Key congressman who investigated Jan. 6 evidence: Trump ‘not to blame’ for violence
Rep. Rodney Davis also slams Nancy Pelosi, warns Capitol not ‘in a better security posture’ since the riots
A Republican congressman who spent months investigating U.S. Capitol security after the Jan. 6 riot said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump “is not to blame” for the violence that occurred that day and warned Democrats’ politicization of upcoming hearings have harmed the ability of Congress to improve security after the harrowing episode.
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., the ranking member on the House Administration Committee, is a unique voice on the Capitol riot for two reasons: Trump has endorsed his opponent in an upcoming Illinois GOP primary, and Davis survived a prior act of violence targeting lawmakers when a deranged gunman opened fire during a congressional baseball game in 2017.
“Look, I will tell you, I don't think we're in a better security posture than we were leading up to January 6th,” Davis told the Just the News, Not Noise television show, reacting to a Just the News report Tuesday night that Capitol Police had identified 53 intelligence and security failures in a secret report after the Jan. 6 riot. “I think that's a direct failure of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats not addressing some of the security failures that happened that day.
“Do I feel protected on the campus? I do,” he added. “The Capitol Police are brave men and women. They saved my life on a baseball field almost five years ago, and the lives of so many of my colleagues. They're my heroes for doing that. But they were put in a terrible position because of politics and because of optics. And that was done by the person who controls the security apparatus of the Capitol. And that is Nancy Pelosi.”
Davis has been forced to run against fellow GOP Rep. Mary Miller for a newly re-districted Illinois House seat later this month. Trump endorsed Miller after Davis voted to certify the 2020 election results and supported a bi-partisan investigation of Jan. 6, something Democrats rejected. But Davis is strongly supported by GOP leadership and has backed Trump routinely, including serving as co-chairman of the president’s Illinois campaign.
As the top Republican on the House Administration Committee that oversees the Capitol, Davis and his investigators pouted over thousands of pages of emails, texts and police files to identify the security failures that allowed a rowdy crowd to overrun the Capitol and its $600 million a year police force.
Davis denounced plans by House Democrats on the Jan. 6 committee to hold prime-time hearings Thursday night scripted by a Hollywood producer, saying they will only politically distract from assigning blame where it belongs and identifying unresolved security lapses at the Capitol.
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/key-congressman-who-investigated-jan-6-evidence-trump-not-blame-violence