On Friday's edition of ABC's "Good Morning America," Jon Karl broke down the significance of what the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has uncovered.
Specifically, he argued, there is now "a direct line between the words of Donald Trump and the murderous rage of the people that were hunting his own vice president in this building."
"They showed, using the words of people in Trump's inner circle, that there was absolutely no legal basis for what Trump was demanding, that it was frankly illegal," said Karl. "So ... whether this ends up being criminal, crimes that are prosecuted by the Justice Department, I think what the committee did here was clearly show that what Trump did on that day and the days leading up to it was clearly a betrayal of America, a betrayal of American democracy."
Among the new revelations by the committee are that John Eastman, the far-right lawyer who drafted the memo outlining how Vice President Mike Pence could declare Trump the winner of the election by simply throwing out electors from states Joe Biden won, did not actually believe that his own plan was legal, even as he pushed it.
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The committee also has evidence that Eastman continued pushing his schemes even after the attack on the Capitol had occurred.
Pence himself did not go through with these schemes, considering them illegal — but he has refused to speak publicly on the matter.
Watch below:
\u201c"I think what the committee did here was clearly show that what Trump did on that day...was clearly a betrayal of America, a betrayal of American democracy."\n\n@ABC's @jonkarl to @GStephanopoulos on the Jan 6th committee hearing.\n\nLATEST: https://t.co/IttlZoVGik\u201d— Good Morning America (@Good Morning America) 1655464959
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