Donald Trump Calls Jan. 6 House Panel 'Traitors' Who Should Probe Mike Pence
Former President Donald Trump has called the members of the House of Representatives' Select Committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riot "traitors."
Trump issued a statement through his spokesperson Liz Harrington on Twitter on Tuesday and said that the committee should investigate former Vice President Mike Pence for not sending Electoral College votes back to state legislatures.
The former president also said that the Select Committee should probe Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He also said he advised her to increase security at the Capitol.
"So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election," Trump's statement said.
The former president has claimed the vice president has the power to reject Electoral College votes during the certification process. This claim has been widely rejected on both sides of the aisle.
Trump appears to be accusing Democrats of lying about the vice president's powers and pointed to potential reform of the Electoral Count Act as evidence.
Following the January 6 riot in 2021, members of the House Select Committee have been considering reform of the 1887 Electoral Count Act since at least October
The House Administration Committee issued a 31-page report on the matter on January 14 following months of review by legal experts and staffers. It recommended that the vice president no longer preside over the process of certifying the votes and the Senate president pro temp fulfill that role. The report also recommended clarifying that "the presiding officer does not have substantive discretion over counting votes."
In his statement on Tuesday, Trump once again said that former Vice President Pence should have worked to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and should have returned Electoral College votes to state legislatures.
Most legal experts agree that the vice president does not have the power to overturn the results of a presidential election by rejecting Electoral College votes and their role in the process is largely ceremonial.
Trump's statement also took aim at Speaker Pelosi with the former president claiming he had advised her to "substantially" increase security before January 6, 2021, but saying she had not done so.
Newsweek has asked the offices of Speaker Pelosi and Mike Pence for comment.
Trump's statement went on: "Therefore, the Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown he clearly had the right to do so!"
The new statement comes after the former president appeared to admit for the first time that he wanted Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly made unfounded allegations that the election suffered from fraud and other irregularities.
In a statement issued on Sunday criticizing Democrats and "RINO" Republicans, Trump asserted that then Vice President Pence did have the power to overturn the election.
"Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!" Trump said.
Newsweek has asked Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Select Committee, for comment.
