The storming of the US Capitol is considered the dark hour of democracy in the United States. Ex-President Trump sees things differently. It wasn't just a protest for him.
Immediately before the start of the public hearings in the investigative committee into the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, former US President Donald Trump described the riots as "the largest movement" in US history. "January 6 was not just a protest, it represented the largest movement in our country's history to make America great again," Trump said on his new online platform Truth Social.
"It was about an election that was rigged and stolen, and about a country that was about to go to hell," Trump repeated his often refuted allegations that massive electoral fraud robbed him of a second term.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 presidential election was to be certified there. The storming of the seat of Congress with five dead caused horror worldwide and is considered a black day in the history of US democracy.
From Thursday evening, the parliamentary committee of inquiry will present its first findings on Trump's role in the riots. The meeting will be televised during prime time. According to the committee's assessment, Trump's allegations of alleged electoral fraud laid the basis for the storming of the Capitol. In an incendiary speech on January 6, the right-wing populist also called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and fight "whatever the hell".
The nine members of the committee - seven Democrats and two Republicans - had started their work almost a year ago. Since then, they have viewed around 140,000 documents and interviewed more than a thousand witnesses, including Trump's son Donald Junior, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
Previously unreleased video footage of the escalation in violence will be shown during Thursday's 90-minute session. Excerpts from the interviews of the witnesses, including senior officials in the Trump administration and members of his campaign team, are also to be shown.
