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Donald Trump: Was the 45th President of the United States
Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
Shortly before the start of the public hearings in the investigative committee into the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, former US President Donald Trump spoke on his new online platform Truth Social.
"January 6 was not just a protest, it represented the largest movement in our country's history to make America great again," said the 75-year-old.
"It was about an election that was rigged and stolen, and a country that was about to go to hell," Trump repeated his often refuted allegations that massive electoral fraud robbed him of a second term.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 presidential election was to be certified there.
The storming of the seat of Congress with five dead caused horror around the world.
From Thursday evening, the parliamentary committee of inquiry will present its first findings on Trump's role in the riots.
The meeting will be televised during prime time.
According to the committee's assessment, Trump's allegations of alleged voter fraud laid the basis for the storming of the Capitol.
In an incendiary speech on January 6, he also called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and fight “whatever the hell”.
The nine members of the committee - seven Democrats and two Republicans - had started their work almost a year ago.
Since then, they have viewed around 140,000 documents and interviewed more than a thousand witnesses, including Trump's son Donald Junior, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
During the 90-minute session on Thursday, previously unreleased video recordings of the escalation of violence are to be seen.
Excerpts from the interviews of the witnesses, including high-ranking employees of the Trump administration and members of his campaign team, are also shown.
bbr/AFP
