Tuesday marked the 5th anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and, at this point, “The View” host Alyssa Farah Griffin thinks that Republicans who dismiss it only have the ability to do so because of former vice president Mike Pence.
To kick off the day’s Hot Topics, the ABC hosts watched footage of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s testimony about the attacks that was released last week, in which he stressed the culpability of President Trump in the riots. Despite that, Farah Griffin noted, the percentage of Republicans who “strongly disapprove” of what occurred on Jan. 6 has dropped dramatically in the years since.
“I want to remind folks, I think Republicans have the privilege of ‘not caring’ about January 6, because Mike Pence did the right and hard thing,” Farah Griffin said. “This would be a very different conversation if he’d not certified the election, if we’d not moved forward and sworn in the duly elected president, who was Joe Biden then. And I just wish we would pause and think about that.”
“What could that have looked like if they had thrown this back to the States?” she continued, musing. “We could have had a very different course of history. We could have had very dangerous events around this.”
Farah Griffin also encouraged people to remember that nearly every Republican at the time denounced the attacks, even if they’ve since pivoted.
For host Sunny Hostin, the takeaway from Smith’s testimony and the accompanying footage and documents was a confirmation of Trump’s motivations to run for reelection.
“What was most interesting to me is that it proved to me what I always thought: that Donald Trump ran for the presidency a second time to evade going to prison,” Hostin said. “I think there is no question now in my mind.”
You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.
