This week will mark the one year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. On January 6th, 2021, at the urging of the former president, a mob descended on the heart of the American democracy. Many of the Trump supporters were intent on stopping the certification of the election. But, twelve months later, with hundreds of those rioters charged or jailed, the bigger question is what Donald Trump could have done to stop it, and why he took more than three hours for him to call off his supporters. That’s the question before the Select Committee investigating the insurrection and attempted coup.
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the committee, spoke on Sunday of Trump’s inaction.
“The president could have at any moment, walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop.” Instead, Cheney said, Trump did nothing. “He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so,” Cheney added. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”
“We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”
Rep. Liz Cheney on ABC
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said he has evidence that the White House was told to “do something” but ignored the pleas.
The committee will be in the spotlight this week as Congress and President Biden mark the anniversary of the insurrrection on Thursday. The New York Times writes:
The committee, aiming to release a final report before the November midterm elections, is planning for a more public stage of its investigation in the coming weeks as lawmakers work to trace the planning of the attack and expand the scope of the investigation. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and a member of the panel, said on Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that public hearings could begin “in a matter of weeks, if not a couple of months from now.”
But as the inquiry continues, the first anniversary will draw even more attention as lawmakers, staff members, Capitol employees and journalists commemorate the day. Both Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to give speeches marking the anniversary.
And the biggest question is whether Donald Trump will be charged with a crime. The committee could make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.