How the House Republican Party Upended the Democrats’ Jan. 6 Narrative

A two-year Republican investigation has rewritten the narrative of the fateful attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago and two years after congressional Democrats placed most of the blame on Donald Trump.

Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from Georgia, led the investigation that concluded that Democrats’ single-minded focus on convicting Mr. Trump blinded them to many of the realities of January 6, 2021.

The investigation undermined the account of the Democrats’ star witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, that Mr. Trump grabbed the steering wheel and tried to force his Secret Service agents to take him to join the mob at the Capitol.

Republicans also released recordings of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi taking responsibility for leaving the Capitol largely undefended. The Democrats had attributed this responsibility to Mr. Trump. The rewrite also tarnished the Pentagon, which said senior Defense Department officials had failed to respond to Mr. Trump’s valid requests for military support.

In their extensive review, Republicans said they found no evidence that Mr. Trump supported the rioters chanting the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence or that he secretly planned to join the mob at the Capitol.

The results, Mr. Loudermilk told the Washington Times, left the Democrats’ narrative in tatters.

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“We have totally debunked it,” he said. “It’s totally based on fiction, not fact. It’s a predetermined narrative. Nancy Pelosi and (former Rep.) Liz Cheney and the group decided what they wanted to be the truth, so they carefully edited and cherry-picked the evidence to come up with a story.

What is undeniable about January 6 is that a crowd of thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol grounds. Around 2,000 people entered the building, roamed its halls and offices and caused damage.

Members of Congress, who were certifying the Electoral College vote count confirming Joseph R. Biden as the presidential winner, cowered and fled. Just like Vice President Mike Pence, who narrowly missed a group of rioters.

A woman was shot and killed as she and other rioters tried to break into a restricted area near the House chamber. The subsequent deaths of five police officers were attributed to the stress and chaos of the day. One suffered a stroke immediately after the riot and four committed suicide within seven months.

Democrats, who subsequently controlled both branches of Congress, announced a controversial House investigation from the start.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, named hardline members of his party to serve on the investigating committee. Ms. Pelosi refused to seat them, sparking a Republican boycott.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, was approved for the panel and Ms. Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, was named vice chair.

The Democratic members were Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the Mississippi lawmaker who chaired the committee, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff and Pete Aguilar of California; Stephanie Murphy of Florida; Jamie Raskin of Maryland; and Elaine Luria of Virginia.

They concluded that the police and Pentagon responses were wrong, but said Mr. Trump’s resistance to the election results incited the mob. They noted Mr. Trump’s call for supporters to march to the Capitol, his alleged attempts to join them, his failure to order better defenses in anticipation of the day and his refusal to vigorously call for calm as the Capitol was being raped.

The descriptions of Mr. Trump’s resistance to the election results are valid, but some other claims have been poorly received by Republicans.

Mr. Loudermilk said Ms. Hutchison, whose testimony was the cornerstone of the Democrats’ blame game, had proven unreliable. Her claims that Mr. Trump had sided with rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and that he had grabbed the steering wheel to try to force officers to take him to the Capitol only emerged after Ms. Hutchison conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations with Ms. Cheney.

Those allegedly involved have refuted both claims.

“The special committee chose to promote Hutchinson’s version of events – citing a series of other unnamed individuals who were further removed from the alleged incident than even Hutchinson – rather than that of two federal law enforcement agents who were the only possible eyewitnesses,” Mr. Loudermilk said. investigation completed.

In one of the more bizarre cases, Ms. Hutchison falsely claimed to have written a handwritten note for White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the events of Jan. 6, he said.

Mr. Loudermilk hired a handwriting expert who concluded that Ms. Hutchison did not write the note.

The Republican investigation also concluded that the military intentionally delayed the deployment of the National Guard, despite Mr. Trump’s Jan. 3 directive that the military provide all necessary assistance.

According to Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Trump said: “There will be a large number of protesters coming here on the 6th, and make sure you have enough National Guardsmen or soldiers to make sure it’s a safe place. event.”

The acting defense secretary later said he considered the guidance “throwaway lines.” Pentagon leaders said they feared being seen as contributing to Mr. Trump’s narrative of electoral resistance.

Republicans say the Democratic-led investigation also wrongly shielded Ms. Pelosi from accountability.

Ms. Pelosi’s investigation revealed video of an HBO documentary film crew, led by Ms. Pelosi’s daughter, who captured the House speaker as she was evacuated from the Capitol, saying: “I take responsibility” for not having the National Guard on site. hand.

“We have a responsibility, Terri,” she told her chief of staff, Terri McCullough. “We had no responsibility for what was happening there, and we should have. »

Mr. Loudermilk’s investigation also criticized the Democrats’ investigation for failing to answer some key questions, such as who erected a gallows on the Capitol grounds on January 6.

He said several nearby offices were equipped with cameras that could have shed light on the identity of the culprits, but neither the FBI nor the Democratic select committee investigating the investigation appeared to have reviewed the surveillance footage of the USCP. If they did, they never released information about when the gallows was built and who built it.

He also questioned how the gallows could be built and remain standing for around 26 hours when it was an illegal structure.

“It is inconceivable that a gallows could be built on U.S. Capitol property and left in place all day,” Mr. Loudermilk said. “These men arrived early in the morning, several hours before the rally even began or before anyone had assembled, to build the gallows platform, but this structure was able to remain intact in plain sight.”

Mr. Loudermilk also criticized the Democrats’ investigation for shoddy work, including failing to archive some of their work, such as videos of private interviews.

He said his team had to “redo” much of the Democrats’ work to understand how they were making their demands.

Democrats said they were turning over what they could and that some documents were not being archived because they were not needed. In other cases, Democrats said the documents could have implicated national security or threatened the safety of witnesses.

A spokesperson for Ms. Cheney did not respond to a request for this report.

After Mr. Loudermilk called for her to be criminally investigated for her role in the Jan. 6 investigation, she issued a statement saying Mr. Loudermilk’s report “intentionally ignores the truth” and ” fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what happened.” Donald Trump did it.

“Their allegations do not reflect an examination of the actual evidence and constitute a malicious and cowardly attack on the truth,” Ms. Cheney said.

The Washington Times also contacted the office of Mr. Thompson, the Democrat who led the initial investigation with Ms. Cheney.