Judy: For nearly a year, the
house committee investigating
the January 6 attack on the U.S.
Capitol has worked mostly behind
closed doors.
Gathering more than 140,000
documents and talking to more
than 1000 witnesses.
Today, the committee continued
the public phase of its
investigation, sharing new
details from some of former
president trump's inner circle
about the spread of the false
narrative that the 2020 election
was stolen.
Amna nawaz begins our coverage.
Amna: Day two of the January 6th
committee's public hearings
zeroed in on what president
trump knew and when he knew it.
>> The 2020 election was not
close.
Amna: Featuring a slate of
Republican voices who said they
told him, repeatedly, for
months, his claims of voter
fraud in the 2020 election were
baseless.
>> He's become detached from
reality, if he really believes
this stuff.
Amna: Among those voices, bill
stepian, former trump campaign
manager.
Who bowed out of testifying in
person just this morning after
his wife went into labor.
But who told the committee in
previous interviews that he
warned trump multiple times,
including on election night,
results could take a while.
>> My recommendation was to say
that the vote are still being
counted.
It's too early to tell, too
early to call the race.
Amna: The committee says trump
ignored stepian.
And instead listened to Rudy
>> You will also hear testimony
that president trump rejected
the advice of his campaign
experts on election night and
instead followed the course
recommended by an apparently
inebriated Rudy Giuliani.
Amna: Here is trump attorney
Jason Miller, describing
Giuliani that night.
>> The mayor was definitely
intoxicated, but I did not know
the level of intoxication when
he spoke with the president, for
example.
Amna: Adding to the committees
-- committee's election night
narrative, former fox political
editor, Chris Stirewalt.
Who was overseeing the
conservative network's election
night coverage, including when
they accurately break the news
that Joe Biden would win
Arizona.
>> Ok, time out, this is a big
development.
Fox News decision desk is
calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
That is a big get for the Biden
campaign.
>> After the election as of
November 7th, in your judgment,
what were the chances of
president trump winning the
election?
>> After that point?
>> Yes.
>> None.
Amna: Despite advisor's
warnings, and the electoral math
not in his favor, trump took the
stage in the early morning hours
of November the 4th and said
this.
Mr. Trump: Frankly, we did win
this election.
So our goal now is to ensure the
integrity for the good of this
nation.
This is a very big moment.
This is a major fraud in our
nation.
Amna: That night, according to
witness testimony, launched a
split within team trump.
Those who continued to push the
big lie he had won the 2020
election and those who didn't.
Here is former attorney general
bill Barr.
>> I felt that before the
election, it was possible to
talk sense to the president.
And while you sometimes had to
engage in a big wrestling match
with him, there was a
possibility to keep things on
track but I felt that after the
election, he didn't seem to be
listening.
>> We called them kind of my
team and Rudy's team.
I didn't mind the characterized
as being part of team normal.
Amna: The committee's second
panel told the story of just how
far trump went in the weeks
after the election to dig up
voter fraud where there was
none.
Even as allegation after
allegation, more than 60 cases
in all, were dismissed or found
to be without merit by judges.
Former U.S. Attorney for the
northern district of Georgia,
bjay Pak, appointed by trump,
said he was asked to look into
an allegation about a suspicious
suitcase filled with fake
ballots.
>> We found that the suitcase
full of ballots, the alleged
black suitcase being pulled from
under the table, was an official
lock box where ballots were kept
Amna: Pak resigned on January
4th of 2021, after details of
trump pressuring Georgia's
secretary of state to "Find"
more votes became public.
Al Schmidt, the loan Republican
on Philadelphia's election board
was asked to probe other voter
fraud allegations.
>> Not only was there not
evidence of 8,000 dead voters
voting in Pennsylvania.
There wasn't evidence of eight.
Amna: Even for these Republican
officials, trump's repeated lie
led his supporters, echoing
those lies, to make very real
threats.
>> After the president tweeted
at me by name, calling me out
the way that he did, the threats
became much more specific, much
more graphic, and included not
just me by name, but including
members of my family, my name,
their ages, our address,
pictures of our home.
Amna: The committee will once
again pick up on the effect of
the big lie on Wednesday during
a hearing that will focus on
trump's attempts to replace the
U.S. Attorney general in the