Bennie Thompson reflects on helming Jan. 6 committee: ‘Humbling as a black man’
Ryan King
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Former Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) reflected on his time overseeing “one of the more consequential committees that the House has ever had” on a recent podcast.
Thompson described the thorny political nature of the panel’s work and voiced optimism that his role will inspire future generations of “black boys and black girls” across the country to see that they have an important role to play in safeguarding American democracy.
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“To be in that role and be able to make it work, I think, says to black boys and black girls all over America that we all have our role to play, and we can make it work. It can’t be done overnight. We have got to roll up our sleeves and participate in it,” Thompson told Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) on his Clyburn Chronicles podcast.
After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Democrats and a handful of Republicans were keen on convening a bipartisan commission to investigate the riot similar to the 9/11 commission that formed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. However, that quickly hit a hitch in the Senate, according to Thompson.
As a result, they established a House committee, but the effort to “make it bipartisan failed because the Republican leadership did not go with it,” he recounted. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected some of then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) picks for the panel, so he withdrew the rest of his nominees in response. That prompted Pelosi to appoint former Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY).
Throughout the process, Thompson faced a plethora of hurdles, including safety concerns that prompted many panel members to secure their homes due to an onslaught of threats. The committee was also challenged by the sheer volume of material and evidence it needed to parcel through.
“If I told you there weren’t some moments along the way during that two-year stretch that I questioned whether I could get across the finish line [that’d be false]. But then I look back on my ancestors and say, you know, what would Martin [Luther King Jr.] have done?” he said. “They’d say they would have done the best they could, and so that’s what I did.”
Thompson was eager to make some of the hearings public to apprise the country of what transpired leading up to and on the day of the riot. To achieve this, he stressed that the panel wanted to refrain from an “academic process” that could confuse the public.
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“It became a labor of love for both the committee and the staff to get it right. And the more we delved into our investigation, the closer we got to believe ‘these folks almost succeeded.’ And had it not been for the brave men and women on the Capitol Police … we would have been in uncharted territory,” Thompson said.
The Jan. 6 committee wrapped up 18 months of work late last year and released its final report.