Jan. 6 panel to show outtakes from Trump speech day after riot
The House select committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol on Thursday plans to show outtakes of former President Trump’s speech a day after the riot in its prime-time hearing.
The Washington Post first reported on the clips of the outtakes, which were part of the production of the speech Trump gave after the night after the riot.
Sources told the newspaper that the outtakes show the former president struggling to condemn the rioters for their actions, attempting to refer to them as patriots and resisting to say that the 2020 election was over.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the Jan 6. committee, told CNN that the outtakes will present what the former president wanted to say about the actions on that day, noting that people urged him to do something to stop the violent attack on the Capitol.
“You’ll hear the terrible lack of a response from the president, and you’ll hear more about how he was ultimately prevailed upon to say something and what he was willing to say and what he wasn’t,” Schiff told the network on Wednesday.
Thursday’s hearing, scheduled for 8 p.m., is expected to focus on Trump’s inaction at the White House during the Capitol insurrection and include pressing details from prior hearings such as Trump spreading false conspiracy theories on how he had actually won the 2020 election.
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), who is expected to co-lead Thursday’s hearing alongside fellow committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said in an interview earlier this month that the panel plans to focus on the 187 minutes between Trump leaving the rally stage while the insurrection was in progress and when he released a statement telling his supporters in the Capitol to go home.
Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger are both expected to testify during Thursday’s hearing as well, giving detail of what they saw transpire during the day.
Both Matthews and Pottinger resigned from their positions following the Capitol insurrection.