Jan. 6 committee holds second hearing

Witness Chris Stirewalt, a former digital politics editor for Fox, discussed the "controversial" decision to call the state of Arizona for Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.

Stirewalt claimed that his team had "a different set of data than our competitors," which included more research and a "better system" that allowed them to make the call.

Stirewalt said that his team "knew it would be a consequential call" because Arizona was one of the states "that mattered." He added that their team "knew Trump's chances were very small and getting smaller based on what we had seen."

"We were able to make the call early. We were able to beat the competition," Stirewalt said, adding that while other outlets were "freaking out and losing their mind" they made the call on Arizona, and then the Fox team moved on to looking at other states' results.

Asked if as of Nov. 7, 2020 — in his judgment — what were the chances of President Trump winning the election, Stirewalt said, "none."

Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox digital politics editor, is testifying now before the House Jan. 6 committee.

Fox fired Stirewalt in January 2021 after the right-wing backlash to the network after — correctly — calling Arizona for now-President Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.

Stirewalt wrote in a Los Angeles Times piece after his firing that the refusal to believe the election results among many of former President Donald Trump's supporters was a "tragic consequence of the informational malnourishment so badly afflicting the nation."

Stirewalt said during an appearance on NewsNation on Friday, where he is now employed as political editor, that he had "been called to testify before this committee and will do so on Monday."

During the NewsNation interview, Stirewalt said, "I am not in a position now to tell you what my testimony will be about." He continued: "I was asked to testify and I got to go."

He criticized both parties for politicizing the Jan. 6 investigation, adding, "These two parties have screwed it up from pen to post."

Before today's testimony, Stirewalt published an opinion piece explaining why he is testifying today.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California and Jan. 6 committee member, said in her opening statement that the committee would demonstrate the 2020 election was not stolen, adding, that the Trump campaign's "big lie was also a big rip-off." 

Lofgren continued: "We'll also show that the Trump campaign used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were told their donations were for the legal fight in the courts but the Trump campaign didn't use the money for that. The big lie was also a big rip-off."

Eric Herschmann, a lawyer who worked in the Trump White House, told the committee he never believed conspiracy theories that election contractor Dominion Voting Systems had switched votes. 

"His view was shared by many of the Trump team whom we interviewed," Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney said. Cheney also quoted former Attorney General Bill Barr, who called the Dominion accusations "complete nonsense." 

Accusations about Dominion became a key part of the Trump campaign's efforts in court to sow doubt in Joe Biden's win in late 2020.  

The committee is highlighting on Monday how Donald Trump and his close advisers knew their accusations of widespread fraud were false, yet continued to spread disinformation. Trump and his team also used the false claims of voter fraud to raise campaign funds after the election.  

Several Trump allies — including lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — falsely claimed that Dominion took part in a plot to rig the 2020 election, and spread the idea that voting software was used to swing an election in Venezuela. That was not true, and Dominion has sued Giuliani, Powell and several others for defamation, seeking billions of dollars in damages.

The lawsuits are ongoing. 

Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California and member of the Jan. 6 committee, is speaking now in the hearing.

According to panel aides, Lofgren will play a "key role" in the committee's presentation today, but the hearing will technically still be led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.

Lofgren served as an impeachment manager in the first impeachment trial against Trump. Lofgren is also chair of the Committee on House Administration. Lofgren was first elected to Congress in 1994. She also served as a staffer on Capitol Hill for eight years.

Lofgren has a background as an immigration lawyer and has made reforming immigration law a key part of her portfolio as a member of Congress. She also represents a big part of the Silicon Valley and as a result has had a heavy focus on tech related issues.

She is a long-time ally and friend to Pelosi. The duo has served in the California Congressional delegation together for close to three decades and both represent different parts of the bay area in Northern California.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Jan. 6 select committee, opened today's hearing by stating that when former President Donald Trump "didn't have the numbers" to win the 2020 presidential election he "decided to wage an attack on our democracy."

Thompson said that Trump "tried to remain in office after the people had voted him out, and the courts upheld the will of the people." 

The Jan. 6 select committee said Monday that it has evidence showing how then-President Donald Trump cast aside his legal team when they told him that he lost the 2020 election, and replaced them with conspiracy-pushing advisers like Rudy Giuliani. 

“Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night, and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani, to just claim that he won,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairwoman of the committee, said in her opening statements. 

Cheney didn’t initially disclose why the committee believes that Giuliani was drunk, though the panel later played a clip from Trump spokesman Jason Miller, whose said in his deposition that “the mayor was definitely intoxicated” at the White House on election night.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a deposition clip, which was played Monday, that Trump “was growing increasingly unhappy with his team” after the election, which “paved the way” for Giuliani to take the reins of the campaign’s legal strategy.

After key states were called for then-candidate Joe Biden, Giuliani and his allies pushed a wide array of debunked theories about massive voter fraud in 2020, and occasionally clashed with the more professional members of Trump’s legal apparatus who knew that the results were legitimate. 

Giuliani has denied any wrongdoing related to the efforts to overturn the election.

This post has been updated.

The House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has begun its second public hearing of the month.

House select committee aides said the hearing would scrutinize how Trump embraced false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and how he decided to declare victory in the hours after the election, even though he was told that the numbers didn't bear it out.

Here's who is testifying in today's hearing:

Ex-Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien will no longer testify "due to a family emergency."

A source told CNN that Stepien's wife is in labor, which is why the committee has released him from his subpoena for the day. The committee has been prepared for such contingencies and has at its disposal deposition video clips from Stepien’s earlier testimony, according to a source.

Read more about today's hearing here.

CNN's Manu Raju contributed reporting to this post.

Georgia investigators looking into potential criminality around then-President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state are keeping an eye on the Jan. 6 hearings for anything relevant to their case, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Investigators from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office have already met with staffers from the Jan. 6 select committee to discuss overlap between their investigations. But the committee’s hearings could help shed light on Trump’s motivation and state of mind at the time as he continued to press Georgia officials to upend the results showing Joe Biden won the state.

Over the next two weeks, the congressional committee is slated to hear public testimony from three relevant witnesses in the Georgia probe. Byung “BJay” Pak, a former Atlanta-area US attorney, resigned as Trump was pushing baseless election fraud claims is set to testify today. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump pressed to “find” the votes needed to overturn Georgia’ results is expected to testify next week along with his deputy, Gabe Sterling.

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, said, “All relevant evidence will be considered, whether gathered by us or another investigative body.”