The chairman of the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol described the rioters as "domestic enemies of the Constitution," and promised that the evidence his panel has collected proves former President Donald Trump and his allies attempted a coup d'etat.

  • House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson began Thursday night's hearings on an intense note.
  • Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, recalled "dark history" of lynching and its echoes on Jan. 6, 2021.
  • He described rioters as "domestic enemies of the Constitution" and said Trump attempted a coup.

"Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy, and ultimately, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy," Rep. Bennie Thompson said at the start of Thursday night's prime-time hearings.

Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat in his 13th term, didn't mince words when describing the former president's liability to federal criminal prosecution too.

"Any legal jargon you hear about seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States boils down to this," he added. "January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt — as one rioter put it shortly after January 6 — to 'overthrow the government.' The violence was no accident. It represents Trump's last stand, the most desperate attempt to disrupt the transfer of power."

Thompson's opening statement also recalled his upbringing in the Magnolia State and the nation's history of white supremacist violence, specifically lynching.

"I'm from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching," Thompson said. "I'm reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrections on Jan. 6, 2021."

 

 

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