6 January hearing: 'Unhinged' White House meeting in spotlight - BBC News
Trump allies pushed baseless election claims in Oval Office, the congressional hearing is told.
It’s been a central argument of the 6 January committee that Donald Trump knowingly set the stage for the violence when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol and that his silence as it unfolded help the situation to spiral out of control.

In Tuesday’s hearing, the committee presented evidence on both counts. Committee member Stephanie Murphy explained that Trump ad-libbed key lines in his 6 January speech at a rally near the White House. He added specific condemnations of Vice-President Mike Pence and told his supporters to be strong, to fight like hell and to march to the Capitol. That last part was not in his scripted speech, but the committee showed text indicating rally-goers, including militants, knew he was going to say that days in advance.

Trump’s speech, Democratic Representative Stephanie Murphy said, was “built on a foundation of lies”.

“He lied to his supporters that the election was stolen,” the congresswoman from Florida continued. “He stoked their anger. He called for them to fight for him. He directed them to the US Capitol. He told them he would join them. And his supporters believed him and many headed towards the Capitol. As a result, people died, people were injured, many of his supporters’ lives will never be the same.”

One of those supporters was a man named Stephen Ayers, who testified to the committee that he entered the Capitol because Trump told him to and only exited because Trump, after hours of violence, told his supporters to leave.

If he had spoken out earlier, he said, “maybe we wouldn’t be in this bad of a situation”.