Panel blames Trump for ‘attempted coup’
The hearings may not change views on the attack, but the probe is meant to stand as its public record
WASHINGTON: The House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol laid the blame firmly on former president Donald Trump on Thursday, saying the assault was an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Chaired by Democratic leader Bennie Thompson, with Republican leader Liz Cheney — a rare dissenter from the GOP who consistently opposed Trump’s unconstitutional moves and called out her own party colleagues for their stance — as the vice-chair, the committee hearings were broadcast live on prime time on Thursday night in the US.
With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump’s most inner circle, the 1/6 committee provided gripping detail in contending that
Trump’s repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden’s victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy
“Democracy remains in danger,” said Thompson, D-Miss during the hearing, timed for prime time to reach as many Americans as possible.
“Jan 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan 6, to overthrow the government,” Thompson said.
Ahead of the midterm elections in November, and with Trump considering another
White House run, the committee’s final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814, and to ensure such an attack never happens again.
Testimony showed on Thursday how Trump desperately clung to his own false claims of election fraud, beckoning supporters to the Capitol on January 6 when Congress would certify the results, despite those around him insisting Biden had won the election.
On Friday, President Joe Biden warned that the “forces” behind the deadly insurrection remain a threat to US democracy.
“It’s important the American people understand what truly happened, and to understand that the same forces that led to January 6 remain at work today,” he said during an address in Los Angeles.