SC’s Mulvaney calls Capitol riot video ‘stunning’ as House hearings into Jan. 6 begin
Newly released video of Jan. 6 rioters fighting with U.S. Capitol Police was “stunning” and “critical,” South Carolina’s Mick Mulvaney tweeted Thursday night, as the U.S. House committee investigating the riot held its first prime-time hearing.
“My takeaway: the critical thing tonight was the video,” Mulvaney, who served in the Trump administration and exited after the Jan. 6 riot, tweeted. “Because as biased as the committee is — and it absolutely is — you cannot say the same thing about the video.”
“That video was stunning...and more powerful than anything Bennie or Liz said,” another tweet from Mulvaney said, referencing the Democrat and Republican leading the investigation committee, Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, and Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming.
Notably missing from the public discourse Thursday night were some of South Carolina’s top elected officials who were in the Capitol that day to certify the 2020 presidential election declaring President Joe Biden the winner.
In the days leading up to Thursday’s hearing, U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, unapologetically defended his decision to impeach former President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, making him one of 10 House Republicans to vote for impeachment.
The stance has put Rice at risk of losing the 7th District to Trump-backed state Rep. Russell Fry in the June 14 primaries.
Rice did not acknowledge Thursday’s prime-time showing on Twitter. But he has repeatedly defended his decision to impeach Trump, calling it the right thing to do. On the campaign trail earlier this month, former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said many members of Congress wanted to vote like Rice, “but ... just didn’t have the guts to do it.”
Another S.C. Republican facing a challenge from a Trump-backed candidate who did not react on social media to the Jan. 6 hearing was U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Daniel Island. Mace disavowed Trump in the past for his involvement in the Capitol riot but, unlike Rice, did not vote for his impeachment.
In Mace’s case, silence did not protect the representative from attacks from both sides of the political aisle.
Katie Arrington, Mace’s Trump-endorsed Republican primary opponent, issued a tweet after the hearing that attacked Mace’s critical view of the former president.
“The next January 6th committee hearing will be just in time for Nancy Mace to provide some commentary with her co-hosts from The View!” Arrington said.
“Katie Arrington’s lawyers are probably concerned about whether or not next there’s a Jan. 6 Commission, she’s going to be in jail for illegally bribing her third opponent in this race to drop out of the race and endorse her,” Austin McCubbin, Mace’s campaign manager, told The State in response to Arrington’s Tweet.
The third Republican candidate for the 1st District, Lynz Piper-Loomis, dropped out of the race and endorsed Arrington on stage at a May 23 debate.
Annie Andrews, the Democratic candidate for S.C.’s 1st District and Mace’s next opponent should she win the Republican primary, recently released an attack ad centered around Mace’s decision not to impeach Trump.
“Last night’s Jan 6th hearing was breathtaking and infuriating. My opponent @NancyMace knows the truth but decided that winning her primary is more important than keeping her word to hold Trump accountable.” Andrews wrote on Twitter Friday. “She’s a sell out and must be defeated.”
South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, who is seeking reelection this year, took a more cryptic approach during the hearing — putting out a new tweet that followed tweets earlier in the day about an armed man being arrested for planning to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“The Reagan doctrine of ‘Peace Through Strength’ is needed now just like it was during the Cold War,” Scott said.
Other members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation took aim at the House committee altogether.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, called the committee hearing a “Washington story” and “political theater.”
And U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greenville, went further, calling the hearing “an abomination.”
U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, also weighed in, describing the hearing as a “heavy dose of truth.”
What happened at the first Jan. 6 hearing?
The committee, led by U.S. Rep. Thompson, is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans — Reps. Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois.
The hearings come after 11 months of investigation that has resulted in so far more than 800 people being charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
In South Carolina, 16 have been charged for their alleged involvement. Seven have pleaded guilty.
“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said in her opening remarks.
The committee called two witnesses to the stand Thursday: Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards and documentary filmmaker Nick Quested.
Edwards described the violence she encountered from rioters as a “war zone,” where she was eventually knocked unconscious and suffered a subsequent traumatic brain injury. She also recounted seeing Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died the following day from two strokes, turn pale after being pepper sprayed.
Offering a different perspective of what transpired on Jan. 6, Quested detailed his time filming a documentary on American extremism that included the Proud Boys — a far-right, exclusively male organization that engages in political violence. In his time filming the group, Quested supported the idea that the Proud Boys had direct involvement in planning the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The next Jan. 6 House committee hearing will be at 10 a.m. Monday.
