Miller Muddied The Waters, But Politics Were At Play In Jan. 6 National Guard Delay UNITED STATES - APRIL 2: U.S. National Guardsmen stand guard near Constitution Avenue NW (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) May 15, 2021 9:00 a.m.
During a week of congressional committee hearings seeking to clarify why and how things went so wrong on Jan. 6, the officials testifying passed the buck and confused the particulars much more often than they shed light on what happened that day.
In his prepared opening statement, former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said that he partially held back given the already-tense atmosphere surrounding the day, alluding to calls by Michael Flynn for Trump to invoke martial law and a Washington Post op-ed by all 10 living former defense secretaries calling on Miller by name not involve the military in election disputes.
As a number of officials testified during congressional committee hearings held this week to examine how things went awry amid at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, they attempted to place blame on others refusing to accept accountability for the deadly events that transpired on that fateful day. According.
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With help from Myah Ward and Joanne Kenen
DOCTORS RECOMMEND RESPONSIBLY GOING VIRAL Short-video platform TikTok boomed during the pandemic. Even if you don’t use the app, you’re familiar with the videos: Unescapable dance trends, memes that have become lexicon and videos that capture a moment and then change the world.
In one particularly notable case, Rep. Stephen Lynch
Arguing that “we are getting more information by the day, by the minute, about what happened,” Miller said it now “seems clear that there was some sort of conspiracy where there were organized assault elements that intended to assault the Capitol that day.”
Later in the exchange, when Lynch accused Miller of reversing his stance, Miller replied, “that’s ridiculous.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Lynch shot back.
“Thank you for your thoughts,” Miller responded.
GOP downplays violence: While this is a defense newsletter, we would be remiss if we didn’t note that the main takeaway from the hearing was less Miller’s testimony and more that Republican after Republican repeatedly sought to downplay the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
‘I stand by every decision I made on January 6th,’ former Trump official tells Congress
Updated May 12, 2021;
WASHINGTON The former acting U.S. defense chief and former acting attorney general during Donald Trump’s last weeks in office defended their responses to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol under sharp questions from Democrats on intelligence failures and delays.
“The federal government was unprepared for this insurrection even though it was planned in plain sight on social media,” House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney said Wednesday at the panel’s hearing on the insurrection and the events leading up to it.