supported by elected republicans how would president trump lose in an atmosphere like that. aided by allies all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. backed by unconstitutional legal strategies to declare president trump re-elected and accepted by millions. how many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people? this morning as we approach the one-year anniversary of the january 6th insurrection, i ll talk to congressman bennie thompson, chair of the january 6th committee, and to peter meijer, the rare elected house republican willing to admit publicly that joe biden won the election. we ll also look at how the big lie had its start in the 2016 campaign. the only way we can lose, in my opinion i really mean this, pennsylvania is if cheating goes on. then our democracy is in peril if only one side is willing to admit that it lost an election. welcome to sunday and a special edition of meet the press. announcer: from nbc ne
Republicans change their tone about the attempted coup. the president bears responsibility for wednesday s attack on congress by mob rioters. there s no involvement, but this is purely political all i can say is count me out. enough is enough. can we move forward without president trump? the answer is no. and donald trump s lies that fueled new voting restrictions in 19 states, something the former president called for on the ellipse one year ago. i m calling on congress and the state legislatures to quicy pass sweeping election reforms. today is not the end. it s just the beginning. recently i spoke to congressman bennie thompson of mississippi. he s the chair of the january 6th house committee to find out where the committee investigation is heading. let me start with some big pictures here. we re on the cusp of the anniversary of january 6th.
Interesting. we re all going to be watching it. it was a horrendous event, and i think that what they re seeking to finding out is something that the public needs to know. you didn t vote to establish this committee. i think you wanted the bipartisan committee. senator mcconnell ended up not supporting the bipartisan committee. now he seems to be embracing what he s learned. i m curious. what do you make of how the january 6th committee has conducted itself? well, i continue to look at their actions and judge each action accordingly, whether that is the contemptof congress that was suggested and sent to us for, you know, mark meadows or for steve bannon. i ll view each on their merits and, again, withhold judgment on the entirety of the committee until we see the end of their work product. given that you did vote in favor of the contempt against steve bannon, i m curious, why bannon yes and meadows no?
He is he and the republican party operatives all around the country are systematically going through all the places that thwarted trump s attempt last time and uprooting the obstacles. so, if you were an election official who insisted on counting the actual votes and declared that biden won, you are being hounded out of office or primaried or made irrelevant by changes in the law that take away your power. if congress changes hands and if republicans control both houses of congress after the next election, they ll be the ones in charge of counting the electoral votes, and there are there are greater there s greater willingness now in the state legislatures to do what was trump s fundamental strategy,
And does that mean you have some you do think that they re conducting themselves properly here or you perhaps wouldn t have even voted yes on bannon? i think the ultimate thing to look at here is what precedent is being set and how that could be used in the future. with steve bannon, it was very clear congress has the prerogative to issue subpoenas and it has to have the contempt power in order for that subpoena to have any weight, and steve bannon flat out rejected any cooperation and told congress to pound sand, and so i held him in contempt and voted in support of that. when it came to mark meadows, he had been cooperating with the committee. while he should have appeared in order to assert executive privilege. and there are two lawsuits going trump v thompson and meadows v pelosi, et al to determine the lirmts of the executive privilege that can be invoked, at the end of the day he was cooperating, at least in some degree.