Politicians fresh off the impeachment acquittal of former US President Donald Trump are issuing growing calls for a bipartisan commission to investigate the administrative and law enforcement failures that led to the mob attack on the Capitol on 6 January and recommend changes to prevent another siege.
Such a commission appears to be the primary remaining option for Congress to try to hold Mr Trump to account for his role in the assault.
Top politicians have quashed the idea of a post-impeachment censure of the former president, and the possibility of barring him from future office under the 14th Amendment, which prohibits any official involved in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office, seems remote.
Politicians in both parties have called for a bipartisan and impartial commission modelled on the panel established after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001.
President George W Bush signed a law establishing the 9/11 Commission in 2002, mandated to investigate what caused the attack and what might have stopped it, and to outline how to prevent a similar attack.
After a 20-month investigation, the commission offered three dozen recommendations for how to reshape intelligence coordination and congressional oversight.
“We need a 9/11 Commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again, and I want to make sure that the Capitol footprint can be better defended next time,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News Sunday.
In the House, rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties have introduced legislation that would establish a commission, with some Democrats proposing a broader examination of domestic terrorism and violent extremism.
“We will have an after-action review,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters late last month.
“There will be a commission.”
Democrats framed a possible commission Sunday as a way to underscore Mr Trump’s role in the events.
“There’s still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons said on This Week, adding that a commission would “lay bare the record of just how responsible” Mr Trump was for the attack.
