Former President Donald Trump returned to Washington for the first time since leaving office to give a keynote address at a rightwing think tank just after the January 6 panel exposed his inaction during the Capitol insurrection.
The former president returned today to the nation’s capital for a summit held by the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that has been formed by some of his former advisers from the White House.
The leaders of the think tank said that the America First Agenda Summit will focus on the Republican party’s plans to combat inflation and improve the immigration system, but that agenda is unlikely to stop Trump from recirculating his lies about the 2020 presidential election.
The summit comes just after the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot on the Capitol held another primetime hearing. The latest hearing focused on Trump’s inaction during the deadly Capitol attack.
The Jan. 6 committee outlined how Trump refused for hours to intervene in the insurrection, which was being conducted by his own supporters, and instead watched the violence on the television. Even some of his closest advisers and inner circle pleaded with Trump to take action.
Trump is expected to confront the committee in his speech today. He has remained determined to aggressively criticize anyone who did not support his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Last month in June, Trump spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Tennessee, attacking his vice president Mike Pence for refusing to interfere with the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be frankly historic,” Trump criticized.
“But just like [former Attorney General] Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, Mike – and I say it sadly because I like him – but Mike did not have the courage to act.”
The committee has shown how Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence incited his supporters, chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”, as they stormed the Capitol.
A former Trump administration official told investigators that people who were a part of Pence’s security detail were so concerned for their safety during the insurrection that they called their families to say goodbye.
Be the first to comment