“We don’t need to try to explain or come up with alternative versions. We’ve all seen what happened,” Blunt told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Jan.6, when a crowd former supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election, clashed with police, ransacked Congressional offices and threatened the vice’s life -President Mike Pence and lawmakers.
Calling January 6 a “terrible day for America,” the Missouri Republican said, “I think that was absolutely unacceptable and we cannot let this kind of thing repeat itself in our country.”
Johnson falsely claimed on Saturday that there was no violence from the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol during the attack, and earlier this month he said he “never really felt threatened “and” was not concerned “during the riot because he believed the rioters were” the people who love this country, who really respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law. “
The Wisconsin Republican made several comments downplaying the seriousness of the attack on Capitol Hill, including saying he didn’t believe what happened was an “armed insurgency.” Johnson also pushed the conspiracy theory that there were professional provocateurs among the crowd on Capitol Hill – although the FBI said there was no evidence that Antifa or other groups of instigators left were part of the crowd.
Former Republican President George W. Bush told the Texas Tribune that he had “a stomach ache … to see our nation’s Capitol being stormed by hostile forces.”
On Sunday, Blunt told NBC he “agreed much more” with Bush’s view of what happened on January 6.
As talks to form an independent 9/11-type commission to investigate the riot stalled, Blunt, as the senior Republican on the Senate Rules Committee, argued that Congress could “move on. forward and make the changes that need to be made ”to Capitol Hill security.
“Congress itself has the capacity here to move forward,” Blunt said. “That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a commission, but frankly I think the commission would probably be a reason to wait and not do the things we know we need to do now.”
Blunt announced earlier this month that he would not seek re-election.
CNN’s Nicky Robertson and Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.
