VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Congresswoman Elaine Luria took an oath at 17 to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies — foreign and domestic.
Throughout her 20-year military career, it was always the former that took precedence.
“It was all about protecting our country from the foreign threats,” she said Monday at a coffee shop in downtown Norfolk.
But now it’s the latter part of her oath taking center stage.
Luria, D-Va., is among the nine representatives serving on a U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. After a nearly yearlong investigation, the panel began showcasing its findings at televised hearings in June.
The final hearings, the last of which will be led by Luria and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, are slated for later this week and next. For Luria, this likely marks her highest profile role since she was elected to Congress in 2018.
“I think that the committee has more than sufficient information that indicates criminal activity that we need to pass along to the Department of Justice,” she said.
Luria said the hearing she’ll be leading, which is scheduled for next week and expected to be televised on CNN and MSNBC, will focus on then-President Donald Trump’s actions during the 187 minutes that lapsed between his two public appearances on Jan. 6, and whether the former president’s conduct was a “dereliction of duty.”
Trump addressed his supporters on Jan. 6 from a park near the White House, telling the crowd to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” or they would lose their country. After he left, hundreds in the crowd stormed the Capitol. But Trump did not speak again publicly until he gave remarks from the White House Rose Garden later that afternoon.
“Not only did he fail to act; he deliberately did not act,” Luria said. “He allowed for more than three hours (to pass) until it was clear that the violence at the Capitol was not going to result in his desired outcome. Then finally, at around 4, he made that speech in the Rose Garden.”
Luria said his statement in the Rose Garden was also problematic.
“If you read the text of it, that was not at all the message that was needed at the time,” she said, adding he did not condemn those who invaded the Capitol.
During Trump’s remarks, he told the rioters they were “very special” and continued to push baseless claims about election fraud.
“I know you’re hurt,” he said. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now.”
Luria said the other hearing this week will focus on the role far-right militias played in the attack. It’s a crucial issue, she said, as the extremist groups are still a danger.
“It’s not just about the events that happened on Jan. 6; it’s much bigger and a lot of the threat still remains,” she said.
Although some committee members have reportedly been threatened or harassed for their work, Luria said she’s mostly received support from her constituents in Hampton Roads.
“When I talk to people around the community, they tell me thank you,” she said. “They didn’t have the full picture of the deliberate attempt to undermine our government.”
Luria added that she was eager to join the panel; she wrote to House leadership and offered to serve as a committee member.
As a newer member of Congress, she didn’t expect to be selected. But the retired Naval officer told the committee’s leaders she was compelled to volunteer because of her vow to protect the nation against all threats — foreign and domestic.
The congresswoman was at her office in the Cannon House Building across the street from the Capitol when the attack occurred. She remembered watching in anger and disbelief as Trump’s supporters smashed their way inside, and texting her colleagues who were on the floor and getting no response.
She recalled being evacuated with her chief of staff, who was nine months pregnant, after a pipe bomb was found nearby at the Republican National Committee headquarters — and later feeling sick when she saw photos of a rioter in a gray sweatshirt with “Camp Auschwitz” emblazoned on the front.
“That oath I took as an officer of the military was very important to me,” Luria said. “I wanted to be part of the solution so this can’t happen again in the future. This is too important for us not to look into the facts; you can’t have this kind of violence, this intent to stop the proceedings in our government and not get to the bottom of it.”
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