House Democrats are pushing to have the former Jan. 6 Committee chairman who sought to strip former President Donald Trump of his security detail earlier this year serve on a bipartisan commission investigating the recent assassination attempt.
On Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that former Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is one top candidate Democrats are considering for an appointment to the 11-person panel established by House leadership.
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can choose five Democrats to serve along with six Republicans,” Punchbowl reported. “Democrats are still sorting through potential candidates. But one name we’ve heard is Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Thompson is the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel and chaired the Jan. 6 Committee.”
In the spring, however, Thompson introduced legislation to leave Trump vulnerable to assassination with the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act (HR 8081). The bill, proposed in April, would have terminated Secret Service protection for otherwise qualified candidates who are convicted of a felony. Trump was convicted by a New York jury in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records when the Manhattan real estate mogul labeled payments to a lawyer as legal expenses.
The Mississippi lawmaker wrote in a post on X he was “glad the former President is safe” following a would-be assassin’s bullet tearing through Trump’s ear at a Pennsylvania rally. Trump miraculously survived the assassination attempt with a last-second tilt of the head
