carry out whatever action he demanded of them.
But behind the scenes you hear from all of these people who pumped the brakes.
It's like an episode of Ozark, right?
They're doing all sorta criminal things.
But when it comes to stealing elections, that's where they draw the line [LAUGH].
>> Yeah, that's a funny reference.
But it's true Hershman, lifelong Republican, but
he seems like a hero in all this.
And apparently they never thought this is interesting too.
They never realized that Trump didn't care about democracy.
Like and that to me is amazing.
How could you not know?
We could tell from the outside.
It was super clear, but for
them, they really believe in the illusion that they were like, no, we're normal.
We're just being republicans and yeah,
we're gonna gain power in the normal tricky ways that we do.
But ending America no, they hadn't signed up for that.
But Trump definitely had.
And to tell you who's right and who's wrong.
If you haven't figured it out by now, you're probably a Republican.
But anyway, Sidney Powell says in her court documents.
No reasonable person would have thought that what I was saying was
a statement of fact.
But Trump did think it was a statement of fact.
He is actually crazy.
I'm not using that as a hyperbole and I'm not using it as a political attack.
He's actually mentally unstable.
I'm positive of it.
>> Okay, so I wanna challenge you on that a little bit, right?
Because I think that you weaken the argument by just saying that he's mental.
He definitely has mental health issues, right?
I don't know exactly what, not a mental health professional.
But the point that I'm trying to make is, I think throughout this process,
throughout these hearings.
It's abundantly clear that Trump knew he lost the election but
refused to accept that and wanted to steamroll ahead.
Anyway.
>> No, so and it's a great conversation.
So let me just say quickly first of all, Trump.
It's really hard to tell if in his mind really believes there was 2,000 mules and
a crack in and the dumps and all those things right.
I believe there's a really good chance he actually believes it.
But then he is such a pathological liar.
I don't think he knows where the lies end, where they begin, right?
>> But does he think Hugo Chavez is the one who was manipulating the voting?
>> I think there's some chance he does.
I'm serious.
I'm totally serious now.
The reason why I say the way that I do,
because it doesn't really matter if he's crazy.
The only thing that matters is the results, right?
And his actions.
But the reason I say this because all of the rest of the media in Washington
projected their sanity onto him.
So they kept assuming.
And by the way, so did republicans.
And so did democrats.
They kept assuming no, but he's not gonna end democracy.
No, but he's not actually no.
But he's not actually gonna do that and here we are screaming no he is.
It turns out we were right.
Now you see the internal documents and internal fights.
And even his top advisers are holy cow, he actually doesn't wanna do a coup.
>> So let's elaborate on that just a little bit more because our friend.
I'm kidding when I say friend, but Eric Hirschman who is White House Counsel or
was White House Counsel at the time makes another appearance in today's hearing.
And it's in the context of this January 18th coup planning meeting that
took place in the White House and Sidney Powell, I'm sorry.
Yes, December 18th 2020.
That's when this coup planning meeting takes place in the White House and
there's a big fight.
It's so loud there's so much shouting that people outside the room can hear it.
Sidney Powell who Trump,
wanna name special counsel to seize these voting machines is there Eric Hirschman.
White House Counsel is there?
And they basically get into a verbal argument.
And so here is a portion of what happened during that meeting that I
thought was amusing to say the least.
>> Both challenged what she was saying and she says well the judges are corrupt.
And I was like everyone,
every single case that you've done in the country you guys lost.
Every one of them is corrupt, even the ones we appointed.
And I'm being nice, that was much more harsh to her.
>> So one of the other things that's been reported that was said during this meeting
was that president Trump, told White House lawyers.
Mr. Hershman and Mr. Cipollone that they weren't offering him any solutions.
But Miss Powell and others were so why not try what Miss Powell and
others were proposing?
Do you remember anything along those lines being said by president Trump?
>> I do. That sounds right.
>> I think that it gotta the point where the screaming was c completely out there.
And again people walk in, it was late at night had been a long day and
what they were proposing I thought was nuts.
>> So that's why you have this big battle, this big fight within
the White House as they're debating what to do to move ahead on.
What's taking place, what Trump wants them to do.
Have Sidney Powell be special counsel sees these voting machines essentially steal
the election after millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans voted for
Biden instead of Trump in that election go ahead.
>> Yeah, so that December 18 meeting is absolutely critical because on December 14
the election was totally over because the electoral college had come in.
All the states said this is our official vote from then on everything else was
ceremonial.
So everything had ended.
So on December 18th, four days later,
the lunatics come in without letting anyone in the White House know.
They get into the Trump oval office Trump's happy to see them
because he's a fellow lunatic.
And then the actual White House counsel and other sane people walk into the room.
The shouting match ensues everyone involved
describes that meeting as unhinged.
>> Yeah, in fact, so does Cassidy Hutchinson who sent a tweet to the head of
the Secret Service at the time, Tony Ornado.
And all she writes is the West Wing is unhinged.
It's graphic.
>> Yeah, there is.
Yeah.
So they're saying contemporaneously, they're not saying it now.
They said as it was happening right.
And they're also nuts unhinged.
What is going on here?
Everybody's lost their minds.
Mark Meadows has to walk Rudy Giuliani completely off the grounds
because he's worried that Rudy's gonna sneak back in, okay.
[LAUGH] This is total matters, okay?
So at the end of it, the official staff make it clear to Trump
if you do any of this, it is wildly illegal.
And you will be in massive trouble, okay.
So at the end of it, he's super frustrated and
now we're into December 19 because it's really late at night.
And he sends a tweet about January six.
And he says it's gonna be wild.
Now later, we'll show you what he means by wild.
And how the right wing interpreted that to mean violence and
very specifically violence, okay.
But that is where he breaks all of the previous attempts to find
evidence to do court cases.
Which they lost 60 in a row, to seize the machines.
All of that is gone now.
So the only thing left is the Eastman strategy that is get Mike Pence
to just say Trump is president.
And if Pence doesn't do it, then bring in your wild protesters
on January 6th and make them do it through violence.
So that meeting is super important because that's when he turns
towards the potential of violence.
>> Yes, in fact, the night before his January six rally speech,
the speech writers.
His White House Counsel urged Trump to take any mention, any aggressive,
combative mention of his Vice President, Mike Pence out of the speech entirely.
They were concerned about, inciting violence toward the vice president.
And Biden had apparently, I'm sorry, Trump, had apparently agreed.
But then he got word that Pence would not carry out what Trump,
wanted him to carry out.
Which is to essentially unilaterally decide that the election
was won by Trump by implementing this sham slate of electors.
And so he ended up doing the speech and
mentioning Mike Pence obviously in a very negative way.
Eight different times, okay.
And so there was a little bit of frustration by White House counsel as
a result of that.
And of course it did incite the rioters to head over to the capitol with Trump,
claiming that he was gonna march along with them.
>> Now this is important because everyone on the staff told Trump do not
bring Pence into it because why?
Because now they didn't get into this.
But the point number one, he has a ceremonial role.
What you're saying is crazy and makes no sense at all.
And it's not legal, but number two it endangers Pence.
So can you please not mention him?
He goes off script eight times to say it's Pence.
But he also went off script four times to say go to the Capital,
go to the Capitol four times.
He mentioned it not in the script.
And the reason that's relevant is because he's patient zero,
he's the one trying to do the coup.
He's the one driving towards violence.
He's the one that wants Pence's life in danger.
And as you saw previously in earlier hearings.
When he finds out that they are looking to actually murder Pence,
he's happy about it.
Mark Meadows, the chief of staff passes on to the others that he thinks
they're doing the right thing and that Pence quote deserves it.