After failing to convict former President Donald Trump after impeaching him for the second time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has announced that Congress will now establish a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6th Capitol Hill riots.
"[Congress will] investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power," Pelosi wrote Monday in a letter to fellow Democrats.
Pelosi said that after the impeachment trial, it is clear "we must get to the truth of how this happened."
The formation of an investigative commission has the support of some Republicans, like Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) who was also one of the seven Republicans to vote in favor of convicting Trump last week. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a Trump ally who voted against conviction, also supports the idea of a commission, saying it is necessary to "make sure it never happens again."
But others suggest that the words of leading Democrats demonstrate the commission is more political theater designed to target Trump a third time, now that two impeachment trials have failed.
"There's still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear and a 9/11 commission is a way to make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward," Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said. "And that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath President Trump really was."
