Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riot on the U. S. Capitol will use public hearings to tell the story of violent domestic extremism coordinated with “the top levels of the White House.”
Raskin said, “The inner story of the attempt at the coup will be part of what we tell in far more detail now with far more documentation than we had just several weeks after the attack back in February of 2021. But it’s a larger story because we have to tell the story of the role that social media played and the attempt of whistle-blowers there to stop the involvement or the facilitation of Facebook and Twitter in helping the extreme right organize these events.”
He continued, “We’ve got to tell this story of domestic violent extremism and how it was coordinated with the inside political coup going all the way to the top levels of the White House. So that involves the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys and the Militia Men and the 1st Amendment Praetorian and all of these groups. How are they mobilized into a mass violent street movement, coordinated with people at the very pinnacle of power in the United States.”
Raskin added, “So, that’s an important part of the story because everybody understands that Donald Trump used these violent elements, but they used him too. When they gathered back at the Unite the Right Rally in August of 2017 in Charlottesville, they were just 500 people. Then they assemble several thousand strong as the vanguard front line to smash our windows and to begin the attack on our police officers.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN