Insurrection Investigation, Con't

As both President Biden and Donald Trump line up dueling press events for January 6th on Friday, the investigation by the House continues, and it's clear that even Trump's own children pleaded with their father to stop the violence that he stoked that day nearly one year ago.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot has received “firsthand testimony” that President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, twice asked him to intervene, Rep. Liz Cheney said. Trump was watching the riot unfold on television while sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office at the time. “We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence,” Cheney, the vice chair of the committee and one of two Republican members on the panel, said on ABC’s This Week.

"The president could have at any moment, walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop," Rep. Liz Cheney says of former Pres. Trump's actions on Jan. 6. https://t.co/zo7wSq6hc1 pic.twitter.com/sUYg0wGKsi

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 2, 2022

As far as Cheney is concerned, Trump could have taken clear steps to make sure the violence didn’t get out of hand that day but he chose not to act. “We know, as you know well, that the briefing room at the White House is just a mere few steps from the Oval Office,” Cheney said. “The president could have at any moment, walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop.” Instead, Cheney said, Trump did nothing. “He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so,” Cheney added. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”

“The Republican Party has to make a choice. We can either be loyal to our Constitution or loyal to Donald Trump, but we cannot be both,” GOP Rep. Liz Cheney tells @GStephanopoulos. https://t.co/RhbkmuCrEO pic.twitter.com/B9OLaDxdY2

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 2, 2022

His failure to act shows Trump should never be allowed near the Oval Office again. “Any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office,” Cheney said. The way in which Trump refused to tell his supporters to stop the riot shows “he cannot be trusted,” she added. Republicans now have a choice to make. “We can either be loyal to our Constitution or loyal to Donald Trump, but we cannot be both,” Cheney said.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said on CNN that the panel had received “significant testimony” that the White House “had been told to do something” and ignored the pleas. “The only thing I can say, it’s highly unusual for anyone in charge of anything to watch what’s going on and do nothing,” Thompson said.

 

It is significant that a member of Trump's own party is saying that Trump himself is unfit to hold future office, even if it is 100% self-serving in Cheney's case.  It also happens to be 100% true.

We'll see where this week goes, but since the GOP is already trying to sweep the investigation under the rug, claiming that Americans simply don't care about the insurrection, and using that the rehabilitate their image, if we don't see federal changes soon, my prediction is they get away with it, and that's the end of things in 2022 and 2024.