Donald Trump bears some blame for Jan. 6 insurrection, former House Speaker John Boehner says

Former House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday pointed blame toward former President Donald Trump for what happened during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“I watched, like everybody else did, every day after the election when Donald Trump was making these exaggerated claims about the election outcome,” Boehner told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” in a pre-recorded interview. “And so, Donald Trump does, in fact, bear some of the blame for what happened on Jan 6.”

The Capitol breach that day delayed Congress’ formal count of electoral votes that eventually certified Joe Biden as the 2020 election winner. Earlier that day, Trump told supporters at a rally outside the White House to march to the Capitol to protest the election’s results amid unfounded accusations of widespread fraud.

Boehner’s comments come less than a week after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would create an independent commission to investigate the attack. The former House Speaker noted it “is hard to get both parties to agree to a fair commission.” However, he added that “the American people absolutely need to know what happened” on Jan. 6.

Boehner — who served as Speaker from 2011 to 2015 — also acknowledged that while there’s a divide between pro- and anti-Trump Republicans, Democrats are just as divided.

“Democrats have the same problems between traditional Democrats and, you know, the Left Wing Progressives, and so it’s kind of a feature of a modern day politics, when you have essentially a two-party system,” Boehner said. 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/03/donald-trump-bears-some-of-the-blame-for-jan-6-insurrection-john-boehner-says.html