Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who serves on the Jan. 6 committee, on Sunday expressed confidence in the panel’s progress thus far in its investigation of the events surrounding the deadly Capitol insurrection.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kinzinger touted that at this point he believes that the committee has “a significant part” of the story.
“I think where we’re at right now, we know a lot of the narrative,” Kinzinger said. “And as I’ve said, I think the most important thing is not even the day of January 6, it’s what led to it. We have a lot of what’s out there in the public venue, what the President himself said.”
Kinzinger then pointed to a revelation that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the vice chair of the committee, made last week. Cheney told ABC News that the panel has “firsthand testimony” that Trump was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching TV as the insurrection unfolded. Cheney added that there was also “first hand testimony” of detailed pleas by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the then-President to put a stop to the deadly attack.
“The fact that he was watching for three hours on TV, probably gleefully, while this happened,” Kinzinger said. “So I think if everything shut down today, we’d be able to put out a powerful and substantive narrative. We still have more information obviously we want to get.”
Asked what he thinks would be helpful for the committee to have in its investigation that it doesn’t have yet to make their report stronger, Kinzinger stressed the importance of finding out more information about what Trump may have known about Jan. 6, 2021 before his supporters stormed the Capitol on the day of the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
“I think the one thing that if I could wave a magic wand and have more information on, it would certainly be what did the President know about January 6 leading up to January 6,” Kinzinger said.
Kinzinger added that knowing that information would offer insight into whether Trump was “absolutely incompetent or a coward” on Jan. 6, 2021 when he didn’t demand for his supporters to stop the attack on the Capitol.
“Or did he know what was coming? And I think that’s a difference between incompetence with your oath and possibly criminal. That’s where I want to get more information,” Kinzinger said. “We do have obviously some things leading up to that, but the more information we can get, obviously the better.”
Kinzinger’s comments comes days after members of Congress commemorated the one-year anniversary of the deadly Capitol insurrection. Kinzinger’s remarks also come on the heels of the panel reportedly considering holding its upcoming public hearings during primetime hours in the coming months, following its public revelation of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ brow-raising texts related to his involvement in Trump’s attempts to subvert the election results.
In addition to its reported consideration of holding public hearings in prime time, the committee is reportedly also weighing asking former Vice President Pence, who presided over the Senate on the day of the insurrection, for a voluntary interview. Pence, who became a target of Trump and his allies for refusing to play along with the former president’s election fraud falsehoods, has yet to commit to cooperation with the panel if it seeks information from him. Several members of Pence’s inner circle have reportedly cooperated with the committee thus far.
Watch Kinzinger’s remarks below:
