When asked if he still believed in Trump’s election fraud story, Stephen Ayres replied, “Not so much now.” Not long ago, Ayres said he followed the then-president blindly when he called his supporters to Washington to protest the allegedly stolen election. Ayres was among the crowd that stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. He was arrested a few weeks later, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and is expected to be sentenced in September. A year and a half later, Ayres is the first protester at the time to testify at one of the public hearings of the commission of inquiry into the Capitol robbery.
Sofia Dreisbach
Washington-based American political correspondent.
This day is also about how Donald Trump roused his supporters after the lost presidential election and brought them to the American capital. An escalation chronology over the 24 days from December 14, 2020 to January 6, 2021, from the day the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as president to the day armed Trump supporters invaded American invasion policy.
One of the event scenes was the White House, the other – the Internet. On December 19, 2020, Donald Trump tweeted at 1:42 am: “Big protest in DC January 6th. Join us, it’s getting wild!” The tweet “electrified and excited” Trump supporters, said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is co-chairing Tuesday’s hearing with Stephanie Murphy of Florida. The efforts then culminated on January 6 and “exploded”.
Trump’s Daughter Was Also Against Him
For the most part, according to a close press team, Trump was in a bad mood in the days leading up to the storm on Capitol Hill. No wonder the investigative committee recorded testimonies from several close aides to the White House, all of whom said it was time to recognize Biden’s victory. Including Trump’s own daughter Ivanka: “I think that was my feeling too.” Instead of bowing to the advice, Trump gathered outside confidants who further supported his election fraud claim, including Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and his former president’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn. On the night of December 18, just hours before Trump tweeted, there was an open discussion between them and the White House staff.
Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former legal adviser, said Tuesday: “None of these individuals gave the president good advice. And no one knew how they got in.” After a long period of contact, Cipollone finally testified before the committee last week. and is quoted in several video sequences on Tuesday. According to Powell, the outside group had 10 to 15 minutes alone with Trump before the alarmed team arrived. Cassidy Hutchinson, former adviser to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and witness in the previous session, wrote to a colleague, “The west wing is off the rails.”
In a video released on Tuesday, Cipollone said he was verbally assaulted when he asked for proof of electoral fraud. He must know that, was what the answer said, among other things. It is said that the meeting ended after midnight. A photo of Hutchinson shows Meadows ushering Giuliani out of the building to make sure he doesn’t come back. According to his statement that night, Trump made Attorney Powell the special representative for the investigation of the alleged election fraud—including all security clearances. Cipollone claims that this never happened in practice. Shortly after the meeting escalated, Trump finally dropped the tweet that session chairman Raskin said “changed the course of our country’s history”: the call to Washington.