Trump tried to call Jan. 6 committee witness, Cheney says

The committee made the case that Trump's call for his supporters to march from the Ellipse to the Capitol was "not a spontaneous call to action" and had in fact been discussed prior to the riot.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., showed a text message it she said was sent from Ali Alexander, an organizer of the rally that preceded the insurrection, to a "conservative journalist."

"Ellipse then US capitol. Trump is supposed to order us to capitol at the end of his speech but we will see," Alexander texted the journalist, she said.

"President Trump did follow through on his plan, using his Jan. 6 speech to tell his supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6. The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president," Murphy concluded.

Previous testimony in front of the committee indicated Trump was aware that some of his supporters were armed before urging them to march on the Capitol.

For the second half of the hearing, committee members will question two live witnesses: Stephen Ayres of Warren, Ohio, who recently admitted to illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, and Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers militia group, whose members took part in the attack.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Trump mobilized members from far-right groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters to Washington on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Van Tatenhove donned a dark-wash denim jacket with buttons for the congressional hearing.

Ayres had previously claimed that a "civil war will ensue" if the 2020 election wasn't overturned and accused President Joe Biden of "treason." Last month, he pleaded guilty to one federal charge of disorderly conduct inside a restricted building. His sentencing is scheduled for September.

Rep. Jamie Raskin said after the chaotic Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, Trump sent a Twitter post that Raskin said served as an "explosive invitation" for his supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the tweet, posted at nearly 2 a.m, on Dec. 19, Trump wrote: "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"

The committee then aired the reaction from Trump's supporters and right-wing media personalities.

"This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776," Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said in one video clip.

In another, the YouTuber "Salty Cracker" said there was going to be a "red wedding" on Jan. 6 -- a popular culture reference to an episode of Game of Thrones in which a massacre takes place.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., introduced what he called a "heated and profane clash" in the Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020, when White House officials were angered to learn that election conspiracy theorists including Sidney Powell and Ret. Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn were meeting with Trump.

"What ensued was a profane clash between this group and President Trump's White House who traded personal insults, accusations of disloyalty to the president, and even challenges to physically fight," Raskin said of the six-hour meeting, before playing a series of clips of Trump's inner circle describing the meeting.

Cipollone said, "The three of them were really attacking me verbally," and that he and White House attorney Eric Herschmann were asking for what evidence they had to challenge the election, adding there didn't seem to be much concern for facts.

Herschmann said Powell continued to say in the meeting that judges across the country were "corrupt."

"Even the ones we appointed?" Herschmann said he fired back, saying he was "harsh" to her. "I think it got to the point where the screaming was completely, completely out there. What they were proposing, I thought, was nuts."