News
June 16, 2022 – 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm (ET)
PBS NewsHour – June 16, 2022 (12:40)
Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat came into ever-clearer focus Thursday, with testimony describing his pressuring Vice President Mike Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the run-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Trump’s closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressional certification of his loss as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots if Pence followed through, witnesses revealed in stark testimony Thursday.
The panel revealed how Trump put his vice president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to “fight like hell” over his false claims of a fraudulent election.
Rioters came within 40 feet of the place at the Capitol where Pence and others had been evacuated. Never-before-shown photos showed Pence and his team sheltering.
Four European leaders expressed their support for Ukraine on Thursday while meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, vowing to back Kyiv’s candidacy to eventually join the European Union and offering more weapons to fend off Russia’s invasion.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised Ukraine six more truck-mounted artillery guns, the latest in a new round of Western arms pledges as the war grinds on in the Donbas region in the east.
France, Germany, Italy and Romania “are doing everything so that Ukraine alone can decide its fate,” Macron said at a news conference with Zelenskyy and the others.
“My colleagues and I have come here to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The potential collapse of American democracy loomed over the third public hearing of the January 6 select committee: For the first time, the public proceedings directly addressed the counterfactuals possible if figures like Vice President Mike Pence had acted differently on that day.
Pence, and his refusal to use his ministerial role in certifying the election to overturn it, was central to Thursday’s hearing. Through the testimony of vice presidential aides, the committee established an extended campaign that saw President Donald Trump and his allies attempt to pressure Pence into overturning the result of the 2020 presidential election.
Obviously, that campaign failed. But the likelihood of a “paralyzing constitutional crisis” and fighting in the streets was discussed soberly during the hearings. That the US managed to avoid both, the committee argued, was thanks to “Pence’s courage.” These are five takeaways from Thursday’s hearing.
June 16, 2022 – 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm (ET)
