Capitol riot hearings: How Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner turned on Trump
In the first few hearings on the January 6 insurrection seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the ultimate culpability for the day’s events were placed on former president Donald Trump. According to Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the panel, Trump “lit the flame of this attack”. The House select committee is investigating the attack on the capitol.
At the hearing, witnesses spoke up about their experiences with law enforcement on the receiving end of the violence by the mob. Additionally, various former Trump officials clarified that claims of fraud were not credible. According to Republican lawmakers, the hearings are a “witch hunt”. However, crucial to the hearing on June 9 were the pre-recorded depositions of Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. Trump had prior to the commencement of the hearing slammed the panel and said in a series of statements on his Truth Social account arguing the real investigation should have been on the "rigged and stolen" election and not on the riot at the Capitol.
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A mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Their main aim was to disrupt the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes seeking to formalize Joe Biden's win. Rioters reportedly occupied the building for several hours, assaulting law enforcement officers and vandalizing property. Five people died as a result of the chaos. While three people died of natural causes, one was shot by Capitol Police and another died of a drug overdose shortly before, during, or following the event. Several people were injured, including 138 police officers. Within just seven months, four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide.
What did Ivanka Trump say about Jan 6 riots?
In a piece of video evidence shared during Rep. Liz Cheney's opening statement during the June 9 hearing, Ivanka, who was also Trump's onetime White House adviser, reacted to then-Attorney General William Barr's statement claiming that the 2020 election was not stolen. "It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr so I accepted what he said," Ivanka testified in April this year. This is the first time any testimony from Ivanka was presented by the committee. Ivanka and Kushner are the only two members of the Trump family who testified to the hearings panel.
The House panel said that Ivanka pleaded with her father to intervene as his supporters vandalized the capitol. "The committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred. We know, as you know well, that the briefing room at the White House is just a mere few steps from the Oval Office," Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, said on ABC News' 'This Week', earlier in the year.
"We know, as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television, to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that," Cheney said. "We know members of his family, we know his daughter — we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence."
In saying so to the panel Ivanka essentially rejected her father's claims that the 2020 election was stolen from because of voter fraud, something which the former president was vehement about. The panel is investigating not only the riot by Trump supporters on Jan 6, 2021, but also then-President Trump’s actions related to the counting of certified electoral votes by Congress that day.
What was Jared Kushner's testimony?
In another testimony shown on June 9 Kushner, a top Trump White House aide and Trump's son-in-law, said that he did not think White House counsel Pat Cipollone was serious when he said he would resign over the insurrection. "I know that him and the team were always saying, 'We're gonna resign, we're not gonna be here' if this happens, that happens," Kushner testified during an on-camera deposition before the panel. "I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you." Cipollone described Trump's efforts to overturn the election as a "murder-suicide pact," claimed a Senate Judiciary Committee report.
our first Jared Kushner appearance pic.twitter.com/h4FVE1HpvL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 10, 2022
Kushner had earlier said that he tried his best to stop the violence. According to a New York Times article, "Kushner…was on a plane back to Washington when Mr. Trump’s mob stormed the Capitol. After arriving home in the afternoon, Mr. Kushner was in the bathroom with the shower already running and about to jump in when his phone rang. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican minority leader, was on the line asking Mr. Kushner to persuade the president to do something. “We need help!” Mr. McCarthy insisted. Mr. Kushner turned off the shower and rushed to the White House…. By the time Mr. Kushner finally arrived at the White House, his wife had gotten her father to release a video telling supporters to go home. But even then, he repeated his lies about the “fraudulent election” and expressed solidarity with the rioters, telling them, “We love you, you’re very special.” Mr. Kushner quickly concluded there was little more he could do at that point."
The committee will hold as many as six hearings in an attempt to detail an alleged conspiracy by Donald Trump to overturn the election that ultimately led to the Capitol attack. The insurrection was allegedly meant to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
On the day of the attack, Trump’s last words that day came at 6:01 p.m. He tweeted that the 2020 election was “unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long." "Go home with love and in peace. Remember this day forever," he said.