Kinzinger says Jan. 6 panel already has ‘powerful and substantive narrative’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol already has a “powerful and substantive narrative,” months into its probe of the fatal riot.

Asked by moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” how much of the Jan. 6 story the panel would have today if it did not receive any additional information, Kinzinger said the congressional investigators “know a lot of the narrative.”

“I think the most important thing is not even the day of Jan. 6. It’s what led to it. We have a lot of what’s out there in the public venue, what the president himself said, the fact that he was watching for three hours on TV, probably gleefully, while this happened,” Kinzinger said.

“So I think if everything shut down today, we’d be able to put out a powerful and substantive narrative. We still have more information, obviously, we want to get,” he added.

Kinzinger’s comments come just days after the U.S. recognized the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack, in which a pro-Trump mob tried to thwart the certification of the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election.

The House panel held its first hearing in July and has been probing the events related to the deadly attack since. It has spoken with more than 300 individuals thus far.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, said in September that he hoped the committee could complete its work by “early spring” of this year.

Asked by Todd about one thing the committee does not have that it thinks it needs to better understand Jan. 6 or make a stronger report, Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans serving on the panel, said he is interested in knowing what then-President Trump knew about plans for Jan. 6 before the riot.

“I think the one thing that if I could wave a magic wand and have more information on, it would certainly be, what did the president know about Jan. 6 leading up to Jan. 6? I think what’s important is, it’s the difference between was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward on the 6th when he didn’t do anything, or did he know what was coming?” Kinzinger said.

He also said those two possibilities represent “a difference between incompetence with your oath and possibly criminal.”

“That’s where I want to get more information. We do have obviously some, some things leading up to that, but the more information we can get, obviously, the better,” he added.