This Trump tweet ahead of Jan. 6 was a ‘pivotal moment,’ Cheney says in Jan. 6 hearings

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., used part of her opening statements in the first Jan. 6 committee hearing June 9 to lay out a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol.

She said starting in mid- December, a group of Trump allies -- Gen. Michael Flynn and lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani among them -- met to propose ideas to overturn the election.

“We know that the group discussed a number of dramatic steps, including having the military seize voting machines and potentially rerun elections,” Cheney said.

Cheney also pointed to a Jan. 5 tweet by former President Donald Trump, in which he said the next day would be “wild.”

“As you will see, this was a pivotal moment. This tweet initiated a chain of events. The tweet led to the planning for what occurred on Jan. 6,” Cheney said.

The hearing June 9 was the first of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee in the coming weeks. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app

Find more from PBS NewsHour at

Subscribe to our YouTube channel