Capitol Riot hearing: House panel blames Donald Trump for Jan 6 riots

The House panel which is investigating the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has firmly laid the blame on former President Donald Trump. On Thursday night, the panel said the assault was in no way “spontaneous” but rather an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the former president’s last efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election that had resulted in his defeat.

The Panel’s statements

Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chairperson of the committee, said Trump had “lit the flame of this attack”. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said the “riot endangered American democracy”.

The 1/6 committee provided details 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”. The statement by committee came in after watching never-before-seen 12-minute video of Trump’s followers’ extremist groups that led the deadly siege on Capitol Hill and after hearing to the startling testimony from most inner circle of Trump.

“Democracy remains in danger,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democrat Mississippi, chairman of the panel. “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. “The violence was no accident.”

Former US Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony was also aired in which he said Trump’s allegations over stolen election were completely baseless. “We can’t live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election,” said the former attorney general.

Testimony on Thursday ruled how Trump was quite desperately stuck to his own false claims over the elections being fraud, summoning his supporters to the Capitol on January 6 when Congress was supposed to certify the results.

“President Trump summoned a violent mob,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming. “When a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union — or worse, causes a constitutional crisis — we’re in a moment of maximum danger for our republic.”

The congressional committee that is leading the Capitol Riot hearing is led by Democrats. The panel was formed by them after Republicans blocked all attempts for setting up a full independent inquiry. Only two Republicans – anti-Trump Reps Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney – are taking part in the committee hearing.