Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) claimed former President Donald Trump “gleefully” watched television during the Capitol riot.
The congressman made the comment while previewing the next Jan. 6 committee hearing during an appearance Sunday on CBS News’s Face the Nation.
“The reality is — I’ll give you this preview, the president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said.
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“I knew what I felt like as a U.S. congressman,” Kinzinger said. “If I was a president sworn to defend the Constitution, that includes the legislative branch. Watching this on television, I know I would have been going ballistic to try to save the Capitol. He did quite the opposite.”
The panel is set to focus its last planned summer hearing on the 187 minutes members say Trump “refused to act” during the Capitol riot.
During that period, Trump tweeted twice — once at 2:38 p.m., saying, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” and then at 3:13 p.m., saying, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” Finally, at 4:17 p.m., Trump posted a video telling the rioters, “You have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order.”
“The president didn’t do anything?” asked host Margaret Brennan.
“The president didn’t do anything,” Kinzinger said.
The next hearing will air during prime-time hours on Thursday and will be led by Kinzinger alongside Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA). This hearing will focus on Trump’s inaction during the riot.
The congressman also commented on the committee’s decision to subpoena the Secret Service for deleted text messages on the day of the Capitol riot and the day preceding it.
“I think we’re going to know more Tuesday,” he said in response to whether he believed the text deletions were malicious. “We made the decision as the committee that we need to subpoena the records.”
The Secret Service claims the messages were not maliciously deleted.
“They claim it was this technological change — ‘We moved everything, we lost these texts’ — and then they also put out a statement, though, that said, ‘We’ve only lost some of the texts, and everything relevant to this investigation has been turned over.’ So, those are very conflicting statements,” Kinzinger said.
“So we decided as a committee, ‘Let’s request these by Tuesday, and we can make a decision.’ I will say this, in the very least, it is quite crazy that the Secret Service would actually end up deleting anything related to one of the more infamous days in American history, particularly when it comes to the role of the Secret Service,” Kinzinger said.
Luria similarly previewed the hearing on Sunday, teasing, “There’s other witnesses we’ve spoken to who have yet to appear in our previous hearings, who will add a lot of value and information to events of that critical time on Jan. 6.”
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According to her, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s testimony will be featured in the hearing, alongside that of other witnesses.