Former staffers of then-president Donald Trump helped piece together what he did for 187 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021 — the time between when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol and when he told the violent mob that ultimately stormed it to go home.
Witnesses testified before the House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday in a primetime hearing, a finale of sorts (though the committee is expected to hold more hearings in September). As the riot raged, witnesses said, Trump did nothing to stop it. Some of his closest supporters urged him in person, by phone, or by text to do something. Every staff member at the White House wanted the riot to stop, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone testified. When asked if that included Trump, he declined to answer.
Here are five things you may have missed from the hearing:
Pence's security team called family members to tell them goodbye.
During the height of the riot, then–vice president Mike Pence's security staff feared for their lives and were calling family members to say they loved them, according to a White House security officer who anonymously testified via a recording.
After rioters broke into the Capitol at 2:13 p.m., Pence's security team began to plan to get him to safety, but they weren't sure how successful they were going to be. Rioters at one point came within 40 feet of Pence, surveillance video showed.
"There was a lot of yelling, a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing," the security officer said during his testimony. "I don't like talking about it, but there were calls to say goodbye to family members.
"If they're running out of options, and they're getting nervous, it sounds like that we came very close to either (Secret) Service having to use lethal options or worse."
Sen. Josh Hawley fled rioters after showing them support.
here's video of Hawley running to evacuate the Capitol after he egged on insurrectionists with his infamous fist pump
After showing a viral photograph of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley raising his fist to the Capitol rioters in support, the committee on Thursday played video footage of him fleeing the mob once they broke into the Capitol.
A Capitol police officer told the Jan. 6 committee that Hawley's raised fist had "riled up" the crowd. The police officer told the committee that that gesture bothered her because Hawley did it in a "safe space, protected by the officers and barriers." But once rioters made their way inside the Capitol, Hawley didn't look so tough. Surveillance footage showed him running in the hallways, as well as down the stairs to escape rioters.
The juxtaposition got a laugh from people attending the hearing in person.
Immediate reaction to the vid:
Trump did not want to mention peace.
Sarah Matthews, former deputy White House press secretary, testified that she told Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House press secretary, that Trump should issue a call to action to send rioters home. After McEnany allegedly suggested to Trump that he do that, she told Matthews that Trump did not want to include "any sort of mention of peace" in his tweet.
Matthews testified that McEnany said there was a "back-and-forth" among Trump and others over different phrases he could use in the tweet. It wasn't until Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump suggested the phrase "Stay peaceful" that Trump agreed, Matthews said. Trump tweeted that out at 2:38 p.m., but a number of White House staff told the committee they didn't think it went far enough.
Pence ordered the military to help, not Trump.
The Vice President also worked the phones from his own secure evacuation location. Look at never-before-seen photographs of the Vice President during the Capitol attack and hear about the Pence's conversations with military leaders to secure the building.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joints Chief of Staff, testified that Trump didn't use his authority as commander in chief to instruct the military to secure the Capitol building; instead, Pence made the call.
Pence made the orders while he was working from a secure location at the Capitol as rioters continued to threaten to kill him.
"He was very animated," Milley said, "and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that."
Milley added that he was later instructed to keep quiet that Trump wasn't involved in the decision. The general told the committee he declined to do so because he doesn't get involved in political messaging.
Outtakes of a video show Trump refusing to say the election was over on Jan. 7
Never-before-seen raw footage of Trump recording his message in the Rose Garden.
During the hearing, outtakes from Trump's Jan. 7 video addressing the nation were shown — the most direct evidence yet of what he thought in the aftermath of the riot. The video shows Trump pushing back on saying the "election is now over," apparently declining to walk back the lie of election fraud that motivated many of the rioters.
"But this election is now over," Trump reads from the teleprompter in footage that his administration never aired. "Congress has certified the results.
"I don't want to say, 'The election is over,'" Trump continues in the video. "I just want to say, 'Congress has certified the results' without saying the election is over, OK?"