mr. van tatenhove is an artist and a journalist. he is a former spokesman of the oath keepers and a former carlos associate of elmer stewart rose the founder and president of the oath keepers who has been charged with said ishes conspiracy in relationship with the follow attack. mr. van tatenhove broke with the oath keepers and has since spoken out forcefully against the violent group. he is a former supporter of president trump. he answered the president's call to come to washington, d.c. on january 6th. he marched to the capitol on the president's orders. he pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive conduct at the capitol. mr. airs who no longer supports president trump came forward voluntarily to share his story as a warming. i will now swear in our witnesses. the witnesses will please stand and raise their right hand. do you square or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and thog but the truth so help you god? thank you you may be seated. let the record

mr. jason van tatenhove and mr. stephen errors. mr. van tatenhove is an artist in journalist, he's a former spokesman of the oath keepers and a former close associate of stewart rhodes, the founder and president of the oath keepers, who has been charged with seditious conspiracy in relation to the capitol attack. mr. van tatenhove broke with the oath keepers and has since spoken out forcefully about the violent group. mr. errors is a former supporter of president trump, he answered the president called to go to washington d.c. on january 6th. we march to the capital on the presidents orders, he pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive conduct at the capitol. 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 the right hand. do you swear or affirm -- under penalty of perjury, that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? th

mr. van tatenhove. mr.es, i firstant to ask you about what finally caused you to leave on january 6. we know that the medieval-style combat with our police, the occupation of the building, this was going on for several hours until the president issued at 4:17 a tweet i believe that included a video telling people to go home. did you see that and did that have any effect on what you were dog? well, when we were there, as soon as that come out, everybody started talking about it and it seemed like it started to disperse some of the crowd. obviously you know, once we got , back to the hotel room, we seen that it was still going on. but it definitely dispersed a lot of the crowd. >> and did you leave at that point? >> yeah, we left. >> so in other words, that was the key moment when you decided to leave when president trump told people to go home. >> yeah, we left right whethat come out. >> you were not a member of an organized group like the oath keepers or the proud boys, as most of the crowd wasn't. i wonder

mr. van tatenhove and mr.people who recovered and evolved from there dissent into the gay of fanaticism, donald trump expanded the big lie to cover january 6th himself, inserted insurrection with real election and the election with the real insurrection. he said his mob greeted our police officers on january six with hugs and kisses. he threatens to take one of america's two major political parties with him down the road to authoritarianism and abraham lincoln's party no less. political scientist tell us authoritarian parties have two essential features in common in history and around the world, they did not accept the result of democratic elections, when they lose, and they embrace political violence as legitimate. the problem of incitement to political violence has only grown more serious in the internet age as we have just heard. but this is not the problem of one party, it is the problem of the whole country now. american democracy, mr. chairman, is a precious inheritance, something rare in the history of

mr. van tatenhove. mr.g, this was going on for several hours until the president issued at 4:17 a tweet, i believe, that included a video telling people to go home. did you see that and did that have any effect on what you were doing? >> well, when we were there, as soon as that come out, everybody started talking about it and it seemed like it started to disburse, you know, some of the crowd. obviously once we got back to the hotel room, we seen that it was still going on, but it definitely disbursed a lot of the crowd. >> and did you leave at that point? >> yeah, we did. yeah, we left. >> so in other words, that was the key moment when you decided to leave when president trump told people to go home? >> yeah, yep. we left right when that come out. >> you were not a member of an organized group like the oath keepers or the proud boys as most of the crowd wasn't. i wonder on january 6th, was it your view that these far right groups like the oath keepers and proud boys and three percenters and others were on

mr. van tatenhove, people that have recovered and evolved from their december sent to the hell of fanaticism, donald trump expanded his big lie to cover january 6 itself. he says the insurrection was the real election. he says his mob greeted our police officers on january 6 with hugs and kisses. he threatens to take one of america's two major political parties with him down the road to authoritarianism and as abraham's lincoln's party no less. the political scientists say authoritarian parties have two essential features in common in history and around the world. they don't accept the results of democratic elections when they lose and embrace political violence as legitimate. and the problem of incitement to political violence has only grown more serious in the internet age as we have just heard. this is not the problem of one party. it is the problem of the whole country now. american democracy, mr. chairman, is a precious inheritance, something rare in the history of the world and even on earth today, constitutional democracy is the silver frame as lincoln put it upon which the golden app

mr. van tatenhove on our need, all of us, as sort of a political culture, and i took it as a note to allto stop mincing words. let me play that. >> i think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths and what it was going to be was an armed revolution. i mean, people died that day. law enforcement officers died this day. there was a gallows set up in front of the capitol. this could have been the spark that started a new civil war, and no one would have won there. that would have been good for no one. he was always looking for ways to legitimize what he was doing, whether by wrapping it in the trappings of, it's not a militia, it's a community, preparedness team. we're not a militia, we're an educational outreach group. it's a veteran support group. but again, we've got to stop with this dishonesty and the mincing of words and just call things for what they are. you know, it -- he's a militia leader. he had these grand visions of being a paramilitary leader, and the insurrection act would have given him a path forward with that. the fact that the president was communicating,

mr. van tatenhove people have recovered and evolved from their descent into hell of fanaticism, donald trump'sr january 6th itself. he asserts the insurrection was the reelection. and the election was the real insurrection. he says is mob greeted our police officers on january six with hugs and kisses. he threatens to take one of americans two major political parties with them down the road to authoritarianism, and in his and abraham lincoln's party no less. -- authoritarian parties have 22 essential features uncommon in history and around the world. they do not accept the results of democratic elections when they lose, and embrace political violence as legitimate. the problem of incitement to political violence has only grown more serious in the internet age, as we have just heard. but this is not the problem of one party, it is the problem of the whole country now. american democracy, mister chairman, it's a precious inheritance, something rare in the history of the world, and even honors today. constitutional democracy is a silver frame, as lincoln put, it upon which the golden apple of fre

his inner circle told how during a stormy meeting, mr trump ignored their advice to concede, and instead summoned a mob to washington. jason van tatenhovekeepers, described the group as violent, dismissive of the rule of law, and capable of swaying people through lies and deceit. rather than try to use words, i think the best illustration for what the 0ath keepers are happened january 6th, when we saw that stacked military formation going up the stairs of our capitol. 0ur correspondent nomia iqbal has been following the hearing, and talked us through what's happened so far. there were two parts to today's hearing. the first part revolved around something that was referred to as an unhinged meeting which happened in mid—december, in which donald trump's advisers were telling him to concede the election, but he was listening to a group of unofficial advisers who were telling him to continue with his baseless claims the election was stolen. the next day, which is where we get into the second part, he put out a tweet in which he said to his supporters to come and protest onjanuary 6th — "be there, will be wild" is what he wrote. and then th

. >> some of these words today from jason van tatenhove , david, from the old keepers and for mr. ayres, who was there that day -- he said fully because the president wanted him there. these words were chilling. >> troubling. definitely troubling. a point of clarity, i think he may be mistaken. i do not believe that any law enforcement officers died on january 6. just to be clear about that. they were terrified. you listen to what these folks said, they were clearly people who showed up on january 6th with bad intentions. he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. i was listening to the testimony and some programming earlier on this network. some of the law enforcement officials who were there on january 6th said, look, there were a great deal of people who came and for whatever reason they protested, they went home. there were a handful, 800 or 50 been charged. they should be charged and prosecuted for the bad things they do. >> right. just to be clear, 800 people is a lot of people. i understand the point you're making. i mentioned mr. ayres. one of the writers wh