Commission: Capitol attack was an “attempted coup”

The chair of the House committee investigating the January 6 rebellion in the US Capitol and Donald Trump’s attempt to cancel the 2020 election told Thursday’s hearing that the attack was a “coup attempt” that put “two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk…”

Representative Benny Thompson said “the world is watching” the United States’ response to the committee’s investigation into the attack on Capitol Hill and the president’s defeated attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. He described it as a “blatant attempt” to cancel the elections.

“Democracy is still in danger,” Thompson said. “We must face the truth with frankness, determination and determination.”

The commission provided an unprecedented video and other evidence, intended to show the “heartbreaking story” of that day and also the horrific backdrop in which Trump, the defeated president, attempted to reverse Biden’s electoral victory.

In a video, the committee played a comment from former Attorney General William Barr, who testified that he told Trump that the fraudulent election allegations were “nonsense.”

In another case, the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified before the committee that she respected Barr’s view that there was no vote fraud. “I accepted what he said.”

The aim of Thursday’s session was to make it clear that the violent events of January 6th were not accidental. Instead, the commission said, it was the result of Trump’s repeated lies about voter fraud and his public urging of his supporters to come to Washington, as well as his own campaign at the highest levels of government to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral victory.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Friking, Michael Balsamo, and Alana Dworkin-Reacher in Boston contributed to this report.