Despite widespread resistance from congressional Republicans, the House of Representatives established a select committee to investigate the deadly failed insurrection of January 6, when a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol, beating police officers, ransacking offices, and threatening the lives of any lawmaker they perceived as disloyal to Trump.
The committee recently issued a wave of subpoenas for Trump officials and "Stop the Steal" activists like Steve Bannon and Ali Alexander to further the investigation into the riot's origins. Bannon, as well as Trump's former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, have refused to comply.
In a Twitter thread on Friday, anti-Trump Republican and a founder of the Lincoln Project—Rick Wilson—expressed his frustration with the committee, claiming it was "dead already" and that the January 6 riots would "go unexamined and unpunished."
A "livid" Wilson went on to say the committee was "staffed wrong, led wrong, and a gutless exercise to get back to talking about infrastructure." He warned that the insurrection was just a training exercise for something bigger, and that "a mob of Bannon's terrorists burn you to the ground and piss on the ashes."
Soon, the official Twitter account for the January 6 committee issued a blunt response to Wilson's claim.
The account didn't elaborate on why Wilson's claims were "nonsense," and he urged them to prove him wrong.
Others agreed
In light of the collective defiance of the committee's subpoenas, the congressmembers released a statement saying they would "swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral" to those who don't show up to testify.
Some are saying they're moving too slowly.
It's unclear how the committee intends to enforce the subpoenas.
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