Jan. 6 Committee Releases Final Report
Released Thursday, the US House Jan. 6 Committee's 845-page final report — which begins with a chapter titled "The Big Lie," referencing Donald Trump's controversial claims that the 2020 election was stolen — focuses on the former president's alleged role in the Capitol riots.
Facts
- Released Thursday, the US House Jan. 6 Committee's 845-page final report — which begins with a chapter titled "The Big Lie," referencing Donald Trump's controversial claims that the 2020 election was stolen — focuses on the former president's alleged role in the Capitol riots.
- The report added new details regarding Trump's campaign efforts to allegedly appoint "fake electors" in key states, arguing that they were planning to deploy them whether Trump won certain states or not. The campaign claims they were put in place as a contingency in case states changed course and declared him the winner by the Dec. 14, 2021 deadline.
- It also claimed that the architect of the alleged "fake elector" plot was outside legal advisor to the Trump campaign, Kenneth Chesebro. The Committee wrote that he sent a memo to then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani referencing the "'President of the Senate' strategy," which reportedly falsely stated that VP Mike Pence could pick which electors to count during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.
- The Committee concluded that the Capitol riots should be labeled a "domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex," casting blame squarely on Trump for allegedly summoning the rioters to the building that day.
- In addition to referring Trump to the Dept. of Justice for criminal prosecution, the report included a recommendation to bar individuals identified in the report from ever seeking federal or state office again, citing the 14th Amendment's ban on insurrectionists
- The report was based on over 1k interviews and a collection of emails, texts, and phone records over 18 months.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, and New York Times.
Narratives
- Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by InfoWars. Democrats staged two baseless impeachment attempts while Trump was in office, and now they're trying to change the Constitution so that he and his supporters can't even campaign in the first place. What happened at the Capitol was a large, rowdy crowd with little security to quell violent outbursts — something we now know could have been prevented if Nancy Pelosi hadn't denied Trump's request to deploy the National Guard.
- Democratic narrative, as provided by Huffington Post. Though much of this report reiterated previously released information, the details provided put the final nail in the coffin for Trump and his election-denying coalition. Capitol authorities refused to deploy National Guard troops out of fear that Trump would use them to conduct a coup, which could very well have happened given the evidence of treasonous activity shown throughout these 800 pages.
- Republican narrative, as provided by The Spectator (UK). Jan. 6 may have been disgraceful, but inflation is soaring, working Americans are struggling, and the US is stumbling into diplomatic crises around the world. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to conduct political theater to try and distract from the enormous challenges faced by the nation. All this really does is highlight the hypocrisy of the left, who — in the case of BLM — not only failed to condemn but even encouraged violence, allowing protesters to get away with murder in the name of "justice."
