A retiring Republican senator is urging his party not to “explain away” the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Trump’s supporters.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Sunday that Republicans should not come up with “alternative versions” for what happened, an apparent reference to those who have argued that “antifa” or left-wing protesters were responsible for driving the violence.
“We don’t need to try and explain away or come up with alternative versions. We all saw what happened, we know what happened,” Blunt said. “We can’t let that kind of thing be repeated in our country.”
“Totally unacceptable,” he added.
Blunt also said that he would back a bipartisan commission to examine the events of that day.
The senator was one of many GOP lawmakers who supported Trump’s legal challenges to the presidential election, but did not support objections to the official certification of the Electoral College results in January.
Earlier this month, he announced he would not seek reelection in 2022, a move that opens Missouri’s Senate seat up as a prime battleground for the next election cycle.