“The assault on the Capitol was the culmination of a coup attempt”. This was stated by the chairman of the commission of inquiry on January 6, Bennie Thompson, presenting the first conclusions on the role of Donald Trump in the attack. “In 1814 the Capitol was attacked by a foreign force”, while on 6 January it was attacked by “internal enemies” at the encouragement of Donald Trump.
For Thompson it was “a brazen attempt to overthrow the government. The violence was not an accident. It was Trump’s latest desperate attempt to stop the transfer of power.”
Republican MP Liz Cheney shares the same opinion: “Trump’s goal was to remain in power despite losing the elections,” he said during the first public hearing of the commission of inquiry on January 6 of which he is a member. “The attack on the Capitol was not a spontaneous event”, observes Cheney, recalling how Donald Trump in his first tweets about him on the day of the attack “did not condemn the attack, he justified it”.