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| Photo Credit: AP |
A US Congressional Inquiry has accused former US President Donald Trump of “attempted coup” over his role in orchestrating the 2020 deadly Capitol riot in his failed bid to hold onto power despite losing the elections. This followed a hearing opened into January 6 violence at the Capitol.
Liz Cheney, a Republican who is a fierce critic of the former President said Trump had "lit the flame of
this attack”, following his speech to his army of supporters charging them to be heroes and to make their voices heard at the US Capitol.Mr. Trump’s supporters besieged Congress on the 6th
day of January 2021 just as lawmakers were meeting to certify Joe Biden’s
election victory.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives select
committee led by the Democrats began showing clips from interviews it had
conducted with members of the former President’s inner circle.
A former US Attorney General Bill Barr said he had
repeatedly told Mr. Trump that he had lost the election and his claims of
widespread voter fraud were baseless, according to footage from the clips.
"We can't live in a world where the incumbent
administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific
evidence, that there was fraud in the election," said the former attorney
general.
The former President’s daughter Ivanka Trump also aired her
concerns saying she “accepted” Mr. Barr’s rejection of Mr. Trump’s conspiracy
theory.
Ms Cheney also read an account that claimed Mr. Trump when
told the rioters were chanting for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged for
refusing to block the election results suggested that he “deserves it”.
President Trump earlier dismissed the January 6 hearing just
before the opening of the inquiry as a “political HOAX”.
Majority of Republicans have so far refused to give their
full support to the hearing and had blocked earlier attempts to set up a full
independent inquiry. Another prominent Republican who is currently taking part
in the hearing is Adam Kinzinger, a fierce critic of Mr Trump.
The committee is focusing on the January 6 riot as well as
the former President’s "coordinated, multi-step effort" to
"overturn" the results of the 2020 presidential election and remain
in power by all means.
The committee’s chairman and a Mississippi lawmaker, Mr
Thompson told the hearing that "Jan 6 was the culmination of an attempted
coup, a brazen attempt, as one writer put it shortly after Jan 6, to overthrow
the government.
"The violence was no accident. It was Trump's last
stand."
Ms Cheney who is the vice-chair of the committee and a
Wyoming congresswoman said that "Those who invaded our Capitol and battled
law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them:
that the election was stolen and that he was the rightful president.
"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob
and lit the flame of this attack."
At no point did he ask law enforcement services to protect
the Capitol, Ms Cheney said, instead it was Mr Pence who did that.
No fewer than four people died on the day of the US Capitol
riot including an unarmed woman shot by police and the others of natural
causes.
More than 100 police officers were injured. Four other
officers later died by suicide.
The Republicans described the televised inquiry as an
attempt by the Democrats to brighten their fortunes at the US mid-term
elections just five months from now and to distract from their political
troubles. US President Joe Biden’s popularity has dipped in the last couple of
months following a galloping inflation, soaring petrol prices and a baby-formula
crisis. Most opinion polls seem to suggest that the Democrats may lose control
of the House and Senate if the political situation in the country continues to
dim.
A House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused the
Democrats of using the committee as a “smokescreen” to overhaul voting laws, a
shift from his initial stance.