The House select
committee probing the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, in its eighth hearing,
focussed on former President Donald Trump’s operations from the White House on
the day. The House select committee found that an irate Donald Trump sought to
join the rioters on Capitol Hill and not stop them and that Trump was well
aware of the deadly attack and that some in the mob were armed.

The 187 minutes
covered the nearly three hours while the Capitol was under siege. The time
starts at 01:10 pm ET.

Within 15
minutes of addressing a crowd at the Ellipse behind the White House, Donald
Trump knew the Capitol was besieged and under attack, according to House select
committee member Elaine Luria, D-Va.  

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As the
Capitol was being attacked, Donald Trump chose to not answer pleas from
Republican lawmakers to intervene and stop the violence. In a closed-door
testimony to the committee on House select committee, White House counsel Pat Cippolone
implied that the former President was alone in his opposition to call upon the
rioters to go home.

Also Read | Jan 6 hearings: Watch Trump go off-script in message to Capitol rioters

While White
House staffers were attempting to convince President Trump to ask rioters to
return home, Vice President Mike Pence was at the Capitol, for January 6 was
the day votes had to be certified. Secret Service agents responsible for
protecting Pence discussed whether they had time to evacuate him when they
realised only a half dozen police officers stood between them and the crowd.

Pence’s
security detail was so worried that they had begun to “fear for their lives.” “There
were calls to say goodbye to family members,” according to an unidentified
national security professional who spoke to the committee in a recorded
interview played Thursday.

Also Read | Melania Trump says she was unaware of Capitol riots, busy with photoshoot

Even while
Pence’s life was at risk, Donald Trump, at 2:24 pm tweeted: “Mike Pence didn’t
have the courage to do what should have been done.”

The House
select committee also played Donald Trump Jr.’s closed door deposition. In
course of the deposition, Donald Trump’s eldest son was asked about his text
messages with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Trump Jr. said he texted
Meadows writing that his father has got to condemn this sh*t ASAP.”

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When
Meadows told Trump Jr. that he agreed, Trump Jr. replied: “This is one you go
to the mattresses on. They will try to f*uk his entire legacy on this is it get’s
worse.”

At 4:17 pm,
Donald Trump released a video telling supporters to go home. The video
reportedly took over an hour to record. There were several outtakes from the
script that was handed to him. The former president refused to say “the
election is over”. “I don’t want to say the election’s over, I just want to say
‘Congress has certified the results’ without saying the election’s over, okay?”

Also Read | Jan 6 hearing: What were Capitol rioters saying over walkie-talkies?

At 6:01 pm
on January 6, Donald Trump tweeted for the last time for the day, wherein he
wrote: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide
election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great
patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long.”