In historic move, House Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena Trump

Roger Stone, a political provocateur and longtime Trump adviser, voiced support for Trump declaring victory the night of the election regardless of whether he was in the lead.

"Let's just hope we're celebrating. I suspect it'll be, I really do suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

'No, we won,' Stone said in footage from a Danish documentarian featured in Thursday's hearing.

"I said, 'f*** the voting, let's get right to the violence,'" Stone said in a separate clip. "We'll have to start smashing pumpkins, if you know what I mean."

During testimony for the committee, Stone invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked if he had any role in planning for the violence the day of the insurrection.

The Jan. 6 committee showed video of President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Steve Bannon, which indicates that he had advance knowledge of the former president's intention to falsely declare victory election night, but also that Bannon knew about the events of Jan. 6 ahead of their occurrence.

Here's what Bannon said on Jan. 5, the day before the insurrection:

"All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. All converging and now we're on as they say the point of attack, right the point of attack tomorrow. I'll tell you this," Bannon began.

"It's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen. Okay, it's going to be quite extraordinarily different … tomorrow it's game day. So strap in. Let's get ready."

Mr. Bannon refused to testify for the ongoing Jan. 6 investigation, for which he's been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress.

The committee also played audio that had previously leaked, of Bannon telling a group of associates on Oct. 31, 2020, of Trump's plan to declare his own victory on election night, regardless of the actual outcome.

"He's going to declare victory," Bannon said.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., showed a new memo the committee received from the National Archives showing plans for Trump to declare victory on Election Day regardless of the outcome.

The memo -- dated Oct. 31, 2020 -- was sent by Tom Fitton, a political activist and head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, to members of Trump's team.

"We had an Election today -- and I won," the memo read.

"The ballots counted by the Election Day deadline show the American people have bestowed on me the great honor of reelection to President of the United States."

Lofgren also said Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager, told the committee Trump planned as early as July to say he won even though he lost.

In her opening statement, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair, said a key component of the committee's investigation looks at the vulnerability of American democracy.

"Why would Americans assume that our Constitution and our institutions and our Republic are invulnerable to another attack? Why would we assume that those institutions will not falter next time?" she asked.

Cheney, who has been at the forefront of the Jan. 6 investigation at the expense of her own political future, said the American institutions "only hold" when "men and women of good faith make them hold regardless of the political cost."

"We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time," she added.