President Joe Biden has made a rare remark on the public hearings into the January 6 and the involvement of his Republican rival, Donald Trump.
In the latest hearing on Thursday, the panel voted to subpoena Trump to testify before them, but stopped short of referring the former president to the DOJ for criminal conduct.
Asked on Saturday what he had made of the hearing, Biden said: “I think the testimony in the video are actually devastating. And I’ve been going out of my way not to comment and see what happens. But it’s, I think it’s been devastating.
“I mean, the case has been made, it seems to me, fairly overwhelming. But any more I say about it, you – justified – are going to ask me if I’m trying to influence the Attorney General. I’m not. I’ve not spoken with him at all.”
Biden was speaking to reporters in Portland, Oregon, where the Democrat is campaigning ahead of next month’s Midterms.
During Thursday’s televised hearing, the select committee laid significant blame for the riot on Trump and said the former president “is required to answer for his actions.”
Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said: “We have left no doubt – none – that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6.
“He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from him.”
Trump shared a lengthy response to the committee’s investigation and said the panel spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” on what he described as a “witch hunt.”
He said: “A large percentage of American citizens, including almost the entire Republican Party, feel that the election was rigged and stolen.
“No work was done by the Committee on election fraud. We and a huge portion of the American people simply asked that it be part of your Committee’s work. It wasn’t.”
The former president later added: “It is a witch hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years.
“You have not gone after the people that created the Fraud, but rather great American patriots who questioned it, as is their constitutional right. These people have had their lives ruined as your committee sits back and basks in the glow.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House and a Trump spokesperson for comment.
Throughout the January 6 panel’s investigation, several Trump allies have refused to comply with congressional subpoena, including his former advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro.
Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former U.S. attorney, previously told Newsweek Trump’s contribution would be minimal at best should he even comply with the subpoena order.
She added: “My guess is he will stall, invoke executive privilege or even the Fifth Amendment and never appear at all.
“If he invokes the Fifth Amendment, he cannot be compelled to testify unless he receives immunity and no one is going to give him that.”
The Fifth Amendment states no person will be held to answer for a crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.
