ABC’s Jonathan Karl: January 6 Committee ‘Clearly’ Demonstrated Trump’s Conduct Was ‘A Betrayal of America’

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl said on Friday that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol “clearly” demonstrated during Thursday’s hearing that then-President Donald Trump’s conduct on that day was “a betrayal of America.”

Appearing on Good Morning America, Karl said the committee showed “a direct line from the words of Donald Trump to the murderous rage of the people that were hunting his own vice president down in this building [the Capitol].”

Karl went on to say the committee also “showed using the words of people in Trump’s inner-circle, that there was absolutely no legal basis for what Trump was demanding. It was frankly illegal.”

“Whether or not this ends up being criminal, crimes that are prosecuted by the Justice Department,” continued Karl, “I think what the committee did here was clearly show that what Trump did on that day and the days leading up to it was clearly a betrayal of America, a betrayal of American democracy.”

Thursday’s hearing focused on lawyer John Eastman and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani trying to devise a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election during the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory. The hearing revealed Pence was within 40 feet of the rioters, who called for Pence to be hanged.

Watch above, via ABC.