Two reports on the January 6th riot at the US Capitol have two very different focuses.
The official January 6th investigative committee compiled a report that says the attack on the Capitol could not have happened without Donald Trump. While a group of five House Republicans conducted their own investigation, that found intelligence failures, internal politics and unnecessary bureaucracy left the Capitol unprepared.
Rep. Jim Banks tweeted about the GOP version: “Unlike the sham Jan 6 report that focused on partisan politics and political payback, House Republicans released a report today that details how we can ensure another Jan 6 never happens again.”
The GOP report says the US Capitol Police had sufficient information prior to the 6th to anticipate and prepare for violence.
The report says police officers were short staffed, under-trained and ill-equipped. The executive summary states quote: “The USCP was set up to fail, and there have been scant signs of progress toward addressing these weaknesses.”
To fix the problem Republicans suggest making changes to the Capitol Police board, which they accuse of resisting long-standing calls for reform and operating in the dark. They want to make the board more accountable to oversight, and add two new members who will be in charge of long term strategic planning and making the identifying industry best practices.
As for the Democratic report, much of the information had already been made public in previous committee hearings although the report offers more detail from depositions and testimony.
To summarize, it says Donald Trump pressured state officials to change election results and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes. They say that was all part of a multi-faceted conspiracy to overturn the lawful results.
The Jan 6th select committee voted to send criminal referrals against Trump to the Justice Department. The Committee will now be disbanded. Straight from DC, I’m Ray Bogan.