The ginger mints show how Donald Trump's desperation and lies became a threat to democracy.
Even as the Justice Department presses ahead with a parallel criminal investigation that it calls the most important in its history, Mints is featured in an absurdist but toxic episode.
A dark sea of conspiracy theories was born here.
A mother and daughter shared a treat at an elections center. A person videotaped them and thought the mint the mother gave to the daughter was ausb port. The accusation that the video caught the women using the device was spread by Trump's lawyer.
Trump lied in order to stay in power. The committee was told that he attacked the mother by name, branded her a "professional vote scam", and that a group of people showed up at the family home to arrest her. For the pleasure of eating mints.
In a Georgia summer, the show fed into a web of fabricated stories. The hearings showed how those stories fueled the anger of Trump's supporters across the U.S.
Scenes of the rampage had been burning into the public consciousness long before the committee called its first witness. There could be new information coming from it. It turned out to be quite a lot. More evidence is being gathered as the inquiry continues.
With seven Democrats working with two Republicans on the outs with their party, the committee established a coherent story out of the chaos instead of two partisan ones clawing at each other.
The lead manager of the second impeachment of Trump said of American carnage. It is Donald Trump's true legacy.
The extent to which Trump's inner circle knew his case was fake was exposed by the panel. People told him that to his face.
The hearings made it clear that Trump was willing to watch the legislative branch of government and democratic processes in state after state consumed in the bonfire of his ego.
He was told that the rioters were going to hang his vice president. He believed that he deserved to be executed.
Many of Trump's supporters were told that day had weapons. He didn't say he cared.
He said that they weren't here to hurt him.
As Trump contemplated an executive order to seize voting machines and other steps that democracies don't take, the committee identified a range of criminal options that were floated in the White House.
Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, said that the federal government wouldn't be able to take election machines. We have to tell you why that is a bad idea.
Republican-led states gave Trump more votes to win the election. When asked to certify the election, hectored Pence to do what he did not have the power to do.
Trump encouraged his supporters to march down to the Capitol, saying he would be with them.
Conservative aides, bureaucrats and loyalists in the states that mattered were able to foil Trump's plan.
When Trump asked his vice president to stop the certification, he said no.
The election official in Georgia refused to cook the results. The speaker of the Arizona legislature invoked his oath and said no.
The two Justice Department leaders said no to him. Justice officials told him in the Oval Office that they would quit if he appointed a third who was not compliant.
A lot of that left the president with an incompetent group of people. There is a person selling pillows.
Rudy Giuliani told the Arizona House speaker there were many theories. We don't have the proof.
The criminal investigation of the matter is the most important thing the Justice Department has ever done.
There are a number of potential crimes for which the ex-president might be tried. A person is corruptly obstructing a proceeding. There was a conspiracy to cause a riot in the U.S. There is even a seditious conspiracy.
It's easier to talk about these crimes than it is to prove them.
As the hearings unfolded, Democrats found themselves standing in admiration, if not awe, for the deeply conservative Rep. Liz Cheney, the poker-faced Republican on the committee who made clear her icy disdain for Trump and the many Republicans in Congress who appear to remain in thr
She didn't like the argument that Trump was manipulated by outside people.
She said that the president is 76 years old. He is not like other children. He is responsible for his actions and choices.
Facing a Trump-backed primary opponent in August, her congressional seat in deep-red Wyoming in danger, she framed the stakes for fellow Republican lawmakers at the first hearing.
That's right.
The Associated Press writer contributed.
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