January 6 ‘was a coup organized by the president’, says Jamie Raskin

‘There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with that plan,’ Jamie Raskin said. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Donald Trump attempted a coup on 6 January 2021 as he tried to salvage his doomed presidency, and that will be a central focus of forthcoming public hearings of the special House panel investigating events surrounding the insurrection at the US Capitol, the congressman Jamie Raskin has said.

Raskin is a prominent Democrat on the committee and also led the House efforts when Trump was impeached for a historic second time, in 2021, accused of inciting the storming of the US Capitol by his extremist supporters who were trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.