Donald Trump and Mike Pence.Photo: Getty (2)
TheU.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021is meeting Tuesday to discuss, among other things, whether or not they will formally invite either former PresidentDonald Trumpor former Vice PresidentMike Penceto appear before them.
Sourcestell CNNthat, while the committee doesn’t expect that either man would agree to testify, they are eager to get the requests on the historic record.
So far, the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has held eight public hearings, which began on June 9 and have allfeatured new revelationsabout the events leading up to the attacks.
The committee has heard testimony fromJustice Department officialswho detailed Trump’s unrelenting pressure to find evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election,Capitol Police officerswho fought off Trump supporters andsome former White House staffers, who have detailed the former president’s alleged behavior in the hours leading up to the riots.
Among the most striking revelations came via a former aide to Mark Meadows (another of Trump’s chiefs of staff), who testified that Trump was aware his supporters were armed in D.C. on Jan. 6, and thathe lunged at his Secret Service detail in the carin an attempt to reach the Capitol that day.
The committee is expected to start up its public hearings this month, with a final report expected sometime in December.
Ina statementpublished hours before thedeadly riotat the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Pence explained he had no authority to try and overturn the votes — a move that angered Trump, who took to Twitter to say Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
As Pence’s statement was released, the vice president and congressional lawmakers began to gather to count Electoral College votes.
Trump’s supporters eventually overpowered Capitol officers that day, forcing their way into the building in a scene that eventually led to the deaths of four people as well as the evacuation of Congress and the vice president himself, who was whisked to an undisclosed location.
Footage showed that some of Trump’s supporters were chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they roamed the Capitol (a chant that Trump himselfallegedly endorsedwhile watching the footage on television).
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In aJanuary interview with Fox News, Pence said he hadn’t spoken to Trump since “last summer,” but that the two “parted amicably.”
source: people.com
