Jan. 6 committee chair: ‘No question’ Capitol riot was a premeditated attack

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said Sunday there was “no question” that it was a premeditated attack.

CBS’s “Face the Nation” played a portion of former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon’s podcasts, where he could be heard saying, “All hell is gonna break loose tomorrow. It’s going to be moving. It’s going to be quick. And all I can say is strap in. The war room, a posse, you have made this happen and tomorrow it’s game day.”

“How premeditated was this attack?” host Margaret Brennan asked Thompson after the clip. 

“Well, there’s no question. Clearly the direction of the committee is to look at that premeditation to make sure that we identified, but the worst kept secret in America is that Donald Trump invited individuals to come to Washington on Jan. 6,” the House Democrat said.

“Steve Bannon was part of the conversation and the promotion of Jan. 6, the very podcast we just listened to talks about it. Steve Bannon was in the war room, and he was in the Willard Hotel, doing a lot of things, so that’s why we subpoenaed him, that’s why we felt it was important for the committee and staff to depose him. But as you saw, he refused to participate,” Thompson added.

The remarks from the chairman comes as the House voted last week to hold Bannon in contempt after he refused to comply with giving a deposition, effectively snubbing their subpoena. Though the vote fell along mostly partisan lines, nine Republicans voted to hold Bannon in contempt, including two members who had not voted to impeach former President Trump.

Trump filed a lawsuit claiming he had executive privilege over the committee’s intention to gather National Archives records from when Trump was in office and in the events after the Jan. 6 riot. Bannon has argued that he is waiting for that case to be resolved in the courts before addressing the subpoena. 

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who also sits on the select committee, claimed that Bannon’s subpoena snub could suggest that the former president was “personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6th.”