Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing by the House Select Committee revealed bizarre new behind-the-scenes footage from the taping of Donald Trump’s speech to the nation following the Jan. 6 riot at the capitol, including his signature refusal to concede the election results, as well as several outtakes in which he stumbled over simple words.
From “defiled” to “yesterday,” the former president struggled to get the words out during the taping and quibbled about the content of the speech while being coached by staffers off-screen.
He started, “I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday, and to those who broke the law, you will pay. You do not represent our movement. You do not represent our country. And if you broke the law — you can’t say that. I’m not gonna… I already said, ‘you will pay.’
In another outtake, he complained he wasn’t able to see the speech well enough, causing another fumble. “The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defied the seat – it’s defiled, right? See, I can’t see it very well. OK, I’ll do this. I’m going to do this. Let’s go.”
Later, he said “I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday — ‘Yesterday’ is a hard word for me… Take the word ‘Yesterday’ out because it doesn’t work with ‘heinous attack on our country.’”
But his most pointed objection — and the moment with the most relevance to the Jan. 6 hearings — was when trump refused to say that the election was over.
“But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results,” Trump started, before stopping. “I don’t want to say the election is over. I just want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election’s over, OK?”
Thursday’s hearing was focused on Trump’s whereabouts and lack of action in the first hours after the assault on the Capitol began. It was also announced that there will be more hearings to come, set to begin in September.
