An investigation into the US Capitol riots has heard that close allies of former president Donald Trump – and even his daughter – rejected his false claims of election fraud, with one calling it “bulls**t”.
On the first of six days of public hearings before a House of Representatives select committee new graphic footage of the insurrection was also shown.
In it, rioters could be seen smashing their way into the Capitol building on Washington DC’s National Mall, following then-President Trump’s incendiary speech in which he repeated his claims he had been denied a second term due to voter fraud.
At the time the Capitol was in session, overseeing the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win.
The hearing witnessed public statements from key Trump administration figures including his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and his chief of staff, Attorney General William Barr and General Mark Milley.
Mr Barr in video testimony called the election fraud claims “bulls**t”, an argument that convinced Mr Trump’s daughter.
“I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying,” Ivanka Trump said in videotaped testimony.
Bennie Thompson – chairman of the House committee investigating the insurrection and Mr Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election – said at Thursday’s hearing that the attack was an “attempted coup” that put “two and half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk”.
