The storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was “the outcome of a coup attempt” by Donald Trump. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson said at the start of the first public hearing of the parliamentary committee investigating the riots. “The violence was not an accident,” said Thompson, who chairs the committee, but “Donald Trump’s latest attempt to survive.”
Trump contested the results of the elections he lost in 60 lawsuits and lost them all. “He lost in the courts, just like he did in the voting booths,” Thompson said. For ordinary Americans it ends there, but “for Donald Trump it started there”.
The commission’s first public hearing began Thursday at 8 p.m. local time and will be broadcast live by major news channels. The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, chose the time to get the attention of as many Americans as possible. More hearings will be held in the coming weeks, where witnesses will be heard and investigative results presented.
Four people were killed in the storming of the Capitol on the day itself, one of whom was shot and killed by police. Four police officers involved in the defense of the complex later committed suicide. More than a hundred people were injured.