January 6 Committee hearings as it happened:Former White House aides to give evidence about Capitol riots

And that’s where we’ll end today’s coverage. You can follow the latest national news on our live blog anchored byBroede Carmody.

Here’s a quick recap of today’s hearing:

The committee will reconvene in September to lay out some additional findings from the investigation. This will include testimony from other witnesses.

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Committee vice-chair Liz Cheney has just delivered her final address for the evening.

In it,she described Trump’s plan to falsely claim victory in 2020 as “premeditated”.

Cheney said Trump had been told “over and over in immense detail” that the election wasn’t stolen and had no basis to declare victory,but he remained confident he could persuade his supporters to believe false ballots had been secretly injected into the election system.

She said the former president know millions of Americans who supported him would put their lives and freedoms at stake to defend the nation if they were led to believe it was at risk.

“He is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice,” she said.

Cheney said Trump had created the false impression America was threatened by a foreign force and ballot workers were stealing the election with secret thumb drives,which was “complete nonsense”.

“On January 6,Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our constitution,” she said.

“There was no ambiguity,no nuance. Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office.

“Every American must consider this:Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”

The committee will reconvene in September to present their findings.

The committee will recommend changes to laws and policies to prevent another attack on US institutions,Republican Adam Kinzinger has told the hearing.

Kinzinger called Trump’s conduct on January 6,2021,“a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation” that had stained American history.

“It is a dishonour to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy,” he said.

Kinzinger said the forces that were ignited by Trump that day remained a threat.

“The militant intolerant ideologies,the militias,the alienation,and the disaffection,the weird fantasies and disinformation,they’re all still out there ready to go. That’s the elephant in the room,” he said.

“But if January 6 has reminded us of anything,I pray it has reminded us of this:that laws are just words on paper,they mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law and who are held accountable.

“Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles,this great experiment of ours,our shining beacon on a hill,will not endure.”

The Capitol riots of January 6,2021,harmed national security in the United States and emboldened the country’s enemies in their narrative that the superpower States was declining,former deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger told the hearing.

Pottinger said security advisers were concerned adversaries,such as China,Russia and Iran,“would be tempted to probe or test US resolve”,but no threats materialised before the inauguration of the Biden government on January 21,2021.

“Our national security was harmed in a different way by the 6th of January,” he told the hearing.

“I think[it] emboldened our enemies by helping give them ammunition to feed a narrative that our system of government doesn’t work,that the United States is in decline.

“January 6 helped feed a perception that I think emboldens our adversaries.”

Pottinger said he had been contacted by allies,close friends,and supporters of the US in Europe who were concerned about the health of its democracy.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us to put their minds at ease,to put our own hearts at ease,by investigating what happened on the 6th and making sure that it never happens again,” he said.

Footage of Trump recording the video in the Rose Garden telling rioters they were “very special” and asking them to “go home now” about three hours after attending a rally near the White House has just been played as part of the proceedings. In the video,Trump can be seen saying:

I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows that. Especially the other side.

But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.

It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened,where they could take it away from all of us,from me,from you,from our country.

This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people.

We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.

I know how you feel but go home and go home at peace.

Then-deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews said she was struck by the fact Trump had chosen to begin the video by peddling the narrative that the election had been stolen. It was at that point she knew she would be resigning from her role that evening.

“As the video went on,I felt a small sense of relief because he finally told these people to go home but that was immediately followed up by him saying ‘we love you,you’re very special’ and that was disturbing to me,” Matthews said.

“He didn’t distinguish between those that peacefully attended his speech earlier that day,and those that we watched cause violence at the Capitol. Instead,he told the people who we had just watched storm our nation’s Capitol,with the intent of overthrowing our democracy,violently attack police officers,and chant heinous things like ‘Hang Mike Pence’,we love you. You’re very special.”

Matthews said that as a spokesperson for the president,Trump’s refusal to call off the violence was indefensible. “So I finished out the work day,went home,and called my loved ones to tell them of my decision to resign that evening,” she said.

Trump’s oldest son,Donald Trump Jr,texted White House chief of staff,Mark Meadows,that the former president needed “to condemn this shit” or risk tarnishing “his entire legacy”.

“The Capitol police tweet is not enough,” he told Meadows.

Meadows responded:“I am pushing it hard. I agree”.

The former president’s son then added:“They will try to f--- his entire legacy on this if it gets worse”.

Throughout the course of the attack,Republican Party members,administration officials,media personalities,and friends messaged Meadows urging him to convince Trump to put an end to the violence.

“Hey Mark,the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham wrote. Fellow Fox News commentator Brian Kilmeade told Meadows to get Trump on TV since the rioters were “destroying everything you guys have accomplished”.

Republican congressman Chip Roy texted:“fix this now”.

“Mark,I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol. Please tell the president to calm people. This isn’t the way to solve anything,” congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote.

As violence inside the Capitol escalated and elected members had to be rushed to safety,Trump tweeted that then-vice president Mike Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution” and stop the certification of the election result.

The hearing heard that despite knowing the Capitol had been breached and the mob was in the building,Trump called Pence a coward and “put a target on his own vice president’s back”.

Minutes later,Pence had to be evacuated to safety for a second time by the Secret Service as senators ran through the hallways of the Senate to get away from the mob. Pence came within 12 metres of the rioters.

At that point,Trump called Senator Thomas Tuberville,one of his strongest supporters in the Senate,who had to end the call to evacuate the chamber himself.

Former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said he was disturbed by the tweet.

“The tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed that moment,which was a de-escalation and that’s why I had said earlier that it looked like fuel being poured on the fire,” he said.

“That was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign,that would be my last day at the White House. I simply didn’t want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol.”

Then-White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews agreed and said the tweet had given the green light to rioters “that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol was OK,that they were justified in their anger”.

“I’m someone who has worked with him. I worked on the campaign,travelled all around the country going to countless rallies with him and I’ve seen the impact that his words have on his supporters,” she said.

“They truly latch on to every word in every tweet that he says and so I think that in that moment for him to tweet out the message about Mike Pence,it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse.”

Donald Trump could have addressed the nation and condemned the violence unfolding outside the Capitol in a matter of minutes but took no action.

Former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told the hearing it would have taken less than 60 seconds for Trump to walk from the dining room to the press briefing room in the White House,where there was a camera at all times.

“If the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American people,he could have been on camera almost instantly,” she said.

“The White House press corps has offices that are located directly behind the briefing room,and so if he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office,we could have assembled the White House press corps,probably in a matter of minutes to get them into the Oval[Office] for him to do an on-camera address.”

Matthews said she was watching the coverage unfold from one of the offices in the West Wing and realised the situation was escalating quickly. She told then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany that Trump needed to “be out there immediately to tell these people to go home and condemn the violence that we were seeing”.

Moments before a rioter linked to the Proud Boys used a security officer’s shield to smash a window and rioters flooded into the building,Trump was on the phone with legal adviser Rudy Giuliani for more than eight minutes.

Former president Donald Trump became “irate” and pushed against advice from his security detail to meet supporters at the Capitol despite being aware some protesters were armed.

The hearing has just heard evidence from witnesses who reported a heated argument between Trump and his security detail inside an official SUV after attending a rally.

Robert ‘Bobby’ Engel,Trump’s lead Secret Service agent,refused to drive him to the Capitol and took him to the White House.

Retired police sergeant Mark Robinson,who was assigned to Trump’s motorcade that day,said the former president was “adamant” about going to the Capitol. He recalled hearing about armed protesters over special radio channels,including some who had climbed on trees.

Democrat Elaine Luria said Trump was aware the Capitol was besieged and under attack within 15 minutes of leaving the stage. Upon his return to the Oval Office,he walked to a private dining room,where he stayed for more than two hours watching Fox News on TV.

“Witnesses told us that on January 6 president Trump sat in his usual spot at the head of the table facing a television hanging on the wall,” she said. “We know from the employee that TV was tuned to Fox News,all afternoon.”

Trump did not call the secretary of defence,the attorney-general,the secretary of homeland security,or law enforcement agencies. Instead,Luria said,he rang several senators.

The hearing has just heard Secret Service agents were “exceptionally concerned” about the safety of then-vice president Mike Pence and their own members during the attack.

Democrat Elaine Luria said Trump was advised by “nearly everyone” to immediately instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol and disperse and halt the violence.

“Virtually everyone told president Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms and those on Capitol Hill and across the nation begged president Trump to help,” she said.

By the time Trump released a video 187 minutes later telling his supporters to go home,two pipe bombs had been found near the Capitol,including near where Pence was conducting a meeting.

Luria said hours of hand-to-hand combat had injured scores of law enforcement officers,the Capitol had been invaded,the electoral count halted and members evacuated.

“Rioters took the floor of the Senate,they rifled through desks and broke into two offices,and then nearly caught up to vice-president Pence. Guns were drawn on the House floor,and a rioter was shot,attempting to infiltrate the chamber,” she said.

“We know that a number of rioters intended acts of physical violence against specific elected officials. We know virtually all the rioters were motivated by president Trump’s rhetoric that the election had been stolen,and they felt they needed to take their country back.”

Republican Adam Kinzinger said by the end of the hearing it would be clear that Trump had not only failed to act,but deliberately chosen not to.