The Evidence of the Jan. 6 Committee

It’s a reminder of the violence and how Trump betrayed his supporters.

Yet did the committee offer a damning look at President Trump’s scheme to stay in office after losing the 2020 election? Also yes. Fresh video of the riot is a reminder that Jan. 6 was a brutal melee of fists and chemical sprays. “I was slipping in people’s blood,” said Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards. The footage is visceral, even if similar scenes were already on YouTube.

The committee did offer some new and ugly details. “Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence, ’” Rep. Liz Cheney said, “the President responded with this sentiment: Quote, maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence, quote, deserves it.” Ms. Cheney also said that Mr. Trump gave no orders to the National Guard on Jan. 6 to aid the besieged police, even as Mr. Pence was calling in the cavalry from his post at the Capitol. “He issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders.” In effect, “get the Guard down here, put down this situation.”

One irony is that the largely Democratic committee’s evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump’s designs on overturning the election were foiled mainly by Republicans, including many in his Administration. White House lawyers threatened to resign if he fired Justice Department officials who didn’t indulge his fraud theories. GOP state legislators refused to name new electors. His judicial appointees rejected dubious fraud claims. Above all, his own Vice President stood up to Mr. Trump’s public and private pressure not to count electoral votes.

Many Congressional Republicans dishonored themselves by voting to object to electors, even after the riot. But most of the GOP refused to go along. The person who owns Jan. 6 is Donald Trump. Remarkably, he seems to welcome this. “January 6th was not simply a protest,” he wrote Thursday on Truth Social, “it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”

Mr. Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on Jan. 6, and he is still doing it.

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