The legal scope of the commission investigating on January 6 2:25
(CNN) --
The Jan. 6 commission, in its last public hearing until the fall, presented damning new evidence Thursday highlighting then-President Donald Trump's three-hour refusal to publicly condemn the unfolding insurrection in the US Capitol or break away from the violent mob.
The prime-time session, the eighth hearing so far this summer, focused on the "187 minutes" between Trump telling supporters to march on Capitol Hill and finally telling them to "go home."
January 6 commission focused on how Trump failed to act while Capitol Hill was under attack
The hearing was co-chaired by Rep. Elaine Luria, a Democrat from Virginia, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois.
Two former Trump White House aides who resigned immediately after the attack, Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, testified in person Thursday.
Here are takeaways from Thursday's epic primetime audience.
Trump decided not to act
The commission used Thursday's hearing to show how Trump not only failed to act, but chose not to act as he watched the violent assault on the US Capitol.
Multiple witnesses with first-hand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on January 6 told the commission that Trump did not make a single call to any of his law enforcement or national security officials while The attack on Capitol Hill was unfolding, according to previously unseen video testimony played during Thursday's hearing.
advertising
The panel said it "confirmed in numerous interviews with senior military and law enforcement leaders, Vice President Mike Pence's staff, and DC government officials: Not one of them, not a single one, heard from President Trump that day," Luria said.
The commission used that testimony to argue that Trump's refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty.
Former officials who were with Trump as he watched the unrest on television, including then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump bodyguard Nick Luna, told the commission they were not aware of the former president making a single called the heads of various agencies that might have responded to the violence, including the defense secretary or attorney general.
Keith Kellogg, Pence's national security adviser who was also with Trump that day, testified that he never heard the former president request a response from the National Guard or law enforcement.
Kellogg also reaffirmed that he would have known if Trump had made such a request.
Matthews, the former White House spokeswoman, said she spoke with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany during the riots, and McEnany "looked directly at me, and quietly told me the president didn't want to include any kind of mention of peace" in a tweet they were preparing.
"To me, his refusal to act and disassociate himself from the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible," Matthews said at the hearing.
That testimony dovetails with other evidence presented Thursday, such as outtakes of Trump's videotaped speech on Jan. 7, where he tried to water down some of the prepared language, telling aides: "I don't want to say the election is over, right?" OKAY?".
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the House select committee that he was stunned by the fact that he never heard from Trump while the assault on Capitol Hill was unfolding, suggesting that his lack of action amounted to an abdication of his duties as commander-in-chief, according to never-before-seen video of his closed-door deposition.
"You know, you're the commander in chief. You have an assault on the Capitol of the United States of America and there's nothing? No calls? Nothing? Zero?"
he said he in the video.
'They were beginning to fear for their own lives': Haunting audio and video show the danger felt by Pence's security team
Thursday's hearing featured disturbing new video and audio showing how endangered Pence's security team felt as they tried to evacuate the vice president from Capitol Hill.
The commission painted the fullest picture to date of the danger Pence and his team faced when agitators called for the vice president to be hanged after he refused to join Trump's efforts to try to nullify the 2020 election.
A commission witness testified that Pence's task force was so worried about what was happening that they "began to fear for their own lives" and that there were calls "to say goodbye to members of his family."
The witness was an unidentified national security professional working at the White House on January 6, whose audio testimony was masked to hide the official's identity.
“Is the VP compromised?
Like, I don't know.
We didn't have visibility, but if they're yelling and saying things, like saying goodbye to family...it'll soon go to another level," the national security official said.
The House select committee also revealed, for the first time, Secret Service radio traffic as agents surveyed the Senate stairwell where Pence would be evacuated, while rioters clashed with police in a hallway at the same time and sound of Pence's detail, highlighting how close the vice president and his detail came to failing.
Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Commission contrasts Pence's presidential actions with Trump's inaction
One focus of the select committee hearing was the presidential actions that were taken on January 6, not by Trump but by Pence.
The commission noted how Trump did not try to call law enforcement or military officials on Jan. 6, while Pence, whose life was in danger from rioters, "got on the phone" talking to Milley and then-Secretary of State Acting defenseman Chris Miller.
The commission played a video of Milley's statement where he said he had "two or three calls" with Pence.
"He was very agitated and issued very explicit, very direct and unambiguous orders. There was no question about it," Milley said.
"He was very agitated, he was very direct, very firm with Secretary Miller: Bring the military here, bring the Guard here, end this situation."
Luria painted a direct contrast to what Trump did on January 6: "The president did not call the vice president or anyone in the military, the federal police or the DC government. Not a single person," he said.
The comparison between Trump and Pence underscores how Trump is still angry at his vice president about January 6.
Politically, Pence has faced Trump in several primaries ahead of a possible 2024 presidential contest. The former vice president has endorsed Republicans who have rejected Trump's false fraud claims, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and Republican from Arizona Karrin Taylor Robson, who is running in the state's gubernatorial primary against a Republican who has embraced Trump's lies about the election.
The commission, which has two anti-Trump Republicans as members -- Kinzinger and the panel's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming -- has described Pence as one of the key officials who stood up to Trump after he lost the election. 2020 elections.
The commission also included in its Thursday hearing a clip of Joe Biden on January 6 condemning the violence, in what was a subtle nod to Biden acting as president, compared to Trump, before taking office.
Commission Goes After Congressional Republicans (Again)
The committee threw several sharp elbows at congressional Republicans during Thursday's hearing, taking on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Trump allies.
The commission played previously unsealed audio clips of McCarthy discussing his conversations with Trump after Jan. 6 and saying he was considering advising him to resign.
The commission also played a video clip of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's statement, in which he said McCarthy "was scared" amid the violence unfolding on Capitol Hill when the two spoke on the phone on Jan. 6.
Additionally, the panel singled out Sen. Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri who led the Senate's objection to the election results on January 6.
The panel featured a well-known photo of Hawley raising his fist at protesters outside the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6.
Immediately afterward, the panel played a video showing Hawley running from the Senate chamber, playing it a second time in slow motion for emphasis.
Later that night, Hawley forced debate on the Pennsylvania election results and voted against certifying them.
The two Republicans on the panel, Kinzinger and Cheney, have been outspoken critics of McCarthy as they have been ostracized from the House Republican conference.
Both could be out of Congress next year: Kinzinger retires and Cheney faces a Trump-backed primary challenger in Wyoming.
Kinzinger co-chaired Thursday's hearing.
Previously, the commission went after congressional Republicans for aiding Trump's efforts to nullify the election, including seeking pardons after Jan. 6.
And the panel's clashes with McCarthy go beyond the hearings: The commission subpoenaed five Republicans, including McCarthy, in an unprecedented move.
The commission adds to the corroboration of Hutchinson's testimony
The Jan. 6 commission provided new evidence Thursday to support explosive testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who publicly described Trump's angry interactions with his secret service after the then-president was told he couldn't go to the Capitol.
Luria said the committee had information from two additional sources to partially corroborate Hutchinson's testimony that Trump pounced on his Secret Service detail.
One of the witnesses, Luria said, "is a former White House employee with national security responsibilities."
While the person was not named, Luria said the official testified that Tony Ornato, then-Trump White House deputy chief of staff and current Secret Service member, told him the same story that Hutchinson testified Ornato had told him. to her: that Trump was "furious" when Robert Engel, the Secret Service agent in charge on Jan. 6, 2021, said he would not take him to Capitol Hill.
The second witness was retired Washington police sergeant Mark Robinson, who was in Trump's motorcade that day.
Robinson testified that the Secret Service agent responsible for the motorcade had said that Trump had a "heated" discussion with his companions about going to Capitol Hill.
Robinson added that he had been in "over 100" caravans with Trump and had never heard of such an exchange before Jan. 6.
Hutchinson's testimony about Trump lashing out at his Secret Service detail has become a key point that the former president's allies have tried to use to discredit the investigation.
While the detail that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent was just a snippet of Hutchinson's testimony, the rejection likely contributed to the commission's decision to add additional testimony supporting his version during Thursday's hearing.
Luria noted that the commission expected to receive more testimony in the coming weeks about the interaction.
California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, told CNN that both Ornato and Engel hired a private attorney to sit on the panel.
Never-before-seen videos, photos and audio bring 187 minutes to life
The audience was peppered with never-before-seen videos, photos and audio that reanimated the horrors of January 6 and, surprisingly, 18 months later, provided new clues about what happened on that day.
In this sense, the panel fulfilled its promise to bring new material.
We saw previously undisclosed outtakes of video statements Trump released on January 6 and 7, showing Trump struggling to condemn the rioters.
There was also the chilling audio of Pence's security team strategizing his evacuation from the Senate, bringing the vice president perilously close to rioters, some of whom wanted to kill him.
There were images and photos in the room of congressional leaders speaking on the phone with Miller.
The bipartisan group, including then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sought assurances from Miller that the National Guard would restore order so they could resume court proceedings. Electoral College.
And lawmakers highlighted Capitol security footage that had never seen the light of day, until Thursday.
This included footage of Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri running across the Capitol to get away from rioters, which the commission contrasted with Hawley's very public support for nullifying the election, and his infamously raised fist offered to the crowd of rioters outside .
Taken together, these clips created a compelling multimedia experience, which the committee hopes will grab the audience's attention and drive home its message.
After all, the panel hired a prominent former television executive to produce the hearings and has worked aggressively through subpoenas and court battles to obtain mountains of new material.
Now it's all coming together.
The Secret Service in the spotlight
Thursday's hearing came after a hectic week for the US Secret Service. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general who oversees the agency publicly accused the Secret Service of deleting text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021. , which are key to multiple queries about the insurrection.
That inspector general investigation is now a criminal investigation, CNN reported.
(The Secret Service denies maliciously deleting anything, says the missing messages were lost during a routine phone replacement program, and says it's cooperating with all ongoing investigations.)
As mentioned, the hearing featured testimony from an anonymous White House security officer and a Washington police sergeant who provided more context on Secret Service activities.
And Luria said some Secret Service witnesses have gotten lawyers recently and the commission expects "more sworn testimony and other new information in the coming weeks."
Any additional cooperation from Secret Service officials could help the panel figure out what happened to the potentially missing text messages, which has emerged in recent days as a key point in the investigation, with lawmakers increasingly upset with the agency. .
Public hearings will resume in September
The commission will take a summer recess in August and resume public hearings in September.
"Our commission will spend August searching for emerging information on multiple fronts, before convening more hearings this September," Cheney said.
Lawmakers have said their investigation is ongoing.
Earlier in the hearing, Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the commission, said "we continue to get new information every day."
The panel has held eight public hearings so far and has garnered impressive television ratings by presenting substantial amounts of damaging new information about Trump and January 6.
The next wave of hearings in September will come during the final stretch of the midterm election campaign.
Commission members have said they also intend to issue an interim report at that time.
CNN's Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
Assault on the Capitol