Jan. 6 committee hearing today focuses on Trump’s efforts to pressure state

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol reconvened Tuesday for the next in a series of public hearings this month. This hearing is focusing on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure officials in Arizona and Georgia to overturn the 2020 election results.

Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said in his opening statement that “pressuring public servants to betray their oaths was a fundamental part” of Trump’s “playbook.”

Thompson said Trump’s pressuring of these election officials was based on the “big lie.”  “The lie hasn’t gone away. It’s corrupting our democratic institutions,” Thompson added, specifically noting that a New Mexico county official refused to certify the recent primary results. 

Thompson, vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney and committee member Rep. Adam Schiff all noted in their opening statements that the democratic institutions held despite Trump’s falsehoods – but it could “break under pressure.”

“The system held, but barely,” Schiff said. “And the system held because people of courage, Republicans and Democrats, like the witnesses we will hear today, put their oath to the country and the constitution above any other consideration.”

Three Republicans, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the secretary of state’s office, and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, testified first.

Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former election worker from Fulton County, Georgia, will appear in a second panel. 

Trump lost both Georgia and Arizona to President Biden, but he and officials with his reelection campaign pushed top officials in those states to overturn the election results, in part through a scheme to submit alternate, pro-Trump slates of electors.

Trump lost both Georgia and Arizona to President Biden, but he and officials with his reelection campaign pushed top officials in those states to overturn the election results, in part through a scheme to submit alternate, pro-Trump slates of electors.

In Georgia, Trump urged Raffensberger in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to “find” enough votes to make him the winner, though Raffensperger repeatedly rebuffed the president’s efforts and refuted claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia. 

Both Raffensperger and Sterling defended the integrity of Georgia’s election and faced intense criticism for their actions, receiving death threats and, in the case of Raffensperger, a censure by the state Republican Party. Despite the backlash, Raffensperger defeated Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice and two other candidates who challenged him in the Republican primary last month for secretary of state.

The two election…