Trump Claims 6 January Committee is Just 'Sideshow' to Distract US from Biden's 'Massive Failures'

The former US president has repeatedly rejected accusations that he somehow instigated the 6 January riot during which a crowd of his supporters frustrated by Joe Biden's victory stormed the US Congress.

Ex-US President Donald Trump has lambasted the work of the 6 January Committee set up by Democratic lawmakers, calling it a "sideshow to distract America" from the "massive failures" by current POTUS Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Trump went on to argue that the only people at fault for the 6 January riot, whom the committee claims to be trying to determine, are those officials who failed to do their jobs and look at the "intelligence" at hand. The ex-POTUS namely cited a Capitol Police whistleblower's letter that was sent to congressional leaders several days ago and accused the force's acting chief of uniformed operations, Sean Gallagher and assistant chief of police for protective and intelligence operations, Yogananda Pittman, of being responsible for failing to prevent the riot.

The letter claimed that the two failed to share their intelligence regarding the possibility of the riot and did not support officers, who were put in a diffocult positon, once the angry crowd rushed into the Capitol. Trump compared the failure to back up the Capitol Police officers on that day with the Biden administration's failure to evacuate all Americans and former local interpreters from Afghanistan before completing the withdrawal this August.

The ex-president further slammed the Democrats on the 6 January Committee for failing to consider the whistleblower's letter and, instead, "going after innocent staffers and attacking the Constitution". He went on to add that the committee's work is similar to numerous investigations launched against Trump himself during his presidency, as well as against his staffers and aides, which he collectively refers to as the "witch hunt".

The Democratic Party, which narrowly controls both chambers of Congress, launched the committee under the pretext of finding the people who purportedly orchestrated the 6 January mayhem. On that day, a large group of Trump supporters frustrated by his loss in the 2020 election stormed the Capitol building just as lawmakers were formally counting Electoral College votes. The rioters demanded the votes be recounted, but all of the lawmakers were eventually evacuated from the building and later successfully certified the election results in favour of Joe Biden. Several protesters were killed during the storming, as well as one Capitol Police officer. Trump was among those who later condemned the riot.