January 6 Committee hearings as it happened: Former White House aides to give evidence about Capitol riots

Watch the committee hearing broadcast below:

And that’s where we’ll end today’s coverage. You can follow the latest national news on our live blog anchored by Broede Carmody.

Here’s a quick recap of today’s hearing:

• Secret Service agents were concerned about the safety of former vice-president Mike Pence, who had to be evacuated twice and came in close proximity to the rioters.
• The hearing heard Donald Trump had become irate towards his security detail after they refused to drive him to the Capitol due to safety concerns.
• The former president was aware the mob had turned violent within minutes of arriving to the White House but dismissed requests to condemn the riots and instead watched Fox News.
• As rioters turned more aggressive, Trump posted a tweet accusing Pence of failing to protect the constitution, which incensed protesters and put a target on the then-vice president’s back.
• Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, as well as several elected officials and media personalities, messaged then-chief of staff Mark Meadows asking him to step in.
• Former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger told the hearing the riots harmed US national security interests and gave ammunition to countries claiming it was in decline.
• The committee will recommend changes to laws and policies to prevent another attack.

The committee will reconvene in September to lay out some additional findings from the investigation. This will include testimony from other witnesses.

Thank you for your company.

The committee will recommend changes to laws and policies to prevent another attack on US institutions, Republican Adam Kinzinger has told the hearing.

Kinzinger called Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, “a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation” that had stained American history.

“It is a dishonour to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy,” he said.

Kinzinger said the forces that were ignited by Trump that day remained a threat.

“The militant intolerant ideologies, the militias, the alienation, and the disaffection, the weird fantasies and disinformation, they’re all still out there ready to go. That’s the elephant in the room,” he said.

“But if January 6 has reminded us of anything, I pray it has reminded us of this: that laws are just words on paper, they mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law and who are held accountable.

“Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of ours, our shining beacon on a hill, will not endure.”

Footage of Trump recording the video in the Rose Garden telling rioters they were “very special” and asking them to “go home now” about three hours after attending a rally near the White House has just been played as part of the proceedings. In the video, Trump can be seen saying:

I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows that. Especially the other side.

But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.

It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country.

This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people.

We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.

I know how you feel but go home and go home at peace.

Then-deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews said she was struck by the fact Trump had chosen to begin the video by peddling the narrative that the election had been stolen. It was at that point she knew she would be resigning from her role that evening.

“As the video went on, I felt a small sense of relief because he finally told these people to go home but that was immediately followed up by him saying ‘we love you, you’re very special’ and that was disturbing to me,” Matthews said.

“He didn’t distinguish between those that peacefully attended his speech earlier that day, and those that we watched cause violence at the Capitol. Instead, he told the people who we had just watched storm our nation’s Capitol, with the intent of overthrowing our democracy, violently attack police officers, and chant heinous things like ‘Hang Mike Pence’, we love you. You’re very special.”

Matthews said that as a spokesperson for the president, Trump’s refusal to call off the violence was indefensible. “So I finished out the work day, went home, and called my loved ones to tell them of my decision to resign that evening,” she said.

Donald Trump could have addressed the nation and condemned the violence unfolding outside the Capitol in a matter of minutes but took no action.

Former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told the hearing it would have taken less than 60 seconds for Trump to walk from the dining room to the press briefing room in the White House, where there was a camera at all times.

“If the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American people, he could have been on camera almost instantly,” she said.

“The White House press corps has offices that are located directly behind the briefing room, and so if he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office, we could have assembled the White House press corps, probably in a matter of minutes to get them into the Oval [Office] for him to do an on-camera address.”

Matthews said she was watching the coverage unfold from one of the offices in the West Wing and realised the situation was escalating quickly. She told then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany that Trump needed to “be out there immediately to tell these people to go home and condemn the violence that we were seeing”.

Moments before a rioter linked to the Proud Boys used a security officer’s shield to smash a window and rioters flooded into the building, Trump was on the phone with legal adviser Rudy Giuliani for more than eight minutes.