Trump knew. Trump knows. But he’s got the power to make his followers believe anything.
The hearing has ended and the upshot is that Trump signaled the Big Lie before the election, and on the night of the election he listened to a drunk Rudy Giuliani who told him to declare victory against the advice of everyone else in the White House. The picture is of a man who was told over and over and over again from everyone on his staff and in the administration that the election was not stolen. He carried on with the Giuliani freakshow instead. And, at the end, they pointed out that Trump got a quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising off the Big Lie in the weeks after the election.
Many of these Republicans, including Bill Barr who was featured heavily, didn’t really speak up at the time which hardly speaks well of them. On the other hand, it’s not as if they have anything to gain by speaking up now either. It’s not as if the Big Lie isn’t still believed by the vast majority of Republicans and Trump will attack them mercilessly for saying what they said. They took a big risk by telling the truth.
For those of you at work who are unable to follow the hearing today, I’m posting Marcy Wheeler’s live tweeting here:
Liz Cheney notes that Trump ignored the advice of his campaign and told his voters only to vote in person.
He rejected advice by campaign and followed advice from “apparently inebriated” Rudy to just claim victory.
“Far flung conspiracies with a deceased Venezuelan communist pulling the strings.”
Cheney also notes that hundreds of people have been prosecuted because they believed Trump’s lies, some are serving prison sentences.
One outcome of this hearing COULD BE that more of them get angry at what Trump did to them.
The film, which almost feels like a documentary, catches the aforementioned inebriated Rudy drinking water for his first appearance.
Stepien says that Justin Clark was involved in consultations about what to do about Trump.
He’s Trump’s CURRENT attorney, the one who interacted with Bannon and, presumably, Navarro.
Jason Miller busts Rudy as a drunk.
Looks like the 30 minute delay was to pull the Stepien clips where he answered the questions that Thompson would have asked him. Really quick and great staff work.
Stirewalt declares Joseph Robinette Biden the victor of the 2020 election, then launches into a discussion of how you account for the different ways Republicans and Democrats vote.
You can tell this is the guy who made on-air talent look smart. Why he got fired, of course.
Zoe Lofgren gets the honor of introducing this Billy Barr clip, as if they haven’t clashed in the past.
Billy talked about how for weeks people expected a late surge of Democratic mail-in ballots.
Not included was any question about whether that was why he attacked the mail-in vote for months and months.
Really effective. A clip of Trump saying, “we want all counting to stop” right after being advised that there would be a big surge of Dem votes.
Stepien describes him and Kevin McCarthy advising Trump to encourage mail-in voting.
He describes that you can’t dissuade Trump if he’s made up his mind.
Stirewalt: Our decision desk was the best in the business and I was proud to be a part of it. We had different set of data, we had more research, and we had a great team.
Let me tell you, our poll in AZ was just beautiful.
Again, why he got fired.
Stirewalt: We were able to make the call early, we were able to beat the competition. By the time we realized people were freaking out we were on to calling the next state.
Stirewalt describes that after the election there was no chance–“none”–that Trump could win.
I really hope Stirewalt is enjoying this opportunity to defend his work and his team. He seems to be.
Committee uses this still as he describes how the week wore on and numbers for Trump got worse and worse.
Stepien is stammering a bit in describing how bleak the chances were. 5-10% based on automatic recounts.
Stepien didn’t want to be personally associated with Rudy. “I didn’t mind being characterized as part of Team Normal…. I’ve built up a good reputation for being honest and professional. I didn’t think what was happening was honest or professional.”
Sidney makes her first appearance.
Sidney, explaining that you can’t claim a vote was flipped: You don’t have to see the gun to see that the body on the floor bleeding out was killed by a gun.
Lofgren quotes Sidney, in Dominion lawsuit, stating that no reasonable person would believe her statements were statements of fact.
Barr’s testimony is really helpful in explaining who was sourcing certain stories in November 2020.
Barr says he the @MikeBalsamo1 story was over lunch.
There were two cameras in the interview room with Barr.
Barr says he learned there were 630 precincts in Detroit.
And yes, Barr pointed out that Trump did better in Detroit in 2020 than 2016.
I wish he told him he lost in Kent County, where the GOP spends its time in MI.
Barr describes becoming demoralized bc he came to believe Trump was detached from reality. Trump had no interest in the actual facts.
Makes a joke abt the 2000 Mules movie, laughs.
Sort of like the two of them on Russia.
Alex Cannon describes Navarro asking him questions about Dominion in November. Cannon told him he didn’t believe the Dominion allegations.
Also cited @CISAKrebs. Navarro described Cannon as being an Agent of the Deep State.
Richard Donoghue basically describes whack-a-mole trying to beat back all the conspiracy theories that Trump grasped onto.
Lofgren enters CISA’s report showing no widespread fraud into the record, so I guess @C_C_Krebs gets the last laugh.
BJ Pak talks about the suitcase of ballot video, which Donoghue just described telling Trump was bullshit.
And then Lofgren plays vid of Donoghue explaining telling Trump several times that that specific allegation was false.
Al Schmidt: Not only wasn’t there evidence of 8,000 dead voters in PA, there wasn’t evidence of 8.
Schmidt talks about the threats to his family after Trump blamed him for election loss. Lofgren puts up redacted versions of some of them.
Getting Ben Ginsberg to explain how Trump’s campaign differed from the norm is really impressive.
Ginsberg describes half of Trump’s cases being dismissed at procedural stage. Half being dismissed after presentation of merits.
Lofgren: If litigation stopped on December 14, there would have been no path to continue and no basis to fundraise.
The evidence that Trump knew he had lost, and was still raising funds off it, could be an independent basis to charge Trump and his associates.
$250M raised.
The $$ went to Meadows, Trump Hotels.
Lofgren ends with, “Not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off.”
Cheney wishes Stepien the best with the new baby. He’s running campaign of her opponent, Harriet Hageman.
Cheney ends her close with Eric Herschmann stating “Orderly transition.”
And Thompson ends the hearing by quoting rioters repeating Trump’s false claims. “I don’t want to say what we’re doing is right, but if the election is being stolen, what is it going to take?”
Michael Fanone shown leaving the room.
Originally tweeted by emptywheel (@emptywheel) on June 13, 2022.
If you want to see video highlights, you can catch up with @atrupar on twitter.