US Capitol Hearing: Trump Tweet Provoked Riots

The congressional committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Former President Donald Trump's supporters showed that close allies rejected his false claims of voting fraud.

Trump issued a “pivotal” tweet that “led to the planning” for the Jan. 6 riot shortly after meeting with General Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani at the White House, select committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney said.

The group discussed “a number of dramatic steps” during the Dec. 18, 2020, meeting, “including having the military seize voting machines, and potentially rerun elections,” Cheney said in her opening statement.

Democratic committee chair Bennie Thompson said Trump was at the center of a conspiracy to thwart American democracy and block the peaceful transfer of power.

"Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one writer put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government," Thompson said. "The violence was no accident. It was Trump's last stand."

Barr in videotaped testimony said: "I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I call the bullshit. And, you know, I didn't want to be a part of it."

Barr's view convinced Trump's daughter. "I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying," Ivanka said in videotaped testimony during the Capitol hearing.

Trump, who is publicly flirting with another White House run in 2024, issued a statement before the hearing calling the committee "political Thugs."

"Aware of the rioters' chants to 'hang Mike Pence,' the president responded with this sentiment: 'Well, maybe our supporters have the right idea,'" said Representative Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the nine-member panel and its vice-chairperson.

"We can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election," Barr, who resigned about two weeks before the Capitol attack, said in the video.