The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee opened a prime-time hearing Thursday by comparing the defense of the Capitol rioters to the defenders of the Ku Klux Klan in his home state of Mississippi.
“I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery Klu Klux Klan and lynching and remain reminded of that dark history as I hear voices to try and justify the actions of the insurrection is on Jan. 6, 2021,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman.
Mr. Thompson decried those in Congress who have tried to “whitewash” the riot and warned that American democracy remains threatened by those “who thirst for power.