And, if 2016 is any guide, Donald Trump should have emerged with a lead from the combined vote at around 12:05 a.m. “But I'm still worried that not enough has changed to prevent this from happening again.By the time you read these words, we will have basked in the midnight returns from the tiny New Hampshire communities of Dixville Notch and Millsfield. “President Trump's coup failed,” the congressman continued, praising those who stood in his way.

“He was willing to sacrifice our republic to prolong his presidency,' Kinzinger said in his closing statement Thursday. But it is also sounding alarm bells: Trump failed to dismantle democracy in 2020, but came disturbingly close to succeeding - and still could, in the future, if given the chance. The committee - which has obtained new evidence, including documentary footage from a filmmaker with deep access to Trump and those in his orbit at the time of the January 6 attack - is making the case that the former president and his allies committed crimes in the aftermath of the 2020 election. That, of course, has been a theme of these hearings throughout: Despite a maximum pressure campaign by Trump and his allies in the wake of his reelection loss, the system held up thanks to officials doing their jobs - often at significant personal cost. “President Trump only failed here,” the aide told reporters, “because the senior Department of Justice leadership team stood up and threatened to resign rather than help the president subvert the democratic process.” But the panel also presented new information, including the names of several GOP lawmakers who requested pardons from Trump following the January 6 attack: Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, and Mo Brooks, who sent an email to the White House on January 11 with the subject line “pardons.” Much is already known about that effort, which has been documented in public reports and in previous testimony on Capitol Hill, including that of former Attorney General William Barr before the January 6 committee. On Thursday, the fifth day of hearings and the last until the committee resumes its public presentations in July, the panel will demonstrate how the former president executed a similar pressure campaign on the DOJ in his desperate effort to remain in the White House.

In four days of high profile hearings, the select committee investigating the Capitol attack and its lead-up have detailed how Trump and his cronies pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence and local elections officials to help him overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. “That view was wrong then and it is wrong today, and I hope our presence here today helps reaffirm that fact.” “Some argued to the former president and public that the election was corrupt and stolen,” former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen said in a written statement to House investigators. Donald Trump treated the Department of Justice as his own personal legal team throughout his presidency - and attempted to use the agency to hang onto that power after his 2020 election loss, according to witness testimony presented by the January 6 committee Thursday.

Subvert democracy