R&I NV — With the second acquittal of former president Donald Trump by the Senate, the two leaders of the commission that examined the 9/11 attacks are looking ahead to the next possible chapter, lending their influence to calls for a commission with a mandate to investigate fully the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Saturday’s 57 to 43 vote brought an end to Congress’s formal effort to hold Trump accountable for what happened last month.
But the Senate vote left multiple questions still to be answered, including some that the president’s legal team deflected during the trial. Chief among them: Exactly what did Trump know as the attacks were unfolding, and why he didn’t he do anything to protect Vice President Mike Pence or order immediate reinforcements to the beleaguered law enforcement officers at the Capitol?
Trump could yet face judgment in court, whether criminal or civil, but the full story of what happened and how it happened remains untold. A traumatic moment for the country will not quickly fade, nor should it, not after an attack on the symbol of democracy and democracy itself.
One vehicle for fact finding that could lead to protecting the Capitol, those who work there and the democratic institutions they are sworn to defend is the kind of commission that Tom Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic House member from Indiana, headed after 9/11 and now are advocating to investigate the Jan. 6 events.
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