Trump blasts Jan. 6 committee, Mike Pence in speech to Evangelical Christian groups

NASHVILLE – Former President Donald Trump spent the bulk of his 90-minute speech to the Road to Majority conference Friday bitterly slamming the House investigation into the violent Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, and called on Republicans to “investigate” the committee.

“When Republicans retake control of Congress, they should turn the table on the Democratic show trial and immediately launch a full investigation into the egregious abuse of power that has taken place in the name of Jan. 6,” Trump said.

Trump said the House should subpoena House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but reserved special barbs for Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger. “He cries every time he speaks. I think he’s got a mental disorder,” Trump said.

Trump addressed the crowd gathered for the Road to Majority conference at the palatial Gaylord Opryland in Nashville on Friday, speaking after a slate of GOP stars like Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. 

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The Jan. 6 committee is investigating the attack on the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, and allege that Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen inspired the violent storming of the building as Congress convened to certify the electoral college votes. 

Former President Donald Trump walks on to the stage to speak at the Road to Majority conference Friday, June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn.
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Trump denied calling former Vice President Mike Pence a “wimp” for failing to block certification of the 2020 election, as the committee investigators alleged during Thursday’s hearing.

“I never called Mike Pence a wimp,” Trump said, adding that he only thought that “Mike Pence had a chance to be great” but he “did not have the courage to act.”

“Mike Pence had no choice but to be a human conveyer belt,” Trump said.

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Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr also failed to act, according to the former president, out of fear of impeachment. “Bill Barr was afraid of certain things, and you know what they were — ‘don’t impeach me!'”

Jan. 6 Committee co-chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said Thursday that Pence showed courage by resisting Trump’s desire to halt the certification. 

“When Mike Pence made it clear that he wouldn’t give in to Donald Trump’s scheme. Donald Trump turned the mob on him — a mob that was chanting Hang Mike Pence. A mob that had built a hangman’s gallows just outside the Capitol,” Thompson said.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Road to Majority conference Friday, June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn.
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

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Trump, who calls the Jan. 6 Committee the “unselect committee” and claimed it was as much of a hoax as the Russia investigation, which he said has been “totally debunked.”

Hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition — a public advocacy group founded over a decade ago by Ralph Reed, a well-known and veteran political consultant who in the 1990s steered the Christian Coalition — the Road to Majority conference annually attracts thousands of Republican and conservative leaders, strategists, activists and evangelical voters to push social conservative principles in American politics.  

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The Faith and Freedom Coalition touts that their gathering is “the nation’s premiere pro-faith, pro-family event,” and says “this annual conference is designed to empower conservative activists to fight for their values at the polls and in the public arena and to equip attendees with the knowledge and connections they need to drive engagement and voter turnout.”