The evidence implicating former President Donald Trump in last year’s violence at the Capitol is not legitimately debatable, and in a series of tweets on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack this Thursday, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot laid out a selection of the facts. The panel touched on key points, including that Trump’s incitement of the crowd that descended upon the Capitol grounds was by no means limited to the speech that he gave at an outdoor rally in D.C. shortly before the violence broke out. (He spent months pushing the lie that the election had been rigged, claiming that urgent action needed to be taken.) As the riot investigation committee put it in a tweet:
‘On January 6th, 2021, our democracy was on the brink of catastrophe. The American people witnessed a violent attempt to overturn an election that came perilously close to succeeding. Today, we highlight some of the events that threatened the peaceful transfer of power.’
🧵 On January 6th, 2021, our democracy was on the brink of catastrophe. The American people witnessed a violent attempt to overturn an election that came perilously close to succeeding.
Today, we highlight some of the events that threatened the peaceful transfer of power.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) January 6, 2022
You can find their full thread at this link. It recounts occurrences like Trump’s issuances of public statements via Twitter, egging things on, and his delivery of a speech at that D.C. rally that immediately preceded the violence. In that speech, he said: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore… we’re going to the Capitol… we’re going to try and give our Republicans — the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help — we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” The crowd was listening.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tells CNN that during the attack on the Capitol, Trump was "gleefully" watching the riot from the White House dining room.
She said he kept hitting rewind and saying, "Look at all those people fighting for me."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 6, 2022
The push to hold Trump personally accountable for the violence has grown as time has gone on, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the riot committee, recently confirmed once again that the possibility of recommending Trump to the Justice Department for prosecution is under consideration by the committee. As she explained: “We know that efforts to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress certainly would carry with it criminal penalties. But determinations about criminal referrals haven’t been made yet. That’s certainly a question that we’re asking and an area that we’re looking at.”
Biden, leaving the Capitol, tells the press of his remarks about Trump: "The way you have to heal is you have to recognize the extent of the wound."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 6, 2022
