Trump 'chose not to act' as mob attacked, Jan. 6 committee says

Text messages displayed by the committee show Donald Trump Jr. thought more needed to be done by his father besides his two tweets calling on rioters to "stay peaceful" even though violence had already begun.

Trump Jr. texted chief of staff Mark Meadows the message: "He's got to condemn this shit. Asap. The capitol police tweet isn't enough."

When Meadows responded that he was pushing hard for Trump to do so, Trump Jr. told him: "go to the mattresses." "They will try to f*** his entire legacy on this if it gets worse," Trump Jr. added.

Fox News personality Sean Hannity also texted Meadows to get Trump to instruct the mob to peacefully leave.

Sarah Matthews, the former deputy press secretary, testified White House staff had to ask several times for the president to include the word "peaceful" in his tweet on Jan. 6. She said it wasn't until Ivanka Trump said "stay peaceful" that he decided to include it.

The House select committee highlighted strong reaction to a tweet by former President Trump about his vice president amid the riot.

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" the tweet, posted at 2:24 p.m. on Jan. 6, stated.

"He put a target on his own vice president's back," Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said after sharing the message.

Witness Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser, said it was in that moment that he decided to resign.

"It looked like fuel being poured on the fire," he told the committee. "I did not want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol."

Witness and ex-staffer Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary, said she thought the tweet "was the last thing that was needed in that moment" from Trump.

"He should have been telling these people to go home, and to leave, and to condemn the violence that we were seeing," she said. "For him to tweet out the message about Mike Pence, it was him pouring gasoline on the fire, and making it much worse."

In a moment that's resonated from Thursday's hearing, the committee shared a photo of Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley walking across the Capitol before protesters who had started to gather at the security gates.

"As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist, in solidarity, with the protesters," Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said.

Luria said a Capitol police told the committee that the gesture "riled up the crowd."

"It bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers," Luria said.

The committee then showed footage of Hawley, who had voted against certifying the results of the election, later fleeing "after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol," Luria said.

The Jan. 6 committee played new audio of Secret Service radio traffic as the attack occurred.

The traffic indicated that officers were very concerned about safely evacuating Vice President Mike Pence after the Capitol was breached.

"If we lose any more time, we may lose the ability to leave. So, if we're going to leave, we need to do it now," one agent is heard saying.

An unidentified White House security official said in chilling testimony that members of Pence's detail "were starting to fear for their own lives."

"There were calls to say goodbye to family members," the official said in a recorded interview. "Whatever the reason was on the ground, the DCPD (D.C. police department) felt that it was going to be very ugly."