Breakdown of testimony from the second Jan. 6 committee hearing

[0:00] We are going to begin in Washington for the second public January 6th hearing. [0:05] Testimony today focused on the so-called big lie in which former President Trump [0:09] repeatedly asserted that the 2020 election was stolen. [0:12] The hearing was delayed after the committee learned former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien [0:17] would not testify today as planned. His wife is in labor. [0:22] As a backup plan, the committee aired clips of a deposition that Stepien had given prior. [0:26] The committee did hear in-person testimony from former Fox News political director Chris Steierwald. [0:33] Now, Chris was let go by Fox shortly after the 2020 election, during which, in his coverage, [0:39] his team correctly called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden and called it before the other networks did, [0:45] angering the president. Since being let go, Steierwald has said Fox News contributed to people [0:51] believing that the election was in fact stolen. Today's hearing is one of three scheduled this [0:57] week alone. Joining us now is CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey Burns to continue the [1:03] conversation. Caitlin, just big picture takeaways. You were watching it this morning into the afternoon [1:09] with the rest of us. What did we hear that was new? What did we hear that could make a difference [1:14] in terms of public perception and recollections about January 6th? [1:18] Well, Tony, it was really fascinating because we essentially heard an oral history of election [1:25] night as it unfolded from the perspective of those closest to then-President Trump, his campaign [1:32] manager and his closest campaign advisers, as well as his daughter and son-in-law around the president. [1:40] We heard that his campaign manager and advisers and attorneys were all telling him the truth [1:48] about how the election was unfolding. They were telling him the truth in the weeks after the [1:54] election, and they admitted to him that the election was—that they were not successful in [2:02] this election. And what you had was, of course, the president refusing to accept that reality, [2:08] refusing to accept those results, and going forward with these false claims of election fraud. [2:15] Now, what's stunning here, and what I think is important to note, is that all of these people [2:22] testifying today—his campaign manager, advisers, attorneys, the former attorney general, Bill [2:28] Barr—they all had ample time over the past year and a half to say all of this publicly. They had [2:35] ample opportunity to say all of this frequently, to make these points repeatedly, that the president [2:42] was spewing false claims. Because remember, not only did the president continue to raise [2:48] money off of these lies, you know, and the committee is trying to show that he incited an insurrection [2:55] off of these lies, but this is important because this is continuing today. You have candidates [3:01] running for federal and local offices who are saying that they believe the president's false [3:07] claims about the election. And the important thing about that is that some of those people, [3:12] if elected, could have jurisdiction over elections. The Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania [3:22] is a top election denier, someone who championed these very things, who was at the insurrection. [3:27] He would be in charge as governor of Pennsylvania, if elected, of appointing the secretary of state, [3:33] who oversees elections. So, the bigger takeaway, I think, from these hearings is, yes, it's giving [3:39] us a full accounting of what happened on January 6th and everything leading up to it. But it's important [3:44] to look at the bigger picture here, that this is something that is actually continuing on. And there's a [3:49] segment of the Republican Party that is not only campaigning on this, but, you know, could be in positions of [3:56] power to continue this. So, Caitlin, as you mentioned, these are all President Trump's closest advisors, [4:04] people who are in these top positions, and among them, Attorney General Bill Barr. Tell us how [4:10] consequential his testimony was. You mentioned he could have said something before now. And what we [4:16] heard from him today really stands in stark contrast to the message that we received from former President [4:21] President Trump. That's exactly right, Lana. And yes, this testimony that he provided to the [4:26] committee is really important, because it's essentially him, you know, telling the president [4:32] over and over again that there is just no evidence for all of these baseless claims of fraud. And it was [4:37] really striking to hear some of these outrageous claims being made. And the president was hearing them, [4:43] taking an audience with people that were putting them forward. And he was listening to them and [4:49] promoting them. But what's significant about Barr, I went back to my reporting before the election, [4:55] because I did a lot of reporting, talking to election officials, talking to election experts [5:00] about these claims that the president had been making before the election, that there would be [5:04] widespread fraud. And I went back to a story that my colleague Adam Brewster and I reported about [5:10] Bill Barr himself promoting some of these false claims about the instance of widespread fraud before [5:17] the election. He was saying without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. He [5:24] said that on a couple of occasions, on Fox News and in an interview with The New York Times. And we talked [5:29] to election experts at the time that essentially said that that is just not true. So it's important [5:34] to note that while what Barr is saying in this testimony is really critical, he did have opportunities [5:41] to say all of this publicly. And there were instances in which he contributed to questions [5:47] about the integrity of the election. Now, he resigned, of course, in December of 2020. [5:54] But he then wrote a book and talked about a lot of this in the book. But that wasn't until, I believe, [6:00] March or so of the following year, where he started to publicly talk about this. So, [6:06] I just think that's important to kind of lay out that you had people around the president that could [6:12] have helped the public understand a lot of this and didn't. And that's how you have a segment. You know, [6:21] our polling shows that a vast majority of Republicans believe the election was rigged, [6:26] which, of course, we don't have evidence of. [6:27] Katelyn Huey Burns, very much attached to reality this morning, in contrast to Bill Barr's description of [6:33] his former boss, President Trump. Very astute observations, a recap of the morning's testimony [6:39] and what it means for the present and also the future. Thank you very much. [6:43] Thank you.