At Jan. 6 hearing, GOP state election officials detail pushback to Trump's pressure

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, niece of Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, made her first appearance at a Jan. 6 hearing in video testimony where she was asked about the scheme to send "fake" electors to Congress to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's win.

The House select committee says the RNC assisted Trump in coordinating the effort "at the president's direct request."

"He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then preceded to talk about the importance of -- helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing change the results of any states," McDaniel recounted.

"The campaign took the lead, and we just were helping them in that role," she added, appearing to try to distance the RNC from the effort.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers said he told Trump election lawyer John Eastman on two occasions that he would not break his oath of office and decertify electors for President-elect Joe Biden and recalled the conversations before the committee.

"I said, 'What would you have me do?' He said, 'Just do it and let the courts sorted out.' I said, 'You're asking me to do something that is never been done in history, the history of the United States. And I'm gonna put my state through that without sufficient proof? That's going to be good enough with me that I would put us through that, my state?"

Bowers recalled telling Eastman, "'I swore to uphold both in the Constitution and in law -- no, sir,'" and said that Eastman suggested he "do it" and let the courts figure it out.

Bowers also said he also received a call from Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, asking Bowers if he'd support the decertification of electors. Bowers told Biggs he would not.

Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, got emotional Tuesday as he described to the committee the pressure placed on him by Trump and others to violate his oath to the Constitution.

Bowers said he was not presented with any strong evidence that would have given him doubt as to the integrity of the election.

"It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, one of my most basic foundational beliefs," Bowers said. "And so for me to do that because somebody just asked me to is foreign to my very being. I will not do it."

After Trump claimed earlier Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social that Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers told him the election was rigged, Bowers said that was "false."

"I did have a conversation with the president. That certainly isn't it. There are parts that are true. There are parts that are not," Bowers said, asked about Trump's claim. "Anyone, anywhere, anytime [saying] I said the election was rigged, that would not be true," he added.

Bowers said Trump's team claimed widespread fraud in Arizona but couldn't provide evidence of it.

"I did not feel that the evidence, and its absence, merited the hearing," he said, explaining that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani wanted him to reconvene his state legislature to change the state's vote. "I didn't want to be used as a pawn."

"I said, look, you are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath that I swore to the Constitution to uphold it. I also swore to the Constitution and the laws of the state of Arizona -- this is totally foreign as an idea or a theory to me," Bowers recalled. "You're asking me to do something against my oath. I will not break my oath."