Donald Trump opened the floodgates “disorder and corruption” and must be held legally responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the chairman of the House Inquiry into the assault on the Capitol said Thursday, July 21.
Former Republican President “tried to destroy our democratic institutions”asserted Bennie Thompson during a prime time hearing, which completes a series of public presentations of the work of his commission. “He paved the way for disorder and corruption”, continued the elected Democrat who, sick with Covid-19, intervened by videoconference. For him, all those responsible for the attack, including at the White House, will have to “answer for their actions before the courts”. “It will take severe consequences, otherwise I fear that our democracy will not recover. »
Two members of the commission then presented the day of January 6, 2021 as experienced “minute by minute” by Donald Trump, whom they accused of having “failed in his duty” of commander-in-chief, by not doing ” nothing “ to prevent his supporters from wreaking havoc on the Capitol. Yet it was he who had summoned them to Washington, the day the parliamentarians were to certify the victory of his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the presidential election. Around noon, in a fiery speech in the heart of the capital, he had asked them to “fight like the devils” against supposed “massive electoral fraud”.
He then returned to the White House, while the crowd launched an assault on the temple of American democracy. He had taken more than three hours before calling on his supporters to leave the premises. “I know your painhe finally told them in a video posted on Twitter. But we have to go home now. »
Trump relatives ‘begged him to intervene’
Thursday’s hearing before the committee of the House of Representatives returned to what happened between these two speeches.
Entrenched in the private dining room of the White House, Donald Trump followed the attack on television “while his close advisers and family members begged him to intervene”, described the elected Democrat Elaine Luria. But “President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power”she added.
In a video clip of his deposition, ex-White House legal adviser Pat Cipollone confirmed he said around 2 p.m. “very clear that we needed an immediate and clear public statement calling on people to leave the Capitol”.
As for the federal police, that of Washington, the army, the national guards, President Trump “did not call them to give orders, nor to offer help”to Capitol officials overwhelmed by the crowd, said Elaine Luria.
” Insufficient “
“The president did not make a mistake by not acting for 187 minutes (…) he chose not to act”struck Adam Kinzinger, one of the two elected Republicans who agreed to participate in the work of the commission and since repudiated by their party.
Worse, at 2:24 p.m. he sent a tweet criticizing his Vice President Mike Pence for not wanting to block the certification of the election results, fueling the grievances of the rioters, the lawmakers noted.
Within the next two hours, he sent two more tweets merely calling out the crowd “to remain peaceful”. Then deputy White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews reported that he agreed to send the message only after his own daughter Ivanka intervened. “It was insufficient”, “We were hoping for something less ambiguous”reported Matthew Pottinger, then deputy national security adviser, also called as a witness Thursday evening.
And when he finally shot a video to call on his supporters to leave the Capitol, he did not respect the text written by his advisers. “I know your pain”he had chosen to say, presenting himself again as a victim of an election “volley”.
“No one is above the law”
This public session is the eighth in six weeks and the second broadcast in prime time throughout the country. The previous ones have focused, among other things, on the role of the far right in the assault or on the pressure exerted on electoral agents by Donald Trump and his relatives.
The “commission of January 6” will then withdraw from public scrutiny to work on its final report, which will be delivered in the fall. But she will continue to collect testimonies and documents and new hearings will take place in September, according to Bennie Thompson.
Whatever his recommendations, the decision to prosecute Donald Trump will rest with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who does not rule it out. “No one is above the law”he repeated on Wednesday.
Donald Trump, who openly flirts with the idea of running for president in 2024, vehemently denounces the work of the commission.