WASHINGTON The House Jan. 6 Committee closed out its series of public hearings Thursday investigating Donald Trump s coup attempt by subpoenaing the former president himself, describing him the key player of that day.

We must seek the testimony, under oath, of Jan. 6s key player, Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, said shortly before the committee voted unanimously to demand that Trump sit for a deposition and turn over relevant documents.

We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers, so we act now to protect our Republic, Cheney said.

With Republicans likely to take over the House in January, it is unclear how the committee could enforce a subpoena, though, given GOP leader Kevin McCarthys loyalty to Trump.

About an hour after the hearing adjourned, Trump responded on his social media platform: Why didnt the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total BUST that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly - A laughing stock all over the World?

He also blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not anticipating the violence he would incite asking, Why didnt Crazy Nancy Pelosi call out the troops before January 6th, which I strongly recommended that she do and repeated his now-familiar lies about fraud in the election.

In the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, the seven Democrats and two Republicans on the committee mainly offered a recap of the material they first presented in the eight hearings in June and July but also revealed some new material.

Committee members showed, for example, that the former president planned before a single vote had been counted to simply declare victory in 2020, regardless of the outcome.

This plan to declare victory was in place before any of the votes had been counted, California Democrat Zoe Lofgren said, pointing to evidence collected from video of Trump adviser Roger Stone, testimony from former campaign manager Brad Parscale and a memo from Trump supporter Tom Fitton.

She also played audio from Trump adviser Steve Bannon from days before the election in which he boasted that Trump was simply going to declare that he won. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit, Bannon said.

It was intentional, it was premeditated, it was not based on any election results, Lofgren said. It was concocted in advance to convince his supporters that he won.

California Democrat Adam Schiff, meanwhile, detailed a string of emails the committee recently obtained from the Secret Service showing that the agency was aware of a flood of threats against members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence on social media that had resulted from Trumps lies about the election.

Schiff said that by the time of his Jan. 6 rally, Trump was fully aware of how angry his supporters were and that many of them had brought weapons to the capital that day. He knew they were armed and dangerous. All the better to stop the peaceful transfer of power.