The House January 6 Select Committee revealed that members of former Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service details made calls to say goodbye to their families during the attack on the Capitol. A member of the National Security Council Staff, whose identity was hidden, testified about the fear that was going through those defending Pence amid the attacks.
‘There were calls to say goodbye to family members’ — A White House security official revealed in interviews with the Jan 6 committee that members of VP Mike Pence's security detail feared for their lives as rioters took over the Capitol pic.twitter.com/6G9ovmTlbt
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) July 22, 2022
The anonymous security official testified about what was heard on the radio as rioters invaded. “There were a lot of there was a lot of yelling. A lot of very personal calls over the radio so, it was disturbing,” they said. “They were called to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth.” The official continued, and said that as the attack started to get “ugly,” those with Pence began radioing their calls to their family members.
The ninth hearing detailed what then-President Donald Trump was doing between when insurrectionists invaded the Capitol and when he eventually told them to go home. The committee held the final hearing before reconvening in September on Thursday, July 21. The hearing came after testimony from insurrectionist Stephen Ayres and former Oath Keepers member Jason van Tatenhove during the previous meeting on Tuesday, July 12. During his testimony, Ayres explained that he was motivated to leave the Capitol after Trump sent out his video message telling rioters to go home.
The hearing was also the first that Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, the Democratic Congressman from Mississippi, was not able to attend after testing positive for COVID-19. The committee tweeted that he asked them to continue with the hearing as planned. “While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his COVID diagnosis, he has instructed the Select Committee to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing,” they wrote.
The most recent hearing was reported to cover what Trump was doing as the riot was unfolding, and his supporters stormed the Capitol building. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, shed some light on what Trump was doing throughout the day, during her testimony in an earlier hearing. She’d revealed that he’d asked Secret Service to get rid of metal detectors and allow his supporters with weapons onto the ellipse for his speech. She also said that after his speech he’d tried to force his driver to take him to the Capitol as the insurrectionists invaded. She said that he’d become enraged, lunging at the steering wheel, as the driver refused. “The President said something to the effect of ‘I’m the F-ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,'” she said.
A number of former Trump aides and officials have come forward to say that they’d advised against spreading lies that there’d been fraud in the election, including former Attorney General William Barr, who said that he’d regularly informed Trump that he saw no sign of corruption, during a pre-recorded interview. “I told them that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and [it] was doing a great, grave disservice to the country,” he said.