Jan 6 hearings: Pat Cipollone ‘believed Donald Trump should’ve conceded’

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, in his testimony to the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, admitted that he agreed with other  Donald Trump officials that there was not sufficient evidence of election fraud. 

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Parts of Cipollone’s eight-hour interview were aired at the Rep Bennie Thompson-led committee’s seventh hearing on Tuesday. The former White House official said that he believed former President Donald Trump should’ve conceded the election.

“I was the White House counsel. Some of those decisions were political. … If your questions is did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time? Yes I did,” he said in video footage shown in the hearing.

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Cipollone added that his thoughts were “in line” with that of what Sen. Mitch McConnell first said about accepting the results of the election. 

Pat Cipollone further said that he denounced Sidney Powell’s idea to seize voting machines in battleground states after the 2020 election. He added that he believed the suggestion was a “terrible idea.”

“To have the federal government seize voting machines, it’s a terrible idea. That is not how we do things in the United States. There’s no legal authority,” Cipollone told the January 6 committee. 

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Cipollone told the committe that former Attorney General Bill Barr had reached a conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of election fraud

“There was real question in my mind and a real concern. When other people kept suggesting that there was, the answer is, what is it? And at some point, you have to put up or shut up. That was my view,” he said. 

Pat Cipollone further spoke about a December 18 meeting, which included several Trump officials. 

“At times, there were people shutting out each other, throwing insults at each other. It wasn’t just people sitting around on a couch chitchatting,” he said.