Bennie Thompson: January 6 Probe Findings Will Be Shocking — We Came Close to ‘Losing Our Democracy’

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol, said the public would be shocked at the findings of their probe.

Maddow said, “Can I ask you if you feel like thus far you have learned things that surprise you? You have, obviously, you are not ready to report what you found, not ready to tell the country what the results of your investigation are, but as far as it’s gone thus far, have you learned things that surprised you? Have you learned things that the rest of us don’t know how those events came together and what kind of a risk we were in as a country?”

Thompson said, “We absolutely have. Obviously, I can’t tell you, but we have thousands of pages of information that we have been supplied, our attorneys are going over, our researchers are going over it. Our committee is briefed on a daily basis as to what information is forthcoming. And so in the pursuit of getting to the facts, we have to have access to Department of Defense records, White House records, Homeland Security, Department of Interior records, all of those records we are in the process of getting.”

He added, “We are making sure that the people who took out the permits for the park. We want to know why would people bring bear spray to a peaceful march? Why would people bring a bulletproof vest to a march if you didn’t come for a purpose other than something peaceful? So we want to know who financed it. We want to know who chartered the buses. We want to know who chartered the airplanes, and we will track the money. We have people on staff who are dedicated to finding out who financed the people who came to Washington and then what they did on January 6. They broke the law, and right now, the Justice Department is prosecuting a number of people. But I assure you, at the end of the day, the public will be shocked to know how close we came to losing our democracy if those insurrectionists had succeeded.”

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