House Committee Chair Bennie Thompson is now addressing the hearing.
Over the next few weeks, I look forward to meeting other members, my colleagues up here with me. We represent a diversity of communities across the United States, rural areas and cities, east coast, west coast and heart.
We all have one thing in common. We took the same oath.
We have taken an oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The words of today’s antiquity taken by all of us to almost all U.S. government employees have their roots in the Civil War.
That oath was put to the test on January 6, 2021. The police officers who had the land that day, themselves, came out of that day bloodied and broken. They still carry these wounds.
They did their duty … and ended the occupation of the capitol. They defended the Constitution against internal enemies, so that Congress could uphold our own oath and count your votes to ensure the transfer of power.
But unlike an 1814 it was the domestic enemies of the constitution, those who stole capital and occupied the capital, who sought the will of the people to stop the transfer of power.
And so they did encouraged by the President of the United States, the President of the United States, trying to stop the transfer of power.
A precedent that had been set for 220 years, although our democracy faces this most difficult test.
Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020. The American people voted him out of office. It was not because of a manipulated system. It was not because of electoral fraud.