A newly established Republican subcommittee to investigate the attacks on the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, is set to convene next month — five years after the violent breach of the building took place, and three years after the original January 6 committee completed its work.
That original committee investigated both the failures of security and the events that led up to the attack, ultimately determining that President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that he only lost the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden due to widespread fraud was the “central cause” of the event.
That original committee was led by Democrats. The new GOP-led committee, which was established through a House resolution in the fall, ostensibly seeks to examine parts of the attack that the first committee supposedly overlooked, namely the security failures. Critics of the new committee’s establishment, however, believe it is part of a broader GOP strategy to downplay Trump’s role in inciting the violence that occurred.
Committee chair Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) announced earlier in December that the new panel’s work would begin next month.
“We’re nailing down the date — I think it’s probably going to be around the third week [of January] or so,” Loudermilk said.
Loudermilk’s committee will have full subpoena authority to obtain records and information regarding the attack. In September, Loudermilk stated his goal is to “uncover all the facts, and implement reforms so this level of security failure never happens again.”
The committee is required to give a final report by the end of next year, and will be dissolved either 30 days after a report is filed, or on the last day of the current congressional term, which would be January 3, 2027.
Notably, Loudermilk, himself a staunch Trump supporter, was revealed by the original January 6 committee to have led eventual attackers on a tour of the Capitol grounds the day before the breach. Capitol Police remarked at the time that they did not “consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious,” though the committee still had questions they wanted answered, as one of the tour participants did encourage violent behavior that day.
Three Democrats will serve on the Loudermilk-led subcommittee, chosen by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after the resolution was passed. Those lawmakers include Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Eric Swalwell (D-California), and Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida). The remaining five members of the committee, including Loudermilk, will be Republicans.
After appointing those lawmakers, Jeffries warned that Republicans were attempting to rewrite history.
“Donald Trump and House Republicans are now determined to whitewash that day that will always live in infamy,” Jeffries said at the time. “House Democrats will not let it happen, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
Although the newly formed Republican version of the January 6 committee is unlikely to discuss Trump’s role in the attack, his words undoubtedly inspired his loyalists to attack Congress,