Jan. 6 Hearing Opens With Trump's AG William Barr Calling Stolen Election Claim 'Bullshit'
Huff PostLOADING ERROR LOADING WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump’s own attorney general told the then-president that his claims of a “stolen” election were “bullshit,” according to videotaped testimony revealed Thursday night at the House Jan. 6 select committee’s first public hearing. The committee also began linking the actual breach of the Capitol to encouragement by Trump, starting with his statement during one of the 2020 presidential debates: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” A video by committee investigator Marcus Childress said membership in the group tripled after Trump’s statement, and that when Trump told his followers to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, the Proud Boys saw in it more than just encouragement. I was slipping in people’s blood.” U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards testifies Thursday evening as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who, according to newly released audio, favored a committee to investigate Jan. 6 before he spoke extensively to Trump and changed his mind, said at a Thursday morning news conference: “It is the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.” And Trump himself, in a series of posts on his own social media platform, repeated his lie that the 2020 election had been “rigged” and “stolen” from him, and he insulted what he called the “unselect” committee.