As the Jan. 6 committee nears its final weeks of public testimony, some of its committee members believe they’ll be able to make a direct connection between two of its top subjects: former President Donald Trump and his Oath Keeper acolytes.
House Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), both members of the committee, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to preview the panel’s upcoming week of public testimony. Their slots came two days after Trump’s final White House counsel Pat Cipollone gave nearly nine hours of testimony to the committee, a key character in bombshell witness Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony last month.
Murphy would not confirm to host Chuck Todd how much of Hutchinson’s testimony Cipollone confirmed, but she did note how the public would hear more of his and others’ testimony during Tuesday’s hearing. She said the focus would be on “domestic violent extremists,” particularly those who heeded Trump’s call to arrive in Washington to protest the election results.
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“We will lay out the body of evidence that we have that talks about how the president’s tweet on the wee hours of Dec. 19 of ‘be there, be wild’ was a siren call to these folks,” Murphy said. She referred to a tweet Trump sent out urging his supporters to come to D.C. on Jan. 6.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he wrote. “Be there, will be wild!”
“We’ll talk in detail about what caused them to do—how that caused them to organize, as well as who else was amplifying that message,” Murphy said.
Lofgren reiterated that message on State of the Union, telling host Jake Tapper how the committee would be making the case to the public on Trump’s complicity with the Oath Keepers during this week’s hearings—including whether Trump knew the far-right militia had gone to the Capitol.
“We are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings, between these groups and those who were trying in government circles to overturn the election,” she said. “I think you have to reach your own conclusions, but based on the events leading up to the day, I think that would be a logical conclusion.”
Lofgren also said the committee will likely hear from ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who told the committee he would appear before them after Trump waived executive privilege. Who it will not hear from: Stewart Rhodes, the imprisoned Oath Keepers leader charged with seditious conspiracy. Rhodes agreed to speak to the committee solely if his testimony was broadcast live.
“This may be a pitch to be released,” Lofgren said, likening it to a “get out of jail free” card. “I’ll just say that we have already had information from Mr. Rhodes.”
