Jan. 6 hearing told Trump knew plan to pressure Pence was illegal, went ahead anyway

The committee displayed a slate of video testimony from those inside the White House and close to Trump to argue he was well aware of the violence underway on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 when he tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary" at 2:24 p.m.

Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews, in video testimony with the committee, recalled, "It felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that."

"It was clear that it is escalating, and escalating quickly," she said. "When the Mike Pence tweet was sent out, I remember us saying that that was the last thing that needed to be tweeted out. The situation was already bad."

Earlier, Rep. Pete Aguilar noted that the Capitol building itself was breached at 2:13 p.m. As the attack continued, Trump tweeted to "stay peaceful" at 2:38 p.m., said "no violence" at 3:13 p.m., and finally, at 4:17, he tweeted a video that telling people to go home while also saying, "We love you," and repeating the false claim the election was stolen.

Ivanka Trump, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and others told the committee in previously taped testimony what they heard when Trump called Pence from the Oval Office on Jan. 6.

“The conversation was pretty heated,” Ivanka Trump recalled.

Nicholas Luna, Trump’s former assistant, described entering the Oval Office at the time to deliver a note and hearing Trump say the word “wimp.”

“I remember hearing the word 'wimp',” Luna told the committee. “Either he called him a wimp, I don't remember if he said, ‘You are a wimp, you’ll be a wimp.’ Wimp is the word I remember.”

Gen. Keith Kellog, Pence’s national security adviser at the time, said in his deposition that Trump told Pence he wasn't "tough" enough. Ivanka's chief of staff, Julie Radford, told the committee that Ivanka said Trump called Pence "the p-word."

Committee members revealed evidence that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows knew -- or was at least telling other aides that he agreed with their view -- that Trump and his attorney John Eastman's plan to overturn the election was illegal and that Pence had no ability to reject electoral votes for Biden sent to Congress.

In his taped interview with the committee, Pence's chief of staff Marc Short told panel lawyers that that Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, said he agreed with Short and Pence that the vice president lacked such authority.

"Did Mr. Meadows ever explicitly ... agree with you or say, 'Yeah, that makes sense'?" interviewers asked.

"I believe that Mark did agree," Short said. "But as I mentioned, I think Mark told so many people so many different things that it was not something that I would necessarily accept as ... resolved."

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, said he grew worried about the vice president’s safety as the disagreement between Pence and Trump escalated in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

“The concern was for the vice president’s security, so I wanted to make sure the head of the vice president’s Secret Service was aware that likely, as these disputes became more public, that the president would lash out in some way,” Short said in his taped deposition.

Short called the Secret Service on Jan. 5, 2021.

“After the recess, we will hear that Marc Short’s concerns were justified,” Rep. Pete Anguilar said. “The vice president was in danger.”