Donald Trump slammed the January 6 committee investigating the riot at the Capitol as a “laughing stock” and “bust” as the panel voted Thursday to subpoena the former president.
The committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump during what is widely viewed to be the final public hearing before the midterm elections.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said the subpoena of Trump is about “accountability to the American people.”
“He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions,” Thompson insisted. “He’s required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy.”
BREAKING: Jan 6th SHAM Committee votes to subpoena President Trump pic.twitter.com/9ygAndWrcI
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 13, 2022
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January 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump
The vote to subpoena was a dramatic moment for the committee, for Democrats hoping they can tie the former President to current GOP candidates, and a media obsessed with holding Trump accountable for the actions of others during the riot.
For everyone else, there was no drama whatsoever, as the panel is comprised exclusively of anti-Trump lawmakers whose lone goal is not getting to the truth but, rather, to prove a conclusion they came to long ago.
Like asking a panel of Dallas Cowboys fans to vote against the New York Giants.
The move is exclusively designed to sway the 2022 midterm elections in favor of Democrats.
Democrats responding to forty year high inflation by voting to subpoena Donald Trump in a two year old January 6th investigation 26 days before a midterm election is one of the most breathtakingly tone deaf political moves I’ve ever seen.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 13, 2022
Trump took to his Truth Social media platform to lash out at the committee over their decision to subpoena him. He called into question the timing of their vote.
“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?” he asked. “Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting?”
“Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?”
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Trump Remains Defiant But Rumored to Be Thrilled About the Idea of Testifying
In another posting on Truth Social, former President Donald Trump slammed the January 6 committee as a bunch of “radical left losers.”
“The Unselect Committee is a giant Scam, presided over by a group of Radical Left losers, and two failed Republicans, the likes of which our Country has rarely seen before,” he wrote.
Allies of the former President also ripped into the committee for their vote to subpoena Trump.
Rep. Andy Biggs called it “a political hatchet job read by a political hatchet committee.”
“This committee is illegitimately formed, in violation of House rules, and is organized to search and destroy perceived political enemies,” added Biggs (R-AZ).
The illegitimate January 6 Committee’s vote to subpoena President Trump is a political hatchet job read by a political hatchet committee.
This committee is illegitimately formed, in violation of House rules, and is organized to search and destroy perceived political enemies.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) October 13, 2022
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) likewise decried the panel’s move as a “political ploy.”
“The American people are smart and the Democrats’ abuse of power will only energize the American people to Fire Nancy Pelosi once and for all and deliver a red tsunami that will elect a historic Republican Majority to hold Joe Biden accountable,” she said in a statement.
My statement on the Sham Subpoena from Pelosi’s Partisan Witch-Hunt. pic.twitter.com/IBQe05MMTX
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) October 13, 2022
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz scoffed at the “unanimous opinion of the unanimously anti-trump committee, which doesn’t have a single person who would dissent from anything.”
“This is a committee that would subpoena one of Donald Trump’s ham sandwiches to paraphrase a judge,” added Dershowitz.
Still, Fox News reports that Trump is seemingly enamored with the idea of testifying before the January 6 select committee.
A source close to the former President claims he “loves the idea of testifying.”
The source goes on to suggest Trump would “talk about how corrupt the election was, how corrupt the committee was, and how Nancy Pelosi did not call up the National Guard that Trump strongly recommended for her to do three days earlier on January 3, 2021.”
Fact-checkers have consistently said the National Guard claims are not true.
In an interview with Fox, Trump did not indicate whether or not he was considering testifying but did slam the committee once again.
“The committee is a hoax, a sham, a partisan witch hunt which is a continuation of the witch hunt that has gone on since the great day for our country that I came down the golden escalator with our future first lady,” Trump said.
“They have no case, they have no ratings, so they have to try to do this to get publicity.”
Why didn’t Pelosi testify? After all, as @BennieGThompson said today when subpoenaing Trump, the committee wants a “complete picture” of the riot. https://t.co/YoUmsHD9x5
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) October 13, 2022
Trump is in a quandary. If he testifies, they’ll most certainly get their much sought-after ratings.
But it would be difficult to dismiss the potential of seeing a defiant Trump, long viewed by his supporters as a ‘fighter’ against the establishment, taking apart the panel’s arguments piece by piece.
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