• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”
  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’
  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

Trump attempt at a coup to be a focus of U.S. House hearings, lawmaker Raskin says

Towleroad April 18, 2022 Leave a Comment

Published by
Reuters
508832 origin 1

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Then-President Donald Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and that will be a centerpiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Trump’s second impeachment.

On that day in 2021, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, encouraged by the Republican president in a speech outside the White House to protest formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in a November 2020 election.

“This was a coup organized by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin said in an interview with Reuters, National Public Radio and The Guardian newspaper, when asked what he has learned so far from the committee’s probe.

U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the special House of Representatives committee organized by Democrats to look into events leading up to the Jan. 6 assault, has told reporters he expects public hearings to resume in May.

“We’re going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by (then-Vice President) Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with that plan,” said Raskin, a member of the House special committee.

It was unclear whether Raskin, during the interview, was expressing only his thoughts or the thinking also of fellow lawmakers serving on the special committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans.

In July 2021, a new book said senior uniformed military leaders had been concerned about a potential coup, but in a statement then Trump said he had never threatened or spoken to anyone about a coup.

Shortly after organizing last year, the House panel held an initial hearing with testimony from four police officers who said they were beaten and taunted with racial insults as they tried to defend the Capitol from attackers.

The violence capped months of Trump arguing the election had been stolen from him through massive voter fraud, a claim he still asserts despite its rejection by numerous court rulings, Trump’s own Justice Department and recounts sanctioned by his fellow Republicans.

‘TO SEIZE THE PRESIDENCY’

Raskin said the hearings will lay out for the public the steps the former president and his associates took to try to stay in power despite a clear-cut defeat.

Had the rioters succeeded in preventing the certification, Raskin said, Trump “was prepared to seize the presidency” and likely declare martial law.

He said the committee had yet to decide whether to try to seek testimony from Trump or Pence. Every four years, the vice president is charged with overseeing the formal count in Congress of presidential elections.

Pence rejected pleas to set aside the November 2020 result, which would have paved the way for the House of Representatives to in effect conduct a second election, with Republicans holding an advantage that could have installed Trump for a second term.

The attack left four people dead on Jan. 6. One Capitol Police officer who fought with rioters died the next day. About 800 people have been charged with crimes relating to the attack.

The House panel has collected more than 100,000 documents, with investigators conducting more than 800 interviews, according to lawmakers.

“We don’t have a lot of experience with coups in our own country and we think of a coup as something that takes place against a president,” Raskin said.

But Jan. 6, 2021, was different, he said, because it did not involve the military or other faction attacking the president.

“It’s what the political scientists call a self-coup … it’s a president fearful of defeat, overthrowing the constitutional process,” Raskin said.

The House of Representatives twice impeached Trump, the second time following the Capitol assault. The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump both times. At political rallies since then, the former president has dropped hints he might run again in 2024.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Howard Goller)

508832 508832 origin 1 1
508832 508832 origin 1 2

Topics: Aaon, Military, News More Posts About: Bennie Thompson, Donald Trump, Jamie Raskin, Joe Biden, Mike Pence

Related Posts
  • ‘You’re An Embarrassment’: Kimberly Guilfoyle Gets Backlash For Making Fun Of The FBI’s Skills When Raiding President Joe Biden’s Home For Documents
  • Stormy Daniels Declares It’s ‘Exhausting’ To Always Be Asked About Alleged Affair With Donald Trump: ‘I Wish He Would Go Away’
  • Trump warns U.S. House Republicans not to touch Social Security, Medicare
  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Jeff Richmond and Tina Fey want the ‘Mean Girls’ musical movie to have a “fresher palette”. The pair are adapting their musical for the big screen and composer Jeff revealed his …Read More »
  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents. The 61-year-old actress had been friends with Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell – who are the parents of pop star Billie, …Read More »
  • Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Published by AFP The US city of Memphis, Tennessee, on January 27, 2023, released footage of the fatal police beating of a 29-year-old Black man, Tyre Nichols Washington (AFP) – The shocking death of Tyre Nichols …Read More »
  • Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Published by DPA Pope Francis speaks during the general audience at the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Michael Kappeler/dpa Pope Francis has clarified his earlier comments on homosexuality following confusion in recent days, saying: …Read More »
Previous Post: « On ‘Easter of war’, pope implicitly criticises Russia over Ukraine
Next Post: Ukraine mayor describes ‘hard’ interrogation by Russian captors »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • Secrets about Catholic priest’s 1966 murder unearthed by reporters in Buffalo

    Secrets about Catholic priest’s 1966 murder unearthed by reporters in Buffalo

  • Booker says he’ll keep trying to pass weed legislation even with House Republicans in charge

    Booker says he’ll keep trying to pass weed legislation even with House Republicans in charge

  • Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition blacklisting sparks outcry

    Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition blacklisting sparks outcry

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • ‘Gone Their Separate Ways’: Ryan Reynolds & Jake Gyllenhaal’s Pals Left Scratching Their Heads Over Bizarre Bromance Fallout 

    ‘Gone Their Separate Ways’: Ryan Reynolds & Jake Gyllenhaal’s Pals Left Scratching Their Heads Over Bizarre Bromance Fallout 

  • Steamy! Miranda Lambert Shows Off Shirtless Husband Brendan McLoughlin To Celebrate Their Anniversary

    Steamy! Miranda Lambert Shows Off Shirtless Husband Brendan McLoughlin To Celebrate Their Anniversary

  • ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Leon Brown Debuts Gender-Affirming Top Surgery Seven Months After Announcing New Pronouns

    ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Leon Brown Debuts Gender-Affirming Top Surgery Seven Months After Announcing New Pronouns

RSS Partner Links

  • Sunday Comics
  • 'The View' for the Week of January 30 - 4 Guest Stars Revealed
  • Olivia Wilde And Jason Sudeikis Publicly Hug After Getting Messy During Their Custody Fight
  • Novak Djokovic defeats Stefan Tsitsipas to win 10th Australian Open and 22nd grand slam overall
  • The Telegraph published a photo to ‘exonerate’ Prince Andrew from rape, trafficking
  • Prince William & Kate are getting cooked for their foodbank poverty tourism
  • Jim Jordan Says New Laws Can't 'Stop That Evil' After Tyre Nichols' Death

Most Recent

  • Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”

    Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”

  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

  • Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

  • Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

  • Rick Astley: I wasn’t cut out to be a pop star

    Rick Astley: I wasn’t cut out to be a pop star

  • Universal Pictures Loses Over $10 Million By Scrapping Madonna’s Biopic: Source

    Universal Pictures Loses Over $10 Million By Scrapping Madonna’s Biopic: Source

  • Spice Girls to reunite for King Charles’ coronation

    Spice Girls to reunite for King Charles’ coronation

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×