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What we know about Donald Trump’s inaction during the 187 minutes of January 6

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In the previous hearings, the committee has sought to tie Trump to the violence at the Capitol, showing how he was warned by his aides that his claims the election was stolen were baseless and that there was a risk of violence on January 6, 2021. The committee’s final hearing in this series will attempt to illustrate how the former President “refused to act to defend the Capitol as a violent mob stormed the Capitol,” according to committee aides.

Like past hearings, the committee is likely to rely on witness testimony of those who were around Trump on January 6 or nearby in the West Wing, in order to tell the narrative of what happened through the words of Trump’s inner circle.

The committee has spoken with numerous individuals around Trump on January 6 — including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, former Pence national security adviser retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.

Two witnesses are slated to testify in person on Thursday, and both resigned in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack: Former Trump deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.
Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has not testified before the committee — the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena. But Meadows selectively turned over more than 2,300 text messages to the panel, which CNN obtained, and the texts provide key insights into the frantic messages the chief of staff was receiving from Republican allies in Congress and even Trump’s son urging the President to act.

Here are some key questions and answers about the 187 minutes of January 6 ahead of the final hearing:

When do the 187 minutes begin and end?

The 187 minutes began at 1:10 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, as Trump was wrapping up his speech at the Ellipse. This is when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol, so they could pressure lawmakers to overturn the election while they met for a joint session of Congress to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory.

“So, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue … and we’re going to the Capitol,” Trump said. “We’re going to try and give our Republicans — the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help — we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So, let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Exactly 187 minutes later, at 4:17 p.m. ET, Trump posted a video on Twitter. In the clip, he said for the first time that his supporters should leave the Capitol. He also heaped praise on the rioters and repeated his debunked lies about the election, which had spurred the riot in the first place.

“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” Trump said at the time. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, 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.”

Why do the 187 minutes matter to the committee?

This timeframe is central to the committee’s mission. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee’s GOP vice chair, has repeatedly said that the evidence obtained by the panel about these 187 minutes provides a clear example of Trump’s “supreme dereliction of duty” throughout the insurrection.
The panel’s Democratic chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said earlier this year, “The President was told, ‘You need to say directly to your people to go home, leave the Capitol.’ And so, it took over 187 minutes to make that simple statement. Something’s wrong with that.”

Thursday’s hearing will be led by Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican. Luria said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the hearing would “go through pretty much minute-by-minute” of what went on during the 187 minutes of the Capitol insurrection.

“The President didn’t do much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

What do we already know about the 187 minutes?

After leaving the stage at the Ellipse, Trump got into his motorcade and angrily tried to convince his drivers to take him to the Capitol, according to testimony from Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. The agents refused, telling him that the scene was too dangerous and unstable.
Trump then watched TV news coverage of the chaos unfolding at the Capitol, according to a book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and according to then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who said Trump was “gleefully” watching the news.
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told Trump’s chief of staff that Trump needed to intervene, or else “people are going to die,” according to Hutchinson’s testimony. Meadows responded by telling Cipollone that Trump “doesn’t want to do anything” and that he even agreed with the rioters who were seen chanting about hanging Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump posted three tweets during this critical timeframe. The first tweet criticized Pence for refusing to overturn the election. The second and third tweets told the rioters to “stay peaceful” and to “respect the law” — but notably Trump did not instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.

He also spoke by phone with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who pleaded with Trump to call off the mob. But during the call, Trump took the rioters’ side and said they cared about the election more than McCarthy did, according to previous reporting.

During the 187 minutes, a wide array of Republican lawmakers, former Trump officials and conservative media personalities texted Meadows, saying Trump needed to intervene, CNN has previously reported. This included Donald Trump Jr., Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, former Trump administration officials Mick Mulvaney and Reince Priebus, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.

Who was with Trump and what have they said about it?

The committee has taken video depositions from multiple people who were with Trump on January 6 and is likely to use those interviews to try to explain what the President was doing when rioters breached the Capitol.

In addition to Ivanka Trump, Kellogg, Cipollone and McEnany, the committee has played clips at previous hearings of video depositions from a long list of White House aides, including former Trump personal assistant Nick Luna, former White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, former Ivanka Trump chief of staff Julie Radford and former Meadows deputy Ben Williamson.

The testimony from many of those inside the White House are likely to be played in order to help tell the story of what Trump was doing during the afternoon of January 6.

The committee has previously played clips from both Pottinger and Matthews, the two in-person witnesses Thursday, reacting to Trump’s tweet attacking Pence.

“I remember us saying that that was the last thing that needed to be tweeted at that moment,” Matthews said in a clip from her video deposition. “The situation was already bad. And so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.”

Pottinger told the panel that Trump’s tweet was what prompted him to resign. “I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign,” he said in his video deposition. “That’s where I knew that I was leaving that day once I read that tweet.”

At the end of the committee’s last hearing, Cheney previewed what the committee had planned for its upcoming session by playing a clip from Cipollone deposition, which the committee had just taken days beforehand.

“Was it necessary for you to continue to push for a statement directing people to leave all the way through that period of time until it was ultimately achieved?” Cipollone was asked in the video deposition.

“I felt it was my obligation to continue to push for that and others felt it was their obligation as well,” the former White House counsel responded.

The committee’s testimony — along with reporting from CNN, other news organizations and several books about the Trump presidency — have filled in key details about what was going on inside the West Wing. Kellogg told the committee, for instance, about how he encouraged Ivanka Trump to speak with her father on January 6 to act, and that she did so multiple times that day, according to committee documents.

The committee has also spoken to numerous West Wing officials who didn’t see Trump directly as the violence was unfolding but were reacting to what was happening on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Williamson, Meadows’ top aide, told the committee how he texted Meadows encouraging Trump to tweet because things were “getting a little hairy” at the Capitol. Williamson told the panel that he went to speak to Meadows in person, and the White House chief then went toward the Oval Office, according to court filings.

What are the big unanswered questions?

While lots of details about Trump’s response on January 6 are already known, there are still lingering questions about what the former President was doing on January 6.

For instance, Trump spoke with at least two Republican lawmakers during the early stages of the insurrection: McCarthy and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
While there has been previous reporting about McCarthy’s heated phone call, including that Trump told him that the rioters were “more upset about the election than you are,” McCarthy has not spoken at length about the conversation. The committee issued a subpoena to McCarthy and four other lawmakers in an unprecedented move earlier this year, though McCarthy has not agreed to testify or hand over documents.
Questions also remain about who else Trump spoke with by phone on January 6 during the period when the Capitol was breached. There are gaps in the White House call logs on January 6, providing incomplete public accounting of the conversations Trump had that day.

Another key question the committee is likely to dive into is how it was Pence — and not Trump — who ordered the National Guard to respond to the riot. At a hearing last month, the committee played testimony from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley saying it was Pence who gave him “very direct, unambiguous orders” to get the Guard to the Capitol.

But Milley testified that Meadows told him to say that it was Trump, not Pence, who gave the order. “He said: We have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,” Milley said in his video deposition about what Meadows told him. “We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect.”



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Electoral Count Act: Bipartisan group of senators cuts deal in response to January 6

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The proposal still needs to be approved by both chambers and will need 60 votes in the Senate to break any filibuster attempt, meaning at least 10 Republicans would be needed to support any legislation. Announcement of the plan kicks off what is expected to be a challenging, months-long process to get the deal passed into law before the end of the year.

The deal is the culmination of months of negotiation led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, along with an additional six Democrats and eight Republicans. The proposal unveiled Wednesday is split up into two bills.

One of the bills is focused on modernizing and overhauling the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that Trump had sought to exploit and create confusion over how Congress counts Electoral College votes from each state. As part of that proposal, senators are attempting to clarify that the vice president only has a ceremonial role in overseeing the certification of the electoral results.

The proposal also includes key provisions intended to promote an orderly transition of presidential power by outlining guidelines for when eligible candidates can receive federal resources for a transition into office.

If neither candidate concedes within five days of Election Day, both candidates would be able to receive access to federal transition resources until “it is substantially certain who will win the majority of electoral votes,” according to a fact sheet. Ultimately, only one candidate will be eligible when there is “a clear winner of the election.”

Amid revelations of an effort by Trump allies to put forward illegitimate electors in key states, the bill tries to prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future.

It would also make it harder for members of Congress to attempt to overturn an election by increasing the number of House and Senate members required to raise an objection to election results when a joint session of Congress meets to certify them. Under current law, just one senator can join one House member in forcing each side to vote on whether to throw out results subject to an objection.

The bill is co-sponsored by the nine Republicans and seven Democrats who announced the deal.

According to the fact sheet, the proposal dealing with the vice president’s role would make clear that the responsibility is “solely ministerial and that he or she does not have any power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate disputes over electors.”

The second bill is aimed at improving election security and would enhance federal penalties for anyone who threatens or intimidates election officials as well as increase penalties for the tampering with election records. The bill is co-sponsored by five Republicans and seven Democrats.

While constitutional experts say the vice president currently can’t disregard a state-certified electoral result, Trump pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to obstruct the Electoral College certification in Congress as part of his pressure campaign. But Pence refused to do so and, as a result, became a target of the former President and his mob of supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said the bill would make it harder to overturn an election when a joint session of Congress convenes to certify a presidential election.

“Anything we can do and show to the American public that we realize how serious that day was, and that we’re going to do all we can to prevent a repeat of January 6th, is a step in the right direction,” he said.

“Any future vice president cannot, should not, will not be able to overturn legitimate votes of Americans and their electors that states vote,” Warner said.

Further details on what’s in the deal

The bill that seeks to overhaul the Electoral Count Act would include a number of changes aimed at making sure that Congress can clearly “identify a single, conclusive slate of electors from each state,” a fact sheet states.

This comes as revelations surface about an effort by Trump allies to subvert the Electoral College process and install fake GOP electors in seven swing states.

The newly unveiled deal creates a set of stipulations designed to make it harder for there to be any confusion over the accurate electors. For example, it states that each state’s governor would be responsible for submission of a certificate that identifies electors. Congress would not be able to accept a slate of electors submitted by any other official. “This reform would address the potential for multiple state officials to send Congress competing slates,” the fact sheet states.

The bill would also set a higher bar for members of Congress to be able to raise objections to the certification of electoral votes.

The fact sheet says that the proposal “raises the threshold to lodge an objection to electors to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.”

The bill dealing with election security also includes a number of other key provisions.

One such proposal would reauthorize an independent agency known as the Election Assistance Commission for a period of five years and require the commission to implement cyber security testing for voting systems.

The bill also includes measures aimed at helping states improve procedures for handling mail-in ballots.

What’s next for the proposal

The Senate Rules Committee announced on Wednesday following the release of the deal that the panel plans to hold a hearing on the Electoral Count Act and efforts to overhaul electoral laws in response to the January 6 attack.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the chairwoman of the committee, told CNN the hearing will take place on August 3.

The announcement is one sign that the newly released proposal is not on track to move immediately to the Senate floor for consideration and instead will take time to work its way through the legislative process as senators work to try to pass legislation before year’s end.

Some senators believe that the issue could slip into a lame-duck session of Congress between the November elections and January.

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.

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Former Trump NSC official Matthew Pottinger will testify at Thursday’s January 6 hearing

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Pottinger is slated to appear alongside former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews.

CNN previously reported that Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary in the Trump White House until resigning shortly after January 6, 2021, was expected to testify publicly. When she resigned, Matthews said she was honored to serve in Trump’s administration but “was deeply disturbed by what I saw.” She said at the time, “Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power.”

Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, stepped down in response to Trump’s reaction to his supporters breaching the US Capitol, a person close to Pottinger confirmed to CNN at the time of his resignation. He told people there was very little for him to consider, the person said at the time.

The committee’s vice chairwoman, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, described Pottinger like this during one of the committee’s previous hearings: “A former Marine intelligence officer who served in the White House for four years, including — including as deputy national security adviser, was in the vicinity of the Oval Office at various points throughout the day.”

The committee played a video clip from Pottinger’s interview in which he described the moment he knew it was the moment to resign.

“One of my staff brought me a printout of a tweet by the President, and the tweet said something to the effect that Mike Pence, the vice president, didn’t have the courage to do what he — what should have been done. I — I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign. That’s where I knew that I was leaving that day once I read that tweet.”

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. A spokesperson for Pottinger did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The public has now heard live testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and seen clips from the recorded depositions of more than 40 others, including members of the Trump family, former administration officials, GOP officials from key battleground states, and members of the former President’s legal team.

Thursday’s hearing will mark the panel’s second prime-time session, and committee members have said it will examine Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes while the US Capitol riot was unfolding.

Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, who will be leading Thursday’s hearing with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, told CNN the committee will “go through pretty much minute by minute” the then-President’s actions.

“He was doing nothing to actually stop the riot,” the Virginia Democrat told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

One person not expected to attend Thursday’s hearing in person is the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Thompson announced Tuesday that he tested positive for Covid-19 and would isolate in the coming days. A committee spokesman said Thursday’s hearing would not be affected.
On Tuesday, the committee met with former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to then-White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, who may be able to provide the committee with additional information about the circumstances around a heated Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020. During that 2020 meeting, White House lawyers clashed with outside Trump allies regarding their extreme proposals for how to overturn the 2020 presidential election. CNN has previously reported that seizing voting machines and appointing a special counsel to investigate baseless claims of widespread election fraud were discussed.

This headline and story have been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.

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Secret Service erased texts from January 5 and 6, 2021, official says

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A government watchdog accused the U.S. Secret Service of erasing texts from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, after his office requested them as part of an inquiry into the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to lawmakers this week.

Joseph V. Cuffari, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees indicating that the text messages have vanished and that efforts to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack were being hindered.

“The Department notified us that many U.S. Secret Service (USSS) text messages, from January 5 and 6, 2021 were erased as part of a device-replacement program,” he wrote in a letter dated Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. The letter was earlier reported on by the Intercept and CNN.

Cuffari emphasized that the erasures came “after” the Office of Inspector General requested copies of the text messages for its own investigation, and signaled that they were part of a pattern of DHS resistance to his inquiries. Staff members are required by law to surrender records so that he can audit the sprawling national security agency, but he said they have “repeatedly” refused to provide them until an attorney reviews them.

“This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced,” he wrote, and offered to brief the House and Senate committees on the “access issues.”

The Secret Service’s text messages could provide insight into the agency’s actions on the day of the insurrection and possibly those of President Donald Trump. A former White House official last month told the House select committee investigating the assault on the Capitol that Trump knew his supporters were armed, wanted to lead the mob to the Capitol and physically assailed the senior Secret Service agent who told him he could not.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday that the agency did not maliciously delete text messages following a request.

“In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the OIG in every respect – whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts,” he said.

“First, in January 2021, before any inspection was opened by OIG on this subject, USSS began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost,” he said. “DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was well under way. The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration.”

“Second, DHS OIG’s allegation regarding DHS’s cooperation with its investigation is neither correct nor new. To contrary, DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review,” Guglielmi said. “DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIG’s last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.”

Cuffari, nominated by Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the Senate, has faced significant criticism since he took over the office. His first-year audits plummeted to historic lows, he clashed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the veracity of an inspection of a detention center, and he blocked investigations into the Secret Service’s handling of protests in Lafayette Square following the murder of George Floyd and the spread of the coronavirus in the agency’s ranks, documents show.

The OIG’s office is under investigation by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an independent entity in the executive branch, for undisclosed allegations of misconduct, according to an internal email circulated to the office in January.

The nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO), an independent watchdog, has called on President Biden to remove Cuffari.

Cuffari’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday, and DHS had no immediate comment on his allegations.

A person briefed on the Secret Service’s reaction to Cuffari’s letter said the agency rejects his characterizations that they eliminated or deleted records after Cuffari’s office requested them. Like others interviewed for this report, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity to share confidential internal discussions.

According to two people briefed on the documents request, the Secret Service began a long preplanned, agencywide replacement of staff telephones to improve communication across the agency in January 2021.

It wasn’t until sometime in February 2021 that Cuffari’s office requested that the Secret Service produce records that centered on Jan. 6 and the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol, seeking internal agency communications, memorandums, emails and telephonic records such as text messages.

By the time of the request, the people said, as many as a third of Secret Service personnel had been given new cellphones.

Most of the replacement program began with staff members in Washington offices, and if they did not back up their old text messages, the people said, the information from Jan. 6 and the days before that is lost. That could conceivably include the texts sent and received by former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato and former Trump security detail leader Bobby Engel and other senior leaders in the Secret Service.

This device replacement program, and resulting failure to back up texts, does not appear to affect emails.

The Secret Service has a policy requiring employees to back up and store government communications when they retire old electronic or telephonic devices, but in practice, staff do not consistently back up texts from phones.

A similar issue came up in 2018, when the Justice Department inspector general said he used “forensic tools” to recover missing text messages from two senior FBI officials who had investigated Hillary Clinton and Trump and exchanged notes critical of the president. The missing messages generated criticism when GOP leaders and the president questioned how the FBI failed to preserve them.

The Secret Service has had a history of important records disappearing under cover of night and agency staff members refusing to cooperate when investigators came calling seeking information.

When a congressional committee was investigating assassinations and assassination attempts, it sought boxes of records that reportedly showed the Secret Service received ample advance warnings and threats before President John F. Kennedy’s death that white supremacists and other organizations were plotting to kill Kennedy using high-powered rifles from tall buildings. The Secret Service told investigators the records had been destroyed as part of a normal culling of old archives — days after investigators had requested them.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said lawmakers “need to get to the bottom of whether the Secret Service destroyed federal records or the Department of Homeland Security obstructed oversight.”

“The DHS Inspector General needs these records to do its independent oversight and the public deserves to have a full picture of what occurred on January 6th,” he said in a statement. “I will be learning more from the DHS Inspector General about these concerning allegations.”

Devlin Barrett in Machipongo, Va., contributed to this report.

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Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021 — after oversight officials asked for them, watchdog says

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The letter, which was originally sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, says the messages were erased from the system as part of a device-replacement program after the watchdog asked the agency for records related to its electronic communications.

“First, the Department notified us that many US Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program. The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6,” the letter from DHS IG Joseph Cuffari stated.

“Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys,” Cuffari added. “This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced.”

The US Secret Service and the Homeland Security inspector general did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. The House select committee declined to comment.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, chairs both the House Homeland Security and January 6 committees.

While the letter does not say whether the DHS watchdog believes these text messages were erased intentionally or for a nefarious reason, the incident adds to growing questions about the Secret Service’s response to the US Capitol attack.

The Secret Service has been in the spotlight since witnesses have described how former President Donald Trump angrily demanded that his detail take him to the Capitol following his speech at the White House Ellipse — shortly before rioters breached the building.

A former adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence also referenced the Secret Service in his testimony. Greg Jacob, Pence’s former counsel, told the panel that Pence refused to get into the vice presidential vehicle after being evacuated from the Capitol, raising concerns that the driver would have taken him to a secure location and thus prevent him from certifying the electoral results.

More than a year after the riot, the Homeland Security inspector general review of the Secret Service and its actions on January 6 remains ongoing.

This story has been updated with additional developments Thursday.

CNN’s Whitney Wild and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

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5 things to know for July 12: Shinzo Abe, January 6, Gun laws, Covid-19, Sri Lanka

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Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. Shinzo Abe

Mourners gathered in Tokyo today for the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, four days after he was assassinated in broad daylight. Photos captured the outpouring of grief as people gathered to pay their respects to Abe with flowers, notes and green tea — symbols of help in the afterlife. The private funeral was hosted at the centuries-old Zojoji Temple by Abe’s widow, Akie Abe. Millions around the world have reacted with shock and anguish at how Abe was gunned down during a campaign speech in the central city of Nara on Friday. According to police, the 41-year-old suspect accused of killing Abe had a “grudge” against a church he believed Abe’s grandfather — another former leader of the country — helped to expand. 

2. January 6

The House select committee plans to show at a hearing today how right-wing extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, prepared to attack the US Capitol in the days leading up to January 6, 2021. According to committee aides, the hearing will also focus on the roles of former President Donald Trump’s associates, including Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who both received presidential pardons after being charged with various crimes. Separately, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, an ally of Trump, is expected to meet Friday with the January 6 committee, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Byrne played an active role in supporting efforts to push baseless claims about the 2020 election, including attending a meeting at the White House to discuss strategies to overturn the election results.

3. Gun laws

President Joe Biden on Monday said gun violence has turned everyday places in America into “killing fields” as he marked the passage of the first significant federal gun safety legislation in 30 years. Biden said the package he signed into law last month represents “an important start,” but falls far short of what he and his party had advocated for to curb the alarming rate of shootings in the US. During his remarks, Biden was interrupted by Manuel Oliver, a father whose son was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “You have to do more than that,” Oliver yelled. As of today, there have been 333 mass shootings in the US since the beginning of the year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

4. Coronavirus

US health officials are urgently working on a plan to allow second Covid-19 boosters for all adults, a senior White House official confirmed to CNN. Second boosters have been authorized for adults 50 and older, as well as some people with weakened immune systems, since late March. But younger adults are eligible for only one booster shot, which was authorized in November. Some experts are concerned that younger adults’ immunity may be waning as Covid-19 cases rise with the dominance of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant. The CDC reports that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants constitute more than 70% of new infections in the country. And while these subvariants may partially escape the immunity produced by the vaccine and prior infection, vaccination still likely protects against severe illness.

5. Sri Lanka

Thousands of protesters have stormed the homes of Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister in recent days in fury over the nation’s crippling economic crisis. The protesters have succeeded in forcing the leaders to resign, but refuse to leave the luxury houses until both of them have vacated their roles. Striking images show protesters sprawled on a bed in the presidential palace and barbecuing food on the property. But the most dramatic footage showed protesters swimming in the President’s private pool. It remains unclear how Sri Lanka will overcome rising food costs, fuel shortages and electricity cuts as the country struggles to make debt repayments.

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TODAY’S NUMBER

33%

That’s President Joe Biden’s approval rating according to a new poll, leading to increased speculation about his prospects for reelection. The nationwide survey conducted by the New York Times/Siena College comes as Democratic officials and party leaders have begun to doubt that Biden is their strongest candidate to beat former President Donald Trump — or another GOP candidate — in 2024. But a challenge requires a challenger, and all the Democrats being discussed as potential primary opponents to Biden tell CNN they are ruling out runs. 

TODAY’S QUOTE

“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care.”

— HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the country’s top health official, saying the Biden administration expects providers to continue offering abortion services, despite laws that strictly limit the procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In the clarifying guidance announced Monday, Becerra said that the federal government can penalize institutions or providers that fail to provide abortions as needed to treat medical emergencies.

TODAY’S WEATHER

Check your local forecast here>>>

AND FINALLY

Cat Needs His Own Cat-uccino To Begin His Day

You’ve heard of a frappuccino, but what about a cat-uccino? Like many of us, this cat won’t start the day until he has his morning cup! (Click here to view)

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Pat Cipollone asserted executive privilege to some January 6 committee questions

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Cipollone, who had previously expressed concerns to the committee about interview questions that might have required him to invoke executive privilege, testified before the committee Friday under a subpoena.

A House select committee spokesperson told CNN the panel’s interview with Cipollone was productive but said there was no agreement made to restrict any questions to avoid potential issues with executive privilege.

“In our interview with Mr. Cipollone, the Committee received critical testimony on nearly every major topic in its investigation, reinforcing key points regarding Donald Trump’s misconduct and providing highly relevant new information that will play a central role in its upcoming hearings. This includes information demonstrating Donald Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty. The testimony also corroborated key elements of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony. Allegations of some pre-interview agreement to limit Cipillone’s testimony are completely false,” committee spokesperson Tim Mulvey said.

Hutchinson, who was an aide to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified before the January 6 committee last month in a blockbuster hearing in which she described her experience at the White House as someone close to then-President Donald Trump’s inner circle in the days leading up to and including the Capitol Hill riot.

The select committee on Friday also asked Cipollone a series of questions about pardons, including potential pardons for the Trump family and whether Trump wanted to pardon himself, the person familiar said.

Cipollone told the committee that he didn’t believe the 2020 election was stolen but that he thinks Trump did and still does hold that belief, according to the source.

The committee also questioned Cipollone about the pressure campaign toward then-Vice President Mike Pence around his ability to potentially not certify the 2020 election results while presiding over the joint session of Congress on January 6, the source said.

Earlier Friday, three different sources familiar with Cipollone’s testimony characterized it as very important and extremely helpful and told CNN it will become evident in upcoming public committee hearings.

The interview was recorded on video and could be featured at upcoming hearings, including one on Tuesday that will focus on how the violent mob came together and the role of extremist groups, as well as another hearing — which hasn’t yet been scheduled — on the 187 minutes of Trump’s inaction as rioters stormed the US Capitol.

CNN’s Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

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Business

Jobless claims edge up to highest since January; planned layoffs soar; trade deficit hits 2022 low

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A Wendy’s restaurant displays a “Now Hiring” sign in Tampa, Florida, June 1, 2021.

Octavio Jones | Reuters

Weekly jobless claims nudged higher while the U.S. trade deficit hit its lowest level of the year in May as Covid-related shutdowns gripped China, according to economic data released Thursday.

Initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled 235,000 for the week ended July 2, a gain of 4,000 from the previous period and slightly more than the 230,000 Dow Jones estimate, according to the Labor Department. The total was the highest since Jan. 15 and raised the four-week moving average to 232,500, its highest level since December 2021.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, also moved up, rising 51,000 to 1.375 million, higher than the 1.337 million FactSet estimate.

Also on Thursday, job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that planned layoffs soared in June to 32,517, a 57% jump from a month ago and the highest total since February 2021.

The firm noted that the auto sector, which typically lays off this time of year, announced 10,198 cuts, bringing the yearly total to 15,578, or a 155% increase from the same period in 2021. Of the 30 industries the company follows, 10 have announced more cuts this year than in 2021.

Layoff announcements have soared in the second quarter after an extremely low level of cuts in the first three months of the year. Through June, the annual total of 133,211 is down 37% from a year ago, but the second quarter is the highest quarterly total since Q1 of 2021.

“Employers are beginning to respond to financial pressures and slowing demand by cutting costs,” said Andrew Challenger, the firm’s senior vice president. “While the labor market is still tight, that tightness may begin to ease in the next few months.”

Markets are watching Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, which is expected to show a gain of 250,000. If that Dow Jones estimate proves accurate, it will be the lowest monthly gain since December 2020. Federal Reserve officials are watching the jobs numbers closely as they look to cool the labor market and broader economy, which is seeing its highest inflation rate since 1981.

On the trade front, the U.S. imbalance for goods and services declined to $85.5 billion, from $86.7 billion in April, according to government figures. Though it was the lowest of 2022, it was above the Dow Jones estimate of $84.7 billion.

The deficit was still up 38.4% from a year ago as demand for imports has far outstripped U.S. exports to the rest of the world.

As China grappled with a surge in Covid infections, the U.S. trade deficit with that country fell a seasonally adjusted $2.8 billion to $32.2 billion. The deficit with Mexico dropped $1.6 billion while the imbalance with Canada increased $900 million.

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US

January 6 committee subpoenas ex-White House counsel Pat CiPO

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Cipollone, who many former administration officials credit with helping to prevent Trump from taking legally questionable actions in the months around the 2020 presidential election, has long been considered a key witness by the committee. He has resisted talking further with the committee after previously sitting for a closed-door interview on April 13.

The committee said in its subpoena letter that it has obtained evidence that Cipollone is “uniquely positioned to testify” but he has “declined to cooperate” past that interview, leaving the panel with “no choice” but to issue the subpoena. During recent public hearings, members of the panel have publicly pressured Cipollone to testify. The committee is now taking the step to issue a subpoena in an effort to force his formal cooperation.

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel’s chairman, and Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice chair, said that “the Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded.”

“While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations,” the pair continued. “Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony.”

Witnesses who have testified before the panel have repeatedly mentioned Cipollone as someone who can shed light on key events inside the Trump White House leading up to, on and after January 6, 2021.
Not long after the rioters broke into the US Capitol, Cipollone rushed into then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ office demanding a meeting with Trump, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee this week.

“I remember Pat saying to him something to the effect of, ‘the rioters have gotten to the Capitol. We need to go down and see the President now,'” Hutchinson said in a videotaped interview.

“And Mark looked up at him and said, ‘He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,'” she said.

Cipollone, Hutchinson added, emphasized to Meadows the need for action to control the situation to Meadows. She said Cipollone “very clearly said this to Mark — something to the effect of, ‘Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood’s going to be on your f**king hands. This is getting out of control. I’m going down there.'”

Meadows then handed his phones to Hutchinson and walked out of his office with Cipollone, Hutchinson told the committee.

Cheney tweeted Wednesday before the subpoena was announced that “as we heard yesterday, WH counsel Pat Cipollone had significant concerns re. Trump’s Jan 6 activities. It’s time for Mr. Cipollone to testify on the record. Any concerns he has about the institutional interests of his prior office are outweighed by the need for his testimony.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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US

Former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson will testify before January 6 committee on Tuesday, sources say

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Her planned appearance was first reported by Punchbowl News.

Hutchinson has already been interviewed by the committee behind closed doors and video clips from her deposition have been featured by the panel during earlier hearings. But her live testimony would mark a significant moment in the committee’s series of hearings as Hutchinson has long been considered one of its most consequential witnesses due to her proximity to former President Donald Trump’s then-White House chief of staff.

The appearance was hastily arranged on a week where no public activity had been anticipated and a public hearing was announced by the committee just 24 hours before it was set to begin.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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