Stephen Ayres, an Ohio man who joined the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, was one of the key witnesses at Tuesday’s House Select Committee hearing, which focused on the role of right-wing extremist groups in the deadly insurrection.
Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, testified about the sway that former President Donald Trump had over the crowd that day.
“We basically were just following what he said,” Ayres said, adding: “I was hanging on every word he was saying.”
Ayres, who told the panel he lost his job and sold his home after the Jan. 6 insurrection, said he believed Trump would join the mob as they marched to the Capitol.
“I felt like I had like horse blinders on,” he testified. “I was locked in the whole time.”
“Take the blinders off, make sure you step back and see what’s going on before it’s too late,” he implored others. “It changed my life, and not for the good.”
After his testimony, Ayres was was seen on video approaching several individuals who served in law enforcement at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Ayers first approached U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, reportedly telling the officer he was “really sorry” through their hug.
Ayers, who testified that his life was ruined after heeding Trump’s call to march on the Capitol, was also seen shaking hands with former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, MPD officer Daniel Hodges and U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino A. Gonell.
He was also seen talking to Erin Smith, the widow of U.S. Capitol Police officer Jeffrey Smith, who died by suicide in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.
The officers had a range of responses to Ayres’ gesture.
After their interaction, Hodges – who was crushed by rioters in widely seen video shared by the committee – told USA Today he “asked [Ayers] if he was sorry and he said ‘yes,’ and I said ‘I hope so,’” adding: “That’s about all I can do right now [...] It’s odd to put a face to the faceless crowd.”
Hodges also told CNN he accepted the apology: “You have to believe that there are people out there who can change.”
On the other hand, Dunn, who did not stand up during their hug, said he didn’t accept Ayers’ apology.
Fanone told The Associated Press that “it doesn’t do s*** for me.”
Gonell had to “leave policing for good,” as Rep. Jamie Raskin described, due to injuries he sustained during the Capitol insurrection, said that while he appreciated the sentiment, Ayres “still has to answer for what he did legally, and to his God. So it’s up to him.”
Ayres told the House committee investigating the violence how he was influenced by Donald Trump’s statements on social media claiming the election was stolen, and had himself posted on Facebook and called for supporters of former President Trump to descend on Washington, D.C.
“For me personally, I was pretty hardcore into the social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I followed, President Trump on all the websites,” Ayres told the committee on Tuesday. “He basically put out, you know, come to Stop the Steal rally and I felt like I needed to be down here.”
When asked if Ayres believed, when he traveled to Washington in early 2021, whether the election was stolen, he responded: “At that time? Yeah. You know, everything that I was seeing online – I definitely believed that. That's exactly what was the case.”
In the year-plus since the insurrection, Ayres said he had deleted most social media accounts and began to do his own research. After seeing numerous lawsuits from the Trump White House be dismissed, Ayres said, he realized “there'd be no way to keep something like that quiet.”
Ayres repeatedly said he and his friends felt called to the Capitol by the president himself, and all believed Trump would march alongside them to the building, as he said in his speech earlier that day.
“Would it have made a difference to you to know that President Trump himself had no evidence of widespread fraud?” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., asked Ayers on Tuesday.
“Oh, definitely. You know, who knows? I may not have come down here, then,” he answered.
Ayres said he left the Capitol after Trump tweeted a video telling his supporters “it’s time to go home now,” telling the committee: “You know, to me, if he would have done that earlier in the day [...] maybe we wouldn't be in this bad of a situation or something.”
When asked how he feels that the former president still maintains the 2020 election was stolen, Ayers said: “It makes me mad because I was hanging on every word he was saying […] I mean, if I was doing it, hundreds of thousands or millions of other people were doing it or maybe even still doing it.”
“You got people still following [Trump] who knows what, the next election could come out, you know, they could end up being down the same path we are right now,” he added.