With gripping testimony from Republicans and Trumps campaign staff, the panel is laying out in step by step fashion how Trump ignored his own campaign team’s data as one state after another flipped to Joe Biden, and instead latched on to conspiracy theories, court cases and his own declarations of victory rather than having to admit defeat.
The witnesses described in blunt terms and sometimes exasperated details how Trump refused to take the advice of those closest to him, including his family members. As the people around him splintered into a “team normal” headed by former campaign manager Bill Stepien and team crazy led by Rudy Giuliani, the president chose his sides.
On election night, Stepien said, Trump was “growing increasingly unhappy” and refusing to accept the “grim outlook.” Stepien and senior adviser Jason Miller described how the festive mood at the White House on election night turned grim as Fox News announced Trump had lost the state of Arizona to Joe Biden, and aides worked to counsel Trump on what to do next. But he ignored their advice, choosing to listen instead to Giuliani, who was described as inebriated by several witnesses. Guiliani told Trump to claim victory which he ultimately did knowing he was losing.
William Barr, who had also testified in last week’s blockbuster hearing, said that Trump was “as mad as I’d ever seen him” when the attorney general later explained that the Justice Department would not take sides in the election. “He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” testified former Attorney General William Barr in his interview with the committee. He called the voting fraud claims “bull——,” “bogus” and “idiotic,” and resigned in the aftermath. “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”
Monday’s hearing also featured live witnesses, including Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News Channel political editor who declared on Election Night that Arizona was being won by Biden. Stirewalt said that based on their data, it was clear that Trump was going to lose. Trump was enraged and he was fired. Also appearing was the former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, BJay Pak, who abruptly resigned after Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperge to find enough votes overturn his defeat.
The panel also heard from elections lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg who discussed the norms of election campaign challenges and the 62 failed court cases and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the only Republican on the city’s election board, who told the panel that regardless of how “fantastical” some of the claims that Trump and his team were making, the city officials investigated. He discussed facing threats after Trump criticized him in a tweet.
Trump’s “big lie” of election fraud escalated and transformed into marching orders that summoned supporters to Washington and then sent them to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to block Biden’s victory.
The panel also provided new information about how Trump’s fundraising machine collected some $250 million with his campaigns to “Stop the Steal” and others in the aftermath of the November election, mostly from small-dollar donations from Americans. One plea for cash went out 30 minutes before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The emails claimed the donations were to Stop the Steal going into a General Election Fund but there was no such fund and money went to friends and family.
“Not only was there the big lie, there was the big ripoff,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
From today’s testimony, it is clear that Trump was told by his attorney general, his campaign staff, multiple other republicans, the courts and his family that there was no fraud. He listened only to team crazy, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. He knew there was no fraud but constantly claimed there was to try and stay in power and to fund raise off it.