Daily US Times: A day after Donald Trump won his second Senate impeachment trial, bipartisan support appeared to be growing for an independent September 11-style inquiry commission into the deadly insurrection that took place at the US Capitol in January 6.
Investigations into the insurrection were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré to lead an immediate review of the Capitol’s security process.
Lawmakers from both Democratic and Republican party, speaking on Sunday’s news shows, signaled that even more inquiries were likely. The Senate verdict Saturday hardly put to rest the debate about the former president’s culpability for the January 6 assault. The verdict with its 57-43 majority falling 10 votes short of the two-thirds needed to convict Trump.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump, said: “There should be a complete investigation about what happened. What was known, who knew it and when they knew, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again.”
The Senator said he was “attempting to hold President Trump accountable,” and added that as Americans hear all the facts, “more folks will move to where I was.” He was censured by his state’s party after the vote.
An independent inquiry commission along the lines of the one that investigated the September 11 attacks would probably require legislation to create.
That move would elevate the investigation a step higher, offering a definitive government-backed accounting of events.
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