New Footage of January 6 Insurrection Released
Current Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is planning on releasing more than 44,000 hours of the events that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, available to the public. This was a campaign promise of Representative Mike Johnson when he was running for Speaker of the House after Representative Kevin McCarthy was removed. One of the members of Congress that this promise was made to was Representative Matt Gaetz.
Johnson stated, “This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.”
Currently, the video has only been available to a limited number of people in the last several months, including members of the media and criminal defendants. The video footage is supposed to show the fighting that ensued up close, as well as a bird’s eye view of the Capitol to show how the events unfolded.
Currently, there are about 90 hours to be released to the public, with 44,000 coming out over the next few months.
Former President Trump congratulated Representative Mike Johnson on a post on his Truth Social platform for releasing the footage. Critics of releasing the footage state that releasing the footage will put staff and members of Congress in danger due to the fact that it shows how rioters were able to gain entrance to the Capitol as well as how Representatives and staff were able to flee to safety.
Representative Johnson said that there is a committee currently blurring the faces of those in the footage so that they may not receive retaliation. According to Johnson, 5% of the footage will also not be released to the public in order to protect the security of the building's architecture.
January 6
On Jan. 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of interfering with the 2020 Presidential election. This was when the House of Representatives and the Senate were set to certify the Electoral votes for the election.
Members of Congress and their staff were in session during this time and were sent into hiding due to the dangers that occurred. The mob injured more than 100 Capitol police officers, one person of the protest was killed, and property was destroyed.
This all started when former President Trump held a rally the same day at noon in order to claim the election was a fraud and asked former Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the election. Former President Trump claimed, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol" and “if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,” during this speech.
By the end of Trump's speech, thousands of those in attendance were already marching to the Capitol. By 2 p.m., they had broken through the police barricades around the Capitol and had entered the Capitol building afterwards. The Vice President and his family were immediately evacuated from the Senate chambers.
The moment that the mob had entered the Capitol was ironically the same moment that the House and Senate were in debates over the state of Arizona’s electoral votes since there was an objection from a Republican. Some members of Congress were escorted to an underground bunker, while others hid in their offices or even sheltered in the House Chamber.
At 2 p.m., 1,100 members of the Washington D.C. National Guard were called by Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller to secure the perimeter of the Capitol building.
It was not until 4 p.m. that former President Trump posted in order to tell his supporters to “go home in peace,” during this video he still reiterated his claims of election fraud.
By 8 p.m., the Capitol was said to be clear of rioters and the Senate was called back in session by Mike Pence. The House did not get called back until 9 p.m. by Speaker Pelosi. It was at 3:24 a.m., the morning after, President Joe Biden’s electoral college win was confirmed.
On Jan. 8, 2021, former President Trump was banned from Twitter due to his Tweets during the time of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Twitter released a statement starting with, “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
How Mike Pence and Trump Likely Fell Out Because of This
The Vice President has the job to declare the winner of the Presidential election based upon the electoral votes. The emphasis is on declaring since the Vice President does not have the ability to determine the winner, just to declare what the states vote upon.
The reason for this is that in the Constitution, the electoral votes are given to the president of the Senate to be handed out and tallied amongst the House and Senate. The role of the president of the Senate is performed by the Vice President.
The roles of those in Congress on Jan. 6 were due to the roles of those in government when ratifying the electoral votes to accept what the states have already voted upon. It is more ceremonial than actually determining who wins the Presidential election.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was in the Senate Chambers at the time of the Jan. 6 insurrection as well as former President Trump's rally to claim election fraud in his winning.
Leading up to the day of Jan. 6, those in Trump's circle had attempted to convince Pence to support Trump and go against the vote of the electoral college this time. This could be done by rejecting the votes or sending the results of the votes back to the state.
Instead of going with this narrative, “Vice President Pence demonstrated his loyalty to Donald Trump consistently over four years, but he knew that he had a higher duty to the United States Constitution,” according to Rep. Liz Cheney.
Pence had researched more into the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which is what drives and dictates the proceedings and also met with the Senate parliamentarian to truly understand the aspects of his role as Vice President when it comes to the Electoral votes.
On Jan. 4, 2021, Trump's lawyers John Eastman and Trump pressured Mike Pence to deny the electoral college in a meeting set in the Oval Office. Trump told a rally that night that the fate of the election was in Pence’s hands, “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us.”
The next day, Trump attempted to persuade Mike Pence again. Pence said he was not convinced of denying the Electoral College votes. “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency,” stated Trump in a Tweet (now X) at 1 a.m. the night of Jan. 6.
Mike Pence called Trump and others around 11 a.m. to discuss the electoral votes. Trump went against Pence verbally on the phone. Pence headed to the Capitol after.
At 1:03 p.m., the Senate was gaveled into session by Pence to properly accept the results of the electoral election. Pro-Trump rioters were already outside going against the police at the time of the Senate starting their session.
The scene outside the Capitol was reduced to madness with violence to the point that at 1:49 p.m. it was declared a riot by the Washington D.C. police department. It was not until 2:12 p.m. that Mike Pence was rushed from the stage he was on since rioters were getting inside. His wife and daughter joined him that day and were reported to be less than 100 feet from the rioters.
The next hours were spent in hiding by Pence and his family. He had pleaded to leave the building but the security urged him that it was safer to stay in place.
Even through this, Trump was Tweeting against Mike Pence. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” which was Tweeted at 2:24 p.m.
Trump's tweets were read by those rioting as can be seen in the footage, this Tweet was reacted by rioters cheering “Hang Mike Pence!” There were homemade gallows that were photographed during the time of the event.
Hours later at a little after 3:40 a.m. Pence officially declared Trump lost the 2020 election.
Now, Pence attempted to run for President in the 2024 election but later dropped out of the race. He believes that it is not his time to be President.
He and his team believed that he needed to address how he handled the events of Jan. 6. He explained as much as he could that he was doing his Constitutional duties of supporting the electoral votes instead of Trump, knowing the political consequences that would be involved.
It was believed that this strategy of admitting this would help win the respect of a majority of Republicans who agree with Trump and not Pence’s actions. Even with this, Pence struggled to gain enough traction to run for President in 2024. Pence did not declare another candidate to win his endorsement but Trump has made it known that he believes that he deserves Pence’s endorsement over all the other candidates.