'Mar-a-Lago was not a happy place': Conservative says Trump threw Ivanka under the bus after testimony

Ivanka Trump's testimony appears to have triggered an emotional outburst from her father.

Former president Donald Trump attacked his former attorney general William Barr and apparently took a swipe at his eldest daughter, as well, wrote The Bulwark columnist Charlie Sykes, after their video testimony was shown during the first public hearing of the House select committee.

"Mar-a-Lago was not a happy place last night," Sykes wrote. Trump seemed especially triggered by Bill Barr’s testimony, and lashed out on his 'TruthSocial' platform."

"Bill Barr was a weak and frightened Attorney General who was always being 'played' and threatened by the Democrats and was scared stiff of being Impeached," Trump posted on his Truth Social account. "How do you not get impeached? Do nothing, or say nothing, especially about the obviously RIGGED & STOLEN Election or, to put it another way, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY! The Democrats hit pay dirt with Barr, he was stupid, ridiculously said there was no problem with the Election, & they left him alone. It worked for him, but not for our Country!"

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The former president then threw Ivanka Trump under the bus, according to Sykes.

"Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results," Trump posted. "She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!)"

Trump and his Republican allies are trying to delegitimize the committee rather than refute its findings, but Sykes said the House minority leader had failed miserably by refusing to take part in the investigation.

"Kevin McCarthy is a dolt," Sykes wrote. "The refusal of the Trump/GOP to participate in the committee meant that they were shut out of last night’s hearing. They had a chance to make their case, but chose instead to sulk. As last night’s evidence unfolded, that decision looked more and more like an act of supreme political malpractice."

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The special committee sought to persuade a divided country of the existence of a deep-rooted and ongoing plot -- orchestrated by the former president -- to overturn the result of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.

"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack," the Republican vice chair of the panel, Liz Cheney, said in her opening remarks at the first in a series of hotly anticipated summer hearings.

Minutes earlier, Democratic committee chief Bennie Thompson accused Trump of being "at the center of this conspiracy."

"January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup -- a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after January 6 -- to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident."

Rioters acted "at the encouragement of the president of the United States," to march on Congress and block the formal transfer of power by lawmakers to Biden, he added.

The panel's carefully produced presentation made use of testimony given behind closed doors by some of Trump's most senior and trusted advisors, including Barr and Trump's son-in-law and senior aide, Jared Kushner.

With additional reporting by AFP