7 takeaways from the fourth day of the January 6 hearings

 

The latest hearing before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection revealed new details Tuesday about how former President Donald Trump pressured state officials to help him overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The panel featured testimony from three Republican officials who were all on the receiving end of Trump's outreach after the election: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers.

Like previous hearings, these officials testified about their unwillingness to participate in legally dubious schemes that would undermine the election, including efforts to subvert the Electoral College with fake pro-Trump electors.

Here are key takeaways from Tuesday's hearing:

Republican witnesses tie Trump directly to fake electors effort

Multiple witnesses told the committee that Trump was personally involved in the effort to put forward slates of fake electors in key battleground states -- a key part of the broader effort to overturn Biden's legitimate election victory.

CNN has previously reported on the role that key Trump allies, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, played in overseeing the effort but witnesses revealed new details Tuesday about how the former President himself was not only aware of the push, but seemingly endorsed it.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, testified that she received a call from Trump and conservative lawyer John Eastman after the election about helping to assemble the electors.

"In this effort, what did the President say when he called you?" an investigator with the committee asked McDaniel, according to video of her testimony played during the hearing.

"Essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing change the result of any dates," McDaniel responded.

"I think more just helping them reach out and assemble them but .... my understanding is the campaign did take the lead and we just were helping them in that role," she added.

Bowers also told the committee that her received a call from Trump and Giuliani during which they urged him to go along with a plan to put forward illegitimate, pro-Trump electors from the state.

"I told them I did not want to be used as a pawn," Bowers said on Tuesday, recalling what he told Giuliani and Trump on the November 22 phone call.

The Arizona House speaker also testified that Giuliani acknowledged what he was proposing had never been done before but continued to push him anyway. That also came up in other conversations with Eastman and others, Bowers said.

Committee reveals new details how congressional Republicans helped Trump's efforts to overturn election

Tuesday's hearing featured new details about two congressional Republicans played a role in Trump's sprawling efforts to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The first was Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who called Bowers on the morning of January 6, 2021, asking him to support decertification of his state's electors for Biden.

"I said I would not," Bowers testified on Tuesday.

The second occurred several hours later, minutes before then-Vice President Mike Pence gaveled in the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral votes. According to text messages obtained by the committee, an aide to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked an aide to Pence how Johnson could hand-deliver him the fake slates of Trump electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, which had not been sent to the National Archives. Pence's aide responded that Johnson should "not give that to him."

Both the effort to decertify Biden electors and put forward fake Trump electors were part of the Trump team's scheme to stop the congressional certification of the election on January 6. The role that Trump's allies in Congress played have been of interest of interest to the committee, which has subpoenaed five House GOP members, including Biggs and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The House Republicans have not complied with the subpoenas and have denounced the panel's investigation.

The committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, told CNN's Manu Raju during a recess in Tuesday's hearing that the committee has "not yet" reached out to Johnson amid the revelations of his involvement in the fake elector scheme.

"The committee hasn't made a decision" on whether to call him to testify, Thompson said.

Witnesses describe how Trump's lies had serious consequences -- including threats

The committee's hearing underscored how the lies about the election spread by Trump and his team spiraled into multi-faceted disasters for the state officials forced to grapple with them.

All of the witnesses who appeared at Tuesday's hearing talked about the serious repercussions they faced as a result of the false claims that Trump and his team put forward. That included pressure to help in the effort to overturn the election, the repeated attempts to try to debunk the claims and the threats they faced from pro-Trump supporters for refusing to go along with Trump's efforts.

"No matter how many times senior Department of Justice officials, including his own attorney general, told the President that these allegations were not true, President Trump kept promoting these lies and put pressure on state officials to accept them," committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said during Tuesday's hearing.

The stories were similar in many respects to the pressure campaign that Pence faced from Trump and his supporters before January 6 -- and the threats he faced from rioters at the Capitol.

Bowers delivered emotional testimony about "disturbing" protests outside his home. Bowers welled up as he discussed the impact protests at this house had on his wife and his daughter, who was at home gravely ill at the time and was "upset by what was happening outside." And he read passages from his personal journal about friends who had turned on him.

Bowers also described how Trump and his team wouldn't take no for an answer and continued to pressure him to support decertifying the state's electors up to the morning of January 6.

Raffensperger described the attacks that his wife faced after the election, which he said he suspected was an attempt to pressure him to quit. Schiff cited Raffensperger's book, in which he wrote, "I felt then and still believe today that this was a threat."

Trump supported a Republican primary challenge to Raffensperger, GOP Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, as part of his campaign to oust the Republicans who opposed his lies about the election. But Raffensperger won his primary in May.

Watch Brad Raffensperger explain why Trump lost Georgia

 

Republican officials take the lead testifying against Trump

Yet again, the Democratic-run January 6 committee turned to Republican officials to make their case against Trump. In fact, the majority of the in-person witnesses so far have been Republicans.

Tuesday's hearing featured in-person testimony from three conservative Republicans who endorsed Trump in 2020. The committee also played deposition clips from two other GOP officials: Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler.

They all provided damning testimony against Trump, describing how he repeatedly tried to twist their arms and cajole them to overturn the results. They also described the threats and pressure they faced from Trump supporters who believed his election lies and protested outside their homes and offices, and bombarded them with calls and text messages.

One of the main GOP gripes about the committee is that it's stacked with Democrats. And it is, largely because Republican leadership refused to participate last summer. But so far, the most damaging testimony has come from Republicans and members of Trump's inner circle.

Rusty Bowers, Arizona House Speaker, testifies during Tuesday's hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Buildingin Washington, DC.

 

Top Arizona Republican refutes Trump in real-time

Bowers said under oath Tuesday that Trump lied about him in a press release that came out shortly before the hearing started, where Trump claimed Bowers told him in November 2020 that he believed the election was rigged.

In the statement, Trump attacked Bowers and described a call they had after the election, claiming, "during the conversation, he told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona." Trump added, "Bowers should hope there's not a tape of the conversation."

Under questioning from Schiff, Bowers confirmed that he "did have a conversation with the president, but that certainly isn't it."

"There are parts of it that are true, but there are parts of it that are not," Bowers said of Trump's statement. "...Anywhere, anyone anytime who has said that I said the election was rigged -- that would not be true."

The comments were a real-time refutation of the former President. While Trump can say whatever he wants in a press release, Bowers is required to testify truthfully before Congress, and could be prosecuted for lying under oath.

The back-and-forth harkens back to Trump's infamous conversations with former FBI Director James Comey in 2017, where Trump lied about what they discussed and raised the specter of "tapes." Like Bowers, Comey testified to Congress, under penalty of perjury, about the conversations with Trump.

Schiff yet again dissects troubling Trump calls

It was striking to watch Schiff dissect troubling Trump phone calls with Georgia election officials, where he tried to convince him to ignore Biden's victory and interfere with the vote count so he could prevail.

These exchanges stood out because it's not the first time Schiff highlighted Trump's misdeeds that were captured in a phone call. Remember: Schiff was the lead investigator in Trump's first impeachment, which revolved around a 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where Trump pressured Zelensky to publicly announce that his country was investigating Biden for corruption.

In that situation, the White House released a transcript of the call, but there was no audiotape. This time around, the January 6 committee played the recordings of Trump's transition-era conversations with Raffnesperger and Frances Watson, a top investigator from the Georgia secretary of state's office.

Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election -- that's precisely what Schiff warned about during Trump's first impeachment trial, where he was acquitted. That trial was all about Trump's efforts to undermine the integrity of the election by soliciting foreign interference. These January 6 hearings are all about exposing Trump's efforts to enlist fellow Americans in his campaign to subvert the results.

'I lost it': Georgia election official on threatening tweet that led him to address Trump

 

Emotional testimony highlights victims of Trump's disinformation

Later in the day, the committee heard from Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, who were election workers in Atlanta during the 2020 election. Trump, Giuliani and other GOP figures put them both at the center of their unhinged lies about massive voter fraud in Georgia.

Coverage of Trump's presidency often focused on his words and lies. But the emotional and deeply personal testimony from Moss and Freeman flipped the script, and showed human toll of Trump's lies.

They described in devastatingly terms how Trump's lies essentially destroyed their lives.

Moss said she felt "helpless," gained 60 pounds, and stopped giving out her business card because "I don't want anyone knowing my name." Her mother said she gets "nervous when I have to give food orders," because someone who believes Trump's lies might recognize her name. She said she felt "homeless" while she lived in hiding for two months, after the FBI told her she wasn't safe at home.

"I have lost my sense of security, all because of a group of people, starting with (Trump) and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me, and my daughter, Shaye, to push lies about how the election was stolen," Freeman said in a videotaped deposition, a clip of which was played during Tuesday's hearing.

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The 22 wildest lines from Donald Trump's 12(!)-page statement on the January 6 committee

 

In response to the second public hearing of the January 6 committee, former President Donald Trump released a 12-page statement -- yes, 12 full pages! -- seeking to rebut the charges leveled against him.

It's filled with the usual name-calling, exaggerations and conspiracy theories that have dominated Trump's post-2020 election life. But it's also a window into the former President's psyche as the January 6 committee weighs whether to recommend a criminal indictment of Trump to the Department of Justice.

I went through Trump's, um, statement. The lines from it you need to see are below.

1. "If they had any real evidence, they'd hold real hearings with equal representation."

Remember that the reason there isn't an independent commission -- like the one that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- is because Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell killed it after it had passed the House with 35 GOP votes. And away we go!

2. "They use the illegally-constituted committee to put on a smoke and mirrors show for the American people, in a pitiful last-ditch effort to deceive the American public ... again."

It's not at all clear to me what Trump thinks is illegal about the January 6 committee. It is a select committee established by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Not unlike the Benghazi select committee established by then-House Speaker John Boehner.

3. "They have refused to allow their political opponents to participate in this process, and have excluded all exculpatory witnesses, and anyone who so easily points out the flaws in their story."

Again, this is not quite accurate. First off, the reason the committee has two Republicans and nine Democrats is because a) McConnell nixed the idea of an independent commission and b) House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his picks for the committee when Pelosi rejected the appointments of Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. Second, plenty of strongly pro-Trump witnesses have been subpoenaed by the committee. In fact, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, two close Trump confidants, have refused to comply with subpoenas to testify before the committee.

4. "The Unselect Pseudo-Committee has coordinated with their media puppets to broadcast their witnesses on national television without any opposition, cross-examination, or rebuttal evidence."

I hate to sound like a broken record here, but the committee took more than 1,000 depositions from all sorts of witnesses -- including Bill Stepien, who managed Trump's 2020 campaign, and Bill Barr, who served as Trump's attorney general. Those aren't exactly portraits of Trump haters. Plus, the committee tried to talk to people like Bannon and Navarro.

5. "What are the members of this treasonous 'Committee' afraid of?"

This is coming from someone who refused to accept the results of a free and fair election and incited people to protest the results because of a series of easily debunked conspiracy theories.

6. "Democrats created the narrative of January 6th to detract from the much larger and more important truth that the 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen."

Uh, what. So, several people died as a result of the riots on January 6. More than 100 police officers were injured. Over 800 people have been criminally charged for their roles in the insurrection that day. That's less important that a set of lies about supposed election fraud?

Haberman on how Trump is setting up his defense to Jan. 6 hearings

7. "They illegally inflated voter rolls, illegally allowed harvested and stuffed ballots, abused the use of mail-in ballots, physically removed Republicans from counting facilities, abused the elderly in nursing homes, bribed election officials with donations, stopped counting on Election Night, gave Democrats three extra days to harvest ballots, and demanded that the American people believe it was legitimate."

Wow. That's, um a lot. There has been absolutely no evidence that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

 

8. "The truth is that Americans showed up in Washington, D.C. in massive numbers (but seldom revealed by the press), on January 6th, 2021, to hold their elected officials accountable for the obvious signs of criminal activity throughout the Election."

Crowd size has long been a Trump hobbyhorse. But there's just no evidence that the press purposely low-balled the crowd on January 6. Also, that is totally beside the point. Which is this: A mob of rioters stormed the US Capitol fueled by an election lie pushed by Trump that he had somehow been cheated out of victory.

9. "This is all a ridiculous and treasonous attempt to cover up the fact that Democrats rigged the Election and are siphoning Americans' freedoms and power for their own benefit."

What, exactly, is treasonous about the January 6 committee? Trump -- surprise, surprise -- doesn't explain.

10. "On Election Night, America watched as my lead grew and grew over Joe Biden, as I was set to claim another victory."

Simply not true. We knew well in advance of Election Day that, in large part because of new rules in place to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of mail-in ballots would be far higher than in past elections. And we knew that it would take some time to properly process all of them. Here's what Stepien, Trump's campaign manager, suggested he say on election night: "My recommendation was to say that 'votes were still being counted, it's too early to tell, too early to call the race but we're proud of the race we ran and we think we're in good position.'" Trump didn't take that advice.

11. "The Swamp was so determined to keep their stranglehold on power that they delayed the results of the Election so that they could find, manufacture, or produce more ballots, after they knew how many they needed to beat me."

"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election," Barr said on December 1, 2020.

12. "There's no reasonable explanation for why it took so much longer to count the few remaining ballots as opposed to the millions on Election Day -- other than they needed to traffic more ballots, and it took four days to produce the ballots and do it."

Aside from simply claiming it to be so, Trump offers no evidence for his claim that there were "few remaining ballots" left to be counted after Election Day. The reason he doesn't offer any proof for this claim is that none exists.

13. "Like drug mules, in this context, mules are those paid to illegally traffic ballots from nonprofits organizations and drop them into the ballot drop boxes."

It's well worth watching -- or reading -- Barr's complete takedown from Monday's hearing of the film "2,000 Mules" which is where Trump gets this bogus information. Here's the gist of it in one Barr quote: "If you take 2 million cell phones and figure out where they are physically in a big city like Atlanta or wherever, just by definition, you will find many hundreds of them have passed by and spent time in the vicinity of these boxes."

14. "The truth is, according to Joe Biden, that the Swamp has created the 'most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics -- and it centers around ballot trafficking.'"

As Reuters noted of the Biden quote cited by Trump here: "It was a slip of the tongue - Biden was describing the voter protection program his campaign has launched in anticipation of potential legal fights over the outcome of the Nov. 3 election against President Donald Trump."

'The claims of fraud were bulls**t!': Former AG Barr slams Trump's election fraud claims

 

15. "It's also highly likely that True the Vote did not uncover 100% of the mules, making the numbers much larger than a landslide in scope, and that there were many more mules out there affecting more of the Election than we realize. This was not a close Election."

Joe Biden won more than 81 million votes to Trump's 74 million. So no, by recent measures it wasn't a particularly close election. But I don't think that's what Trump means.

16. "Joe Biden, a candidate who never left his basement and can't speak without a teleprompter, outperformed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their two high-charged elections."

In terms of raw vote totals, that's true. Biden's 81 million votes is more than either Clinton or Obama received. But, in both 2008 (365) and 2012 (332), Obama received more electoral votes than Biden.

17. "Either there's a lot of black voters in America who identify more with Joe Biden than Barack Obama, or Democrats are stealing black votes -- and we all know the answer to that."

Before this line, Trump cites a handful of majority-Black counties and areas where Biden did better in 2020 than Obama did in 2008 or 2012. That fact is proof positive of fraud, according to Trump. Of course, it's not. First of all, the population, in the Black community and elsewhere, grew between 2008 and 2020, meaning that there were just more voters to be had for Biden than for Obama. Also, and I am just spitballing here, isn't it possible that the desire to vote Trump out of office was a powerful motivator for lots and lots of Black voters?

18. "Mark Zuckerberg contributed $419 million dollars to election initiatives around the country."

Trump is suggesting here that Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that Democrats won the 2020 election. The only thing he gets right though is the amount of money Zuckerberg spent. Trump would do well to read this Protocol piece headlined "How 'Zuck Bucks' saved the 2020 election — and fueled the Big Lie."

19. "Zuckerberg should be criminally prosecuted. Election laws prevent individuals from donating more than $5,000 per year, yet Zuckerberg gave $419 million."

Again, Trump is simply wrong about what Zuckerberg did in the 2020 election. As Protocol notes: "He offered grants to any election official who wanted one, so long as they spent it on what a lot of people would consider mundane essentials that make it easier and safer for everyone to vote: ballot sorters, drop boxes, poll workers and — because it was 2020 — hand sanitizer."

18. "Rumors circulated that the Justices devolved to shouting and argued intensely over how to handle the Texas v. Pennsylvania case. Ultimately, the Justices yielded to the same fear mongering tactics Democrats had deployed for years. They punted and threw the case out on standing."

As CNN reported of the election fraud case brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: "The court's order, issued with no public dissents, to dismiss the challenge is the strongest indication yet that Trump has no chance of overturning election results in court, and that even the justices whom he placed there have no interest in allowing his desperate legal bids to continue." No public dissents. So, yeah.

19. "But, the Swamp runs deep. I guess that turning around an election was a step too far."

Yes, I would say overturning an election was a "step too far."

20. "Americans are struggling to fill their gas tanks, feed their babies, educate their children, hire employees, order supplies, protect our border from invasion, and a host of other tragedies that are 100% caused by Democrats who obtained power through a rigged election, and the people of our country are both angry and sad."

This sentence is 53 words long. Yup.

21. "Nobody brings this up, but as President, I suffered years of vicious lies, scandals, and innuendo concerning a fake and contrived narrative of Russia, Russia, Russia."

Allow me to quote from the Mueller Report: "(I)f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state," reads the Mueller report. "Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. ... Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

22. "This is merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency."

So, is Trump saying he is running for president again in 2024? Big news! Yeah, this feels like a good place to end.

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