Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, said Sunday that the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots “will show” that Donald Trump did not reach out to deploy the National Guard during the attack, claiming that the former president “joyfully” watched television instead.
In the first prime-time televised hearing of the committee’s findings Thursday, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, said Trump did not ask the Pentagon or the Justice Department to intervene to protect the federal legislative branch of government last year. past.
“President Trump not only refused to tell the crowd to leave the Capitol, but he did not call any element of the United States government to instruct the Capitol to be defended,” he said during the hearing.
“He did not call his secretary of defense on January 6. He didn’t talk to the attorney general about him. He did not speak to the Department of Homeland Security,” the Republican lawmaker continued. “President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day. And he made no effort to work with the Justice Department to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets.”
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Kinzinger, the only other Republican member of the investigative committee, was asked about Cheney’s comment during an interview on CBS News. Take on the Nation. The presenter noted that Trump disputes the accusation.
“I think it’s very obvious that the president did nothing but gleefully watch television while this was going on,” said Kinzinger, who has become one of Trump’s harshest critics on the right. “He can say whatever he wants. The real leader, the only person in charge who made those calls was Mike Pence. And we will prove it.”
The committee used video testimony from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to support its claim that Trump did not order the deployment of the National Guard. In that clip, Milley said the then-vice president told Defense Department leaders to “bring the Guard in here, end this situation.” The general explained that, by contrast, Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was only concerned with controlling the narrative.
Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, appeared to endorse Milley’s testimony in an interview Thursday night with Fox Business after the televised hearing.
“The first calls from the vice president were to [GOP House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy, [GOP Senate] Leader [Mitch] McConnell, [Democratic House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and [Democratic Senate] Leader [Chucks] Schumer, to make sure they were safe and that their duties were fine. He, encouraged by them, approached the Pentagon to ensure that additional reinforcements were sent, “explained Pence’s aide.
Asked if Pence spoke to Trump as the riots were going on, Short said his boss didn’t think it was “constructive” to do so at the time.
“I think the president’s views were pretty clear at the time. I’m not sure the vice president felt it would be constructive to engage in that conversation, his approach was to work with the people on Capitol Hill to get the job done.” he said.
Trump rejected evidence presented at Thursday’s hearing, double down on his discredited claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent. “The so-called ‘Rush on the Capitol’ was not caused by me, it was caused by a rigged and stolen election!” he wrote to his TruthSocial account on Friday morning.
Despite Trump’s claims, no evidence has emerged to substantiate allegations of widespread voter fraud that led to Biden’s electoral victory. To the contrary, more than 60 legal challenges to the election brought by Trump and his allies have failed in state and federal courts. Even judges appointed by the former president have ruled against the lawsuits.
Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, considered one of the most loyal members of his cabinet, has repeatedly said there is “no evidence” to support claims of fraud. He wrote in his memoir that he told Trump directly that the allegations were “nonsense” and that his legal team after the 2020 election was a “clown show.”
The House select committee on Thursday showed a video of Barr’s testimony to investigators in which he made similar comments. The former Trump administration official claimed again in the clip that the claims about voter fraud were “bullish.”
“Frankly, a year and a half later, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind about it,” Barr said.
Kinzinger, along with Cheney and eight other House Republicans, voted with all House Democrats to impeach Trump for inciting his supporters to carry out the January 6 violence. Four of those Republican lawmakers, including Kinzinger, are not seeking re-election. Cheney will face a Trump-backed opponent in what is expected to be a tough primary in August.
news week contacted Trump’s press office for comment.
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