Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) said Friday on CNN’s “Newsroom” if the Justice Department does not indict former President Donald Trump, it would be a “jolt to our democracy.”
Anchor Jim Sciutto said, “The January 6 Committee delivered the final report last night. It makes the case that there was criminal activity by the former president as well as people around him to overturn that election. It now it goes to the DOJ to make that decision. It is now up to the DOJ to act here. In your view, if it fails to hold Donald Trump responsible for this, and in effect, only the lower-level rioters pay a legal price for this, what will that mean for the country?”
Quigley said, “You know, it will be another jolt to our democracy. Obviously, January 6 was a traumatic event for our country, for our democracy, certainly for those of us who were in the room where it happened. We all have different reactions to it. You referenced, with an earlier guest this morning, the President’s speech that morning. That morning I walked around the Capitol, rode my bike and walked around. I heard what the insurrectionists were saying. I went into my office, heard the president’s speech, and at that moment said, ‘The president is inciting an insurrection. He just sicced 20,000 people on us.’ So at that moment, I felt he had committed a crime. And then, from a purely personal point of view, it is funny what we think about, but I actually thought about the line from the recent series Chernobyl, ‘Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt has to be paid.’ And I hope, not just for those who stormed the Capitol but for the single person most responsible, that he finally be held accountable.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN