Less than 20 minutes after the hearing, a Republican on the panel – Liz Cheney of Wyoming – revealed that when then-President Donald Trump heard insurgents calling for his vice president to be hanged, Trump had an unbelievable reaction. “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” Trump said, according to Cheney. “Mike Pence deserves it.” That was the message conveyed by Trump aides to the Jan. 6 commission, and it was just one of the incredible revelations the panel made Thursday night during its first and historic hearing. President Bennie Thompson (D-MS) also revealed in his inaugural statement that Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, told the Jan. 6 Commission that he resigned at the end of the administration because he could no longer sit idly by. while the leader of the nation planned to remain in power based on electoral fraud. “I made it clear that I did not agree with the idea that the election was rigged, something I told the president was bullshit,” Barr said, leaning back in his chair during a video recording. The committee also played excerpts from previously unpublished video interviews with Trump aides, including Ivanka Trump’s daughter, to prove that Trump knew his allegations of electoral fraud were false. he had been repeatedly told that he had lost fairly. Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller recalled how the campaign’s top data expert, Matt Ockowski, spoke to Trump himself and “uttered several crude words he was about to lose.” Alex Cannon, a Trump’s lawyer who later joined the candidate’s campaign, recalled saying to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, “We did not find anything that would change the results in any of the key states” —in which Mendous replied, “So it is not there.” Even Ivanka Trump told the committee that Barr’s claim that there was no widespread fraud affected her personally. “It simply came to my notice then. “I respect the Attorney General Bar, so I accepted what he was saying,” he told the commission during a video interview. Cheney also made it clear that the inquiry had drawn the attention of some members of Congress, revealing that MP Scott Perry (R-PA) – now chairman of the House of Representatives Freedom Group – and “several” other Republicans apologized to Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack. Cheney called on her Republican colleagues who continue to pledge allegiance to the former president, saying: “The day will come when Donald Trump will leave. But your dishonesty will remain.” Thompson began the process by stressing that “the domestic enemies of the constitution invaded and occupied the Capitol.” He blamed Trump for the attack, saying it was “the culmination of a coup attempt.” “He promoted a mob of domestic enemies of the constitution to take down the capital and overthrow American democracy,” he said. The commission on Thursday night also shed more light on Trump’s inaction and the role of the military in failing to intervene and defend the Capitol building. Cheney said Trump did not call on the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, or the Secretary of Homeland Security. “Trump did not order the deployment of the National Guard; no effort to work with the Department of Justice to develop law enforcement.” Instead, it was Pence who took on the responsibility of defending lawmakers by demanding that the military intervene. The committee presented a video of the testimony of Senior Military Officer General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified that he had “two to three calls” with Pence. “He was very lively, very direct, very stable; take the army, put the guard down here, put this situation,” he said. And instead of facing the real threat that day, the White House was apparently trying to cover up Trump’s inaction by trying to force Milley – a military official who should never have been involved in politics – to brand Trump still in charge. Milley recalled that Meadows told him that “we have to kill the narrative that the vice president makes all the decisions. “We have to establish the narrative that you know the president is still in charge and things are stable or stable or words about it.” The commission is not just investigating the attack on the Capitol. The investigation also concerns the multifaceted attempt of former President Donald Trump and his supporters to keep him in power after the defeat of the 2020 elections. Thursday’s presentation marks the first of about half a dozen public hearings in which the committee will reveal its findings. The commission will show what it has learned on various fronts: Trump’s role in what has been described as a coup attempt, the conspiracy of his loyalists and advisers to overthrow votes in many states, the intense campaign of pressure on then Vice President Mike Pence. to abuse his role and refuse to certify the results of the electorate and the mob uprising. Aides to the committee told reporters that Thursday’s hearing would focus on documenting “the reality of this violence and how horrific it was” by presenting “previously unseen” video and audio of how the crowd tried to occupy the seat. of Congress. The commission tells the broader story of what happened that day, something the Department of Justice quietly prosecuted in hundreds of federal courtrooms as it prosecuted insurgents who beat police officers, smashed windows and doors in windows. , looted politicians’ offices, took furniture and electronic devices, searched for members of Congress with kidnapping tools and set up gallows outside. Even before the onslaught of new information on Thursday night, Democrats wanted to maximize the visibility of the hearing, hoping to remind the public of the deadly event. Outdoor groups organized follow-up parties across the country, including one just outside the auditorium on a Capitoline lawn. The event, organized by a coalition of Democratic organizations, made spectators sit in picnic style on blankets and chairs as the committee’s sound was released. In general, the spectators appeared caught up in the testimony, applauding the speeches of the committee members and digging up the former chairman. Only once did a large number of people look away from the screen during the first half of the audition: when the free ice cream provided by the liberal Ben & Jerry’s brand arrived. This effort faced a difficult battle from the beginning. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’s plans to set up a formal, independent commission – such as the 9/11 Commission set up after the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on US soil – failed when Republicans refused. to support its creation in May 2021. Instead, House Democrats set up a nine-member ad hoc committee of inquiry. When minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) volunteered for five of Trump’s supporters for the panel, Pelosi rejected two of his choices – Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and spokesman Jim Banks (R-IN) – citing their role in undermining the election. In response, McCarthy pulled out all his options. And in response to that move, Pelosi offered seats in July to two other Republicans willing to step aside the party’s growing affiliation with the MAGA movement: Cheney and MP Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). “What I saw was just a war scene. It was as if I had seen it outside of movies. I could not believe what I was seeing. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They vomited. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I caught people as they fell. It was a massacre. It was chaos. “ – Capitol Officer Caroline Edwards The hearing ended with moving testimonies from two witnesses: documentary Nick Quested and Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards. Quested, a British director who had exclusive access to the Proud Boys’ leadership before and during the uprising, spoke of his deep concern about how “the atmosphere seemed much darker” as the gang headed towards the police. Edwards, meanwhile, was reliving the way she struggled to hold the bike racks together to block these Proud Boys — only to be pushed viciously on her back. She hit her head on a concrete staircase and fainted with a traumatic brain injury. When she regained consciousness, she stood guard next to police officer Brian Siknik – and was with him when he suffered devastating injuries shortly before he died. “What I saw was just a war scene,” Edwards said. “It simply came to our notice then. I could not believe what I was seeing. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They vomited. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I caught people as they fell. It was a massacre. It was chaos. “ “I can not even describe what I saw,” he continued. “I never in my wildest dreams thought that, as a police officer – as a law enforcement officer – I would find myself in a battle,” she said, waving in her seat. He described seeing Sicknick’s “fantastically pale” face after being sprayed with caustic chemicals. He held his head in his hands, he recalls, and said he was worried about pepper spray usually making someone blush, but Sicknick’s face was different. “It turned pale like a sheet of paper,” he said, holding up a white piece of white paper. Ursula Perano and Matt Fuller contributed to this report.