Jan. 6 takeaways: Ahead of election, warnings on democracy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is issuing a stark warning in its final public hearing before the midterm election: The future of the nation’s democracy is at stake.
The panel returned Thursday for an October hearing, weeks ahead of the election, with new details about President Donald Trump’s state of mind on Jan. 6, 2021 as he egged on his supporters with false claims of election fraud, pushed to accompany them to the Capitol while lawmakers were counting the votes and then did nothing for hours as they violently broke into the building.
Similar to its eight hearings over the summer, lawmakers on the panel focused on Trump and his efforts to disrupt the country’s long tradition of peaceful transfers of power. The panel was expected to subpoena the former president at the end of the hearing, according to two people familiar with the investigation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
The committee is set to shut down at the beginning of next year, and is making its final public arguments ahead of a report expected in December.
The former president “continued to pull out all the stops” even after losing in court and the Electoral College, said Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel’s chairman.
'CONSIDER WHETHER WE CAN SURVIVE'
The lesson of the committee’s investigation is that institutions only hold when people of good faith protect them without regard to political cost, said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chairwoman.
"Why would Americans assume that our Constitution and our institutions in our Republic are invulnerable to another attack? Why would we assume that those institutions will not falter next time?" Cheney asked.
The warnings come as Trump is still refusing to acknowledge that he lost his reelection to Joe Biden and...