WATCH: Committee plans to recommend changes to laws, policies to ‘guard against another Jan. 6’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., spoke on July 21 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public. The hearing focused on what former President Donald Trump was doing during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in an effort to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

Kinzinger said Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 was a “supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonor to all those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy.”

Kinzinger said the consequences of Trump’s encouragement of the insurrectionists is the reason that when the committee presents its full findings, they will “recommend changes to laws and policies to guard against another Jan. 6.”

He said the disinformation and ideologies that spurred the Capitol riot have not gone away within communities across America.

“If Jan. 6 has reminded us of anything, I pray it reminds us of this: Laws are just words on paper. They mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law,” he said. “The people must demand more of our politicians and ourselves. Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of ours, our shining beacon on a hill, will not endure.”

In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.

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