Alex Holder, the British documentary filmmaker who was deposed by the House committee investigating Jan. 6 regarding footage of Donald Trump he filmed for a docuseries, revealed some takeaways from the upcoming doc in an interview to air in full Thursday on “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.”
Holder was given exclusive and broad access to Trump in the months before and after the 2020 presidential election. He told CBS that it was an acceptable conclusion that the former president did not feel he was responsible for the violence that happened at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riots.
“I think what was staggering,” Holder said, when asked about what Trump said after Jan. 6, “was that he essentially gave the reason why they were there without fully understanding that he was responsible for that reason.”
Holder, whose three-part docuseries titled “Unprecedented” will be released this summer on Discovery+, told CBS he did not want to convey whether in his mind Trump was “remorseful” for the Jan. 6 riots but that viewers could draw their own conclusions, which he said may be different than his.
“I think that people will have to wait to see and find out the answer to that question,” Holder said. “I really — I promise I’m not trying to be cute. I just genuinely feel that people might have a different impression about his reaction than I might have.”
Holder did reveal Trump had a significant change in demeanor from the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 to later, after some time had passed.
“So I interviewed him twice after Jan. 6,” Holder said. “And the first time, he did come across as quite irate and quite depressed and frustrated. The second time, which was in Bedminster, in New Jersey, he certainly came across more jovial and content.”
Holder’s documentary footage and deposition had been expected to be presented Thursday as part of the day’s House committee hearings on Jan. 6. Instead, they were bumped and will now likely not be a part of the hearings until they reconvene next month.
Watch an excerpt of the CBS interview here or at the top of this post.