The committee in charge of investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will hold its seventh hearing. They will now examine how former President Donald Trump and his supporters encouraged far right groups to go to Washington before the attack on the Capitol.
The hearing is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. (eastern time) in which committee members plan on analyzing a Dec. 19, 2020, tweet in which Trump said it was “statistically impossible” for him to have lost to Biden and shared:
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation:”
“People are going to hear the story of that tweet, and then the explosive effect it had in Trumpworld, and specifically among the domestic violent extremist groups, the most dangerous political extremists in the country at that point.”
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), one of the panel members in charge of Tuesday’s hearing, said the tweet was a “siren call” for members of violent extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
Tuesday’s hearing will feature statements from Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Witnesses will also include Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesman for the Oath Keepers and as an assistant to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Stephen Ayres, a rioter who illegally entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6., is also scheduled to testify. The last hearing was on June 28, in which former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave surprising testimony about Trump’s behavior the day of the attack.