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The Jan. 6 House Select Committee released nearly 50 transcripts of witness testimony Friday.
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A transcript details the committee’s interview with Hope Hicks, a former Trump ally.
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“I just think he felt that…blaming him for everything that happened was not fair,” she said.
in a series of transcripts of witness statements released on Friday by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection, a transcript reveals that the former White House communications director Hope Hicks told the committee that former President Donald Trump felt the blame he received for the riots on Capitol Hill was unfair.
Once one of Trump’s closest alliesHicks, 34, voluntarily sat down for testimony from a witness, whose video was broadcast during the committee’s final hearing on Monday. She was one of the few people in Trump’s orbit who told him he lost the 2020 election, according to the transcript released Friday.
Hicks spoke to Trump on January 11, 2021, days after the deadly insurrection.
“He asked me if I thought he was really as bad as everyone made him believe. And my response was, yes, I thought it was,” the transcript says.
She added: “I think he felt it wasn’t fair, the response wasn’t fair.”
Hicks, who resigned from the White House on January 12, 2021He said he told Trump that he should change his approach and appear more “rational” to observers.
“And I was just telling him, I think, you know, the more rational you are and the more restrained you are, the more extreme everyone else is going to look, so things like banning you from social media I think will backfire, and that, you know. If you focus on the things that really matter to the people and not on the election, I think things will quickly get better for you, politically speaking,” Hicks told the committee.
She said Trump also asked her if she believed the election had been stolen, which she objected to.
“And then we just exchanged some, you know, pleasantries, and that was it,” he added.
“I think he felt like, you know, blaming him for everything that happened wasn’t fair,” Hicks continued.
The committee published a comprehensive report Thursday of his findings while investigating the riots at the Capitol and how Trump played a role in them. They too recommended to the Department of Justice that Trump faces criminal charges for his role in the insurrection.
Hicks was not immediately available for comment.
Read the original article at Business Insider