so unceremoniously, viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long go home with love and peace. remember this day forever. he called the mob great patriots. he told people to remember the day for ever. he showed absolutely no remorse. a few minutes later, at $627.00, the president left the dining room and he went up to the white house residence for the night. on the screen is the last photograph of the president that night, as he went into the residence as who has gathered his things in the dining room to leave president trump reflected on the day's events with a white house employee. this was the same employee who had met president trump in the oval office after he returned from the ellipse. president trump said nothing to

the employ about the attack. he said only quote mike pence. let me down. was matthews, what was your reaction to president? trump's 6 o one tweak at that point i had already made the decision to resign, and this tweet just further cemented my decision. i thought that kenny re 62021 was one of the darkest days in our nation's history. and president trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion with that tweet. and so it just further cemented my decision to resign. others agreed with your assessment of their tweet. let's look at what they had to say. who asked you about this week before it was sent to the president . tell us about that conversation and everything that you said and he said to the best of your recollection. sure. so he said, what do you think of this? and i believe i saw the text message early on his phone and i

remember saying to him the wording on the 1st sentence, i, i guess it's one long sentence. what are the wording on the 1st sentence? what lead some the believe that potentially he had something to do with the events that happened at the capital. what did he say? i don't recall him saying anything in response to that. he and i believe that was in the conversation. did he change anything? m either of your comments? no, sir, indiana. and what about this made you think that someone might perceive the president having a role in the violence of the capital? it was my interpretation of the words. i mean i'm, i'm out of and i don't write speeches or anything, but the phrase, these are the things that happen to me sounded as if

as if culpability was associated with it. to me. i don't think it's a patriotic act to attack the capital. but i have no idea how to characterize the, the people other than they trust past destroyed property and assaulted the u. s. capital, i think calling the patriots was a say, a stretch to say least that all of these are fresh or just flattery wrong. i don't think it's a patriotic act to attack the u. s. capital, would you call it on patriarch? criminal? unpatriotic. sure. what happen if the capital cannot be justified in any form or fashion? it was wrong, and it was tragic in it. it was a terrible day. so terrible days. it's not true. i thought it was inappropriate.

why my mind. it was a day that should be remembered. and from this i was the head of the st. despite the violence of the day, the effort to delay the certification continued that evening. rudy giuliani called several of president trump's closest political allies. in the hour before the joint session resumed representative jim jordan and senator as marcia blackburn tommie tuber vill bill haggerty lindsey graham. josh holly and ted cruz. we know why mr. juliani was calling them because at 7 o 2, he left a voicemail for center tuber ville which later became public. let's listen to just the start of it. oh, better to go or actually take over. who's rudy giuliani president ward? i'm calling you because i wanted to discuss with you how the final rushes hearings

and how we need you. our republican friends try to slow it down, so get a slightly should get more information to you. mister juliani did not even mention the attack on the capital. instead, he was pushing on behalf of president trump to get members of congress to further delay the certification. even though some members did proceed with objections, vice president pants in congress stood firm and successfully concluded the joint session in the early morning hours of january. 7th. here is some of what members of the president's party said in the days and weeks after the attack. there is no question on their present. trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of the day. no question about the people who storm this building believed. they were acting on the wishes

and instructions, other browser. and having that believe was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo. oh, false so much. conspiracy theories and reckless harbor play, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest microphone on planet earth. the violence destruction and chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable, undemocratic in america. it was the saddest day i've ever had as serving as a member. this institution, madam speaker, today the people's house was attacked, which is an attack on the republic itself. there is no excuse for it. a woman died

and people need to go to jail. and the president should never have spun up certain americans to believe something that simply cannot be well after 3 in the morning congress certified the 2020 election results. soon after this statement by president trump was posted on dance conveners, twitter account. because the president's account by now had been suspended. as you can see, president trump stock with his big lie that the election was stolen. but he did say there would be an orderly transition. we learned though that the statement was not necessarily his idea. jason miller, a campaign adviser told us that after the joint session started, he heard nothing from president trump or the white house about assuring the nation that the transfer of power would take place. so mr. miller took it upon himself to draft the statement and call the president at $923.00 that night to convince him to put it out. let's listen to what he had to say about the call. did he disagree with

something that you would put in the statement? some particular word or phrase that he did not want, including i'd say just a he wanted to say peaceful transition. and i said that ships kind of already sailed sorta say orderly transition. how that was, that was about the extent of disagreement or, or push back from the conversation. the last person present trump spoke to by phone that night was johnny mcentee, his head of personnel. mister macintosh told us that they talked about the events of the day. and the multiple resignation, but by administration officials, the decision whether to resign was one. the weighed heavily on people in the administration. on the one hand, people like mister passenger, and miss matthews here as proud as they were to have served, refused to be associated with president trump sterile action of duty. but others

were sincerely worried that leaving president trump to his own devices would put the country and continued risk. listen to what we heard about that tension from passive bologna, from general mark milly, and eugene scalia, who was the secretary of labor. and then after that, some people were residing obviously over january 60 day they were. did i consider it? yes. did i do it? oh, discerned about it. people in the counselor's office? well, who would replace me and i had some concern so it might be somebody who had been giving bad advice on the morning of the decision i arrived at was that the most constructive thing i could think of was to see could be the cat. you know, i thought of dad trying to work with ministration to stay

the ship was likely to have greater value then assembly resigned. after which point it would have been powerless to a demonstration chief. got there should be that meeting, you know, why not? we're not, i don't remember why. i think it probably i think these marks out the president. yeah. yeah. but things like that. there was a couple of calls where the meadows of more meadows out of the president like i say, how the president doing metal would say, well he's going to really gosh, place like here's one for example, on the 7th of january. so this is a right quote,

it is very emotional and a bad place. as your secretary scalia one president, trump, to convene a cabinet meeting. he put his request in a memo to the president, and here's what it said. you can see the secretary scholarly recommended that the president, quote, no longer publicly question the election results after wednesday. no one can deny this is harmful. secretary scalia also highlighted the importance of the public, knowing the president would invoke his cabinet in decision making and not quote, certain private individuals. though secretary scalia did not say it, he was referring to rudy giuliani and the rest of the so called clown car working with president trump to try to overturn the election secretary school. we understood that the president needed to do more to reassure the public about the last few weeks of the trump administration. mister ponder when you made the

decision to resign. did, did you walk out of the white house immediately? no, i wanted to 1st talk to my immediate boss that was the national security advisor, robert o'brien, i, robert o'brien was traveling on the 6th. i reached him at about 430 p. m and told him of that i was submitting my resignation. he accepted the resignation, but he also asked whether i could stay in till he could get back to the white house . and i agreed to that we, we both of wanted to make sure that i was leaving in a responsible way. we still have foreign adversaries to worry about, you know, hackers, terrorists, nation states. and i did not want to leave my chair empty given that i was the top national security staffer in the white house.

ah. so i ended up staying at my desk through the night when robert o'brien arrived back at the white house the next morning, the morning of the 7th. i debriefed with him and left for the last time. so, you know, i both share a passion for national security of our country. can you share with me what's your view on how january 6 impacted our national security? well, when you have a presidential transition, even under the best circumstances, it is a, it's a time of vulnerability. it's a time of vulnerability. i'm for, you know, and when you have a contested election, i was certainly concerned that some of our adversaries would be tempted to probe or test us resolve. as an example. in late december,

the iranian government attacked the u. s. embassy in baghdad. they did that using some of their terrorist proxies. president trump didn't handle that. he sent a very clear warning to the ayatollah and his regime, which i think had had a useful effect. i think that we would have handled other threats of that nature. and luckily, no other threats a materialized before the inauguration on the 20th, but our national security was harmed in a different way by the 6th of january. mad is that it? um. i think it emboldened our our enemies by of helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system of government doesn't work. that the united states is in decline of china,

the potent regime in russia to ran their fond of pushing those kinds of narratives. and by the way, they're wrong, the, you know, we've been hearing for the entirety of us history from kings and despots. that the united states is a, is in decline. and the, those kings and despots have been proven wrong every single time. but nonetheless, generally 6 helped feed a perception that i think in bold ins, our adversaries, the, you know, the, the, the other part i think is simply our, our allies, i heard from a lot of friends in europe, in asia, allies close friends and supporters of united states that they were concerned about the health of our democracy. and so i think it's incumbent upon us to put their minds at ease, to put our own heart cities by investigating what happened and on the 6th,

and making sure that it never happens again. well, i've always said democracies are not defined by bad days. they're defined by how they recover from those bad days. and that's what we're doing here is to bring accountability to that. so we can actually come back even stronger than when we went into january 6, ms. matthews, as you left the white house for the last time that night, january 6. what did you think americans needed to hear from president trump? i think that the american people needed to hear and see him publicly commit to a peaceful or at least orderly transition of power in the aftermath of the capital attack. it wasn't just enough for us to ask him to condemn the violence. he needed to agree that he would peacefully transfer power over to the incoming administration because that's one of our fundamentals and what it means to live in a democracy. and so that evening, when i resigned the resignation statement that i drafted,

i referenced this and i said our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power and hopes that it would put some sort of public pressure on the white house. and president trump, to publicly agreed to in orderly transition, a q a yielded my friend from virginia. thank you mr. kensington. the staff who remained at the white house on the morning of january 7th, knew the president needed to address the nation again. and then have a speech prepared for him that morning, but he refused for hours to give it as you catch him, cassidy hush and testify. previously, president trump finally agreed to record an address to the nation. later that evening. the evening of january 7th, because of concerns he might be removed from power under the 25th amendment or by impeachment. we know these threats were real, sean hannity said so himself in a text message that day depressed secretary taylor mckinney. he wrote no more

stolen election talk. yes. impeachment and 25th amendment a real. we have never before seen raw footage. the president recording is addressed to the nation that day on january 7th, or the 24 hours after the last time he had addressed the nation from the rose garden. let's take a look. ah, whatever it is. i would like to begin by addressing the hate as detect yesterday and to those who wrote the law, you will say you do not represent our movement. you do not represent our country. and if you wrote, the law can say that i knew i already said you will pay. the demonstrators who infiltrated the jap, have defied the seat of dusty file, right?

i can't see it very well. okay, i'll do this. somebody do this, let's go. but this election is now all congress has certified the results. i don't want to say election 0. i just want to say congress has certified the results without saying the elections don't. okay. now how well, why now, what is it over? so let the mission, don't go to the paragraph. okay . i'd like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday yesterday, his ard word for me. i could take the word yesterday cuz it does it work with the henderson tech on our country say on our country. when i say that was my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote.

my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. on january 7th, one day after he incited an insurrection based on a lie, president, trump still could not say that the election was overn. mister potter, you've taken the oath multiple times in the marines. and as an official and the executive branch can you please share with us your view about the oath of office and how that translates into accepting election results in a transfer of power. sure big, you know, this isn't the 1st time that we've had a close election in this country. and president trump certainly had every right to challenge and court the, the results of these various selections. but once you've had due process under the

law, ah, you have to conform with the law no matter how bitter the resolve once you've presented your evidence in court. judges of heard that evidence, judges have ruled. ah, if you continue to contest, contestant election, you're not just contesting an election any more, you're actually challenging the constitution itself. you're of challenging the societal norms that allow us to remain unified. i'm. i think it one example, for example, you've got vice president of richard nixon back in 1060 had. busy lost a hard fought election against senator john f. kennedy. i'm a there. there were irregularities in that vote, according to a lot of the histories, and

a lot of vice president nixon's supporters asked him to fight contest it, don't concede, and but in one of his finest moments, vice president nixon said no. and he said it would tear the country to pieces and he conceded to jack kennedy and announced that he was going to support him as the next president. we have an example of a democratic candidate for president vice president al gore, who faced a very similar dilemma um he strongly disagreed with the supreme court decision that i lost his election bid and allowed president george w bush to take office. but he gave a speech of concession in late december, mid or late december. uh huh. of 2000. where he said this is for the sake of the unity of, of us as a people and for the strength of our democracy. i also am going to concede,

i'm going to, to support the, the new president and his speech is actually a pretty good model, i think, for any candidate of, for any office up to including the president and from any party to read a particularly right now you know that the oath that our, our president's take, it's very similar to the oath of office i took as a us marine officer and the, the oath i took as a white house official, it is to, to support and defend the constitution. it's to protect the constitution to bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution and it is a sacred oh if it's an oath that we take before our families, we take that oath before god. um and i, i think been we have um, in obligation to live by,

by bad oath. and i do still believe that we have the most ingenious system of government on earth despite its imperfections. i don't envy countries that don't have this of the system that actually allows for predictable, peaceful transfer of government every 48 years. and it's not something that we should take for granted. thank you. as we heard at the start of the hearing in the immediate aftermath of january 6th republican liter, kevin mccarthy understood that president trump for responsibility for that day and should have taken immediate action to stop the violence. it was even more candid and calls with publican colleagues. as you'll hear in a moment, recordings of some of these calls that were made or later published by the new york times. the context for these calls was that a resolution had been introduced in the house, calling for vice president pens and the cabinet to remove president trump from

power under the 25th amendment. let's listen. i've had it with this guy. what he did is unacceptable. nobody can defend letter, nobody should get disgusted. i did have with him that i think this will pass. it will be my recommendation. i mean that would be like a but i don't thank you, but i don't know. but let me be very clear to all of you and i've been very clear the president, he bears responsibilities for his words and actions. no ifs, ands or buts. i ask them personally today, is he hold responsibility for what happened? does he feel bad about what happened? he told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and he need to acknowledge that president trump has never publicly

acknowledged his responsibility for the attack. the only time he apparently did so was in that private call with kevin mccarthy. there something else president trump has never acknowledged. the names and the memories of the officers who died following the attack on the capitol. we're honored to be joined to night by police, some 1st responders who bravely protected us on january 6. your character and courage give us hope that democracy can and should prevail even in the face of a violent insurrection. we on this dyess can never thank you enough for what you did to protect our democracy. on january 9th, to have president trump's top campaign officials texted each other about the president's glaring silence on the tragic death of capital police officer brian thickening was to come to his injuries. the night of january 7th,

his campaign officials were 10, myrtle trumps, director of communications and one of his deputies matthew walking. their job was to convince people to vote for president trump. so they knew his heart, his mind and his voice as well as any one. and they knew how he connects with his supporters. here's what they had to say about their boss. myrtle said, also shitty not to have acknowledge the death of the capitol police officer walking responded at an raging to me. every thing he said about supporting law enforcement was a lie to which myrtle reply. you know what this is, of course, if he acknowledged the dead cobb, he'd be implicitly faulting, the mob. and he won't do that because they're his people. and he would also be close to acknowledging that why do you live at the rally?

got out of control. no way. he acknowledges something they could ultimately be called his fault. no way. president trump good night den and does not now have the character or courage to say to the american people what his own people know to be true. he is responsible for the attack and the capital on january sex. thank you and i yield to the gentleman from illinois, him thank you, miss loria. the nights testimony and evidence is, as sobering as it is straightforward. within minutes of stepping off the ellipse stage, donald trump knew about the violent attack on the capital. from the comfort of his dining room, he watched on tv as the attack escalated, and he said, tweets that inflamed and express support the desire of son to literally kill

vice president mike pence for 3 hours. he refused to call off the attack, and donald trump refused to take the urgent advice he received that there. not from his political opponents or from the liberal media, but from his own family. his own friends, his own staff, and his own advisors. in the midst of an attack, when there was no time for politics, the people closest to trump told him the truth. it was his supporters attack in the capital, and he alone could get through to them. so they plug for him to act, to place his country above himself. still he refused to lead and to meet the moment to honor his oath. it was only once the vice president and the members of congress

were insecure locations. and the officers defending the capital began to turn the tide that then president trump engaged in the political theatre of telling the mob to go home. and even then, it told them all they were special and that he loved them. whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as americans must all agree on this. donald trump's conduct on january 6th, was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. it is a stain on our history, it is a dishonor to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy.