Facts: The attack on the US Congress
On January 6, 2021, US congressmen gathered in the Congress building, called the Capitol, to count the electoral votes of the presidential election and formally nominate Democrat Joe Biden as the election winner and the next president.
In Washington DC, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump attended a political rally at the same time. At the meeting, Trump reiterated his claims of systematic electoral fraud and urged his supporters to go to Congress: “If you do not fight hell, you will not have a country anymore,” he said.
Many did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the Capitol and clashed with police.
Five people, including a police officer, lost their lives in the attack.
When supporters of Donald Trump broke into the US Congress building to stop the nomination of election winner Joe Biden as US president, Trump did “nothing” to stop the unrest. This is what Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman and member of the committee investigating the storm on January 6, 2021, told the television channel NBC. Kinzinger will lead Thursday’s hearing, which airs at prime time in the United States.
Kinzinger says Trump “did little more than watch television” while his supporters broke into the Capitol and forced members of Congress to flee. The information is based on new testimonies, including from Matthew Pottinger who served in Trump’s National Security Council but resigned after the storming of Congress, according to sources to CNN. Sarah Matthews, who served as press secretary in the White House before resigning, is also expected to appear, according to CNN.
– We have filled in the gaps, says Kinzinger.
187 minutes
Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, has called on his party colleagues to watch Thursday’s hearing and ask if Trump “really is the strong leader you think you deserve.”
The hearing revolves around the 187 minutes that passed from the start of the riot until Trump just over three hours later, at 4.17 pm, tweeted out a video in which he asked his supporters to leave the congress building.
During that time, supporters attacked Congress, while several of Trump’s advisers tried to persuade him to stop the riot.
“Did not call the military”
“You will hear that Trump never picked up the phone that day to order the government to help,” Liz Cheney, a Republican congressman and member of the Jan. 6 committee, told ABC News.
– He did not call the military, the Minister of Defense did not receive an order and he did not call his Minister of Justice, says Liz Cheney, and continues:
– He did not talk to the Ministry of Internal Security. Vice President Mike Pence did all this.
Previous hearings have focused on Trump’s attempts to pressure the Vice President, the Department of Justice and state officials to repeal the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. But so far, the committee has not delved into Trump’s actions during the riot.
There may be more interrogations
The hearing on Thursday night US time is the eighth and last for this time, but according to the committee, more may come later this year.
“If we get information that the American people need to know, it could be a question of more hearings,” Adam Kinzinger told NBC.
Trump’s former chief adviser Steve Bannon has been called to testify. He initially refused but recently changed his mind. There is a lawsuit against him for what is called “congressional defiance”, a kind of equivalent to court defiance. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Thursday’s hearing will begin at 8 pm local time in Washington, ie at 2 am on Friday morning in Sweden.