Former President Donald Trump refused to say the election was over in a video outtake of the speech he made the day after the January 6 attack on the Capitol as shown during the latest hearing for the House Select Committee. The committee showed outtakes of both Trump’s video message to rioters at 4:17 p.m. during the attack and the speech he made the following day, and during the speech outtake he can be seen cutting a line about the 2020 election being finished.
The Jan. 6 panel played never-before-seen footage from a speech by then-President Donald Trump taken a day after the Capitol attack.
“I don’t want to say the election is over,” he said. https://t.co/ZBU3Mdj5zU pic.twitter.com/0KrhKzobDk
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2022
In the outtake shown, Trump stopped to edit the January 7 speech, and made a point of saying that he didn’t want the phrase “the election is over” in his speech. “But, this election is now over. Congress has certified the results. I don’t want to say the election is over. I just want to say, ‘Congress has certified the results,’ without saying the election’s over. Okay?” he said in the clip, as his daughter and then-Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump helped him edit. “I didn’t say over, but now, let me see. Go to the paragraph before.”
Throughout the clip, he could be seen editing out certain words and phrases, as he worked his way through the speech. “To those who broke the law, you will pay. You do not represent our movement. You do not represent our country, and if you broke the law—you can’t say that. I’m going to—I already said, ‘You will pay,’” he said at the start of the video.
Before showing the raw footage of his Rose Garden speech from January 6, the committee played a portion of an interview with former assistant Nicholas Luna, who said, “To my knowledge [the address] was off the cuff,” rather than prepared remarks. After showing the clip, the committee showed interviews where they asked if there were plans for another video later that evening. Former White House Senior Advisor Eric Herschmann described the mood in the White House after the video. “I’d just say people were emotionally drained by the time that videotape was over,” he said in a pre-recorded testimony.
Never-before-seen raw footage of Trump recording his message in the Rose Garden. pic.twitter.com/yDZsQ3zZfM
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) July 22, 2022
The ninth hearing focused on Trump’s lack of action during the attack. The prior hearing held live testimony from former Oath Keepers spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove and Stephen Ayres, one of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6.
During prior hearings much had already been revealed about the events that led up to January 6. Unlike prior hearings, the committee’s chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) was forced to miss this hearing after testing positive for COVID-19. “While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his COVID diagnosis, he has instructed the Select Committee to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing. Committee members and staff wish the Chairman a speedy recovery,” the committee tweeted.
Prior to the hearing, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who is one of two conservatives to sit on the committee along with Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, teased that there would be major revelations during the latest primetime hearing in an interview with Face The Nation.
Some of the prior hearings have shed more light on Trump’s actions leading up to January 6, including pressure put on state legislators to try to overturn the results of the election. Officials in the Justice Department and staff close to then-Vice President Mike Pence also revealed that Trump had leaned on both the DOJ and the VP to say the election was corrupt and to reject electors, respectively.
One of the most intensive hearings so far came from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who provided details about what Trump did and said throughout the day on January 6, leading up to the rioters storming the Capitol and as they attacked.