>> Gentlelady yields back.
We are joined today by Mr. Jason
and Mr. Stephen ayers.
He is a former spokesman of the
oath keepers and a former close
associate of Mr. Rhodes, the
founder and president of oath
keepers, who has been charged
with seditious conspiracy in
relation to the capital attack.
He broke with the oath keepers
and has since spoken out
forcefully against the violent
group.
Mr. Ayres is a former supporter
of president trump.
He answered the president's call
to come to Washington DC on
January 6.
He marched to the capital on the
president's orders and pled
guilty last month to disorderly
and disruptive conduct at the
capital.
Mr. Ayres, who no longer
supports president trump, came
forward voluntarily to share his
story as a warning.
I will now swear in our
witnesses.
The witnesses will please stand
and raise their right hand.
Do you swear or affirm under
penalty of perjury that the
testimony you are about to give
is the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth, so
help you god?
Thank you.
You may be seated.
Let the record reflect the
witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
I recognize myself.
Today we discussed how president
trump summoned an angry mob of
supporters to Washington DC,
many of whom came prepared to do
battle against police and
politicians alike.
We are fortunate enough to be
joined by two witnesses who can
help us understand who was in
the mob that day.
Hard-core violent extremists
like the proud boys and oath
keepers and average trump
supporters swept up in the furor
of the day.
Can you help us understand who
the oath keepers are?
>> I can.
Thank you.
My time with the oath keepers
began back at the ranch in that
first standoff.
I went to cover them as an
independent journalist.
I subsequently covered two more
standoffs.
The sugar pine mind standoff and
the white home mind standoff.
I was offered a job as national
media director and associate
editor for the webpage.
I spent a few years with the
oath keepers.
I can tell you they may not like
to call themselves a militia but
they are.
They are a violent militia.
They are largely steward Rhodes.
I think rather than try to use
words, I think the best
illustration for what the oath
keepers are happened January 6.
We saw that stacked military
formation going up the stairs of
our capital.
I saw a radicalization that
started with my beginning of my
time with them and continued
over time as the member base and
who it was steward Rhodes was
courting, drifted further and
further right, into the altar
right world, into white
nationalists and straight up
racists.
It came to a point where I could
no longer continue to work for
them.
The oath keepers are a dangerous
militia that is in large part
fed by the ego and drive of
steward Rhodes, who at times
seemed to see himself as this
paramilitary leader.
I think that drove a lot of it.
In my opinion, the oath keepers
are a dangerous organization.
>> Thank you.
You talked a little bit about
that danger.
So what is the oath keepers
vision for America?
Why should Americans be
concerned about it?
>> I think we saw a glimpse of
what the vision of the oath
keepers is on January 6.
It doesn't necessarily include
the rule of law.
It doesn't necessarily include
-- it includes violence.
It includes trying to get their
way through lies, deceit,
intimidation and through the
perpetration of violence.
The swaying of people who may
not know better through lies in
rhetoric and propaganda and can
get swept up in these moments.
I will admit I was swept up at
one point as well too.
I don't know if that answers the
question.
>> It does.
You talk about being swept up.
At what point, did you break
with the oath keepers?
>> There came a point, there
were many red flags and I
probably should have broke with
them much earlier than I did but
the straw that broke the camels
back really came when I walked
into a grocery store.
We were living up in the very
remote town of eureka, Montana.
There was a group of core
members of the group, the oath
keepers, and some associates.
They were having a conversation
at that public area where they
were talking about how the
holocaust was not real.
For me, that was something I
could not abide.
We were not wealthy people at
all.
We were barely surviving and it
didn't matter.
I went home to my wife and kids
and I told them I have to walk
away at this point.
I don't know how we are going to
survive are where we are going
to go or what we are going to do