As the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was underway, former President Donald Trump added “fuel to the fire” by blaming the certification of votes on Vice President Mike Pence, further angering the crowd, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said on July 21 as the House committee investigating the insurrection presented its findings to the public.
Trump had tweeted at 2:24 p.m. on Jan. 6 that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
“In almost the same moment [of that tweet], violence was getting completely out of hand,” Luria said.
“Despite knowing the Capitol had been breached and the mob was in the building, President Trump called Mike Pence a coward and placed all the blame on him for not stopping the certification. He put a target on his own vice president’s back.”
The hearing focused on what President Donald Trump was doing during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in an effort to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.
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