Jan. 6 committee has proof that members of congress communicated with White House during insurrection
As the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol violence of Jan. 6, 2021 and former President Donald Trump’s role in it wraps up their public hearings, it’s worth noting that as far back as early summer, Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, said that the panel had evidence of contacts between House members and rioters on that day of violence and insurrection.
Rep. Bernie Thompson speaks to NBC’s Meet The Press host Chuck Todd, screenshot via YouTube.com
Thompson told NBC’s Chuck Todd back in June that “We have a lot of information about communication with individuals who came.”
He continued:
“Now, ‘assisted’ means different things. Some took pictures with people who came to the ‘Stop the Steal‘ rally. Some, you know, allowed them to come and associate in their offices and other things during that whole rally week. So, there’s some participation. We don’t have any real knowledge that I’m aware of of people giving tours. We heard a lot of that, but we’re still, to be honest with you, reviewing a lot of the film that the House administration and others have provided the committee.“
“It’s about 187 minutes,” he continued, referring to then President Donald Trump’s actions that day. “We have now determined he was in the White House. We’ve determined that a number of people made attempts to contact him through his chief of staff.“\
January 6 Capitol Riots via Flickr / Tyler Merbler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Thompson continued:
“The president was told, ‘You need to say directly to your people to go home, leave the Capitol.‘ And so it took over 187 minutes to make that simple statement. Something’s wrong with that.“
Controversial Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, right after the violence, was facing major criticism and calls for her resignation for her actions, which include tweeting out the secure location that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was taken to for safety during the riot.
Boebert dismissed accusations that she endangered Pelosi’s life and stated that her tweets were not even noteworthy:
“[Democrats] accuse me of live-tweeting the Speaker’s presence after she had been safely removed from the Capitol as if I was revealing some big secret, when in fact this removal was also being broadcast on TV.”
via Twitter
Democratic Senator Brian Schatz stated in response to Boebert’s tweets that members of congress “were specifically instructed by those protecting us not to tell anyone, including our family, where exactly we were, for reasons that remain obvious.”
