Commission Looks Into Jan. 6 Insurrection

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You had a independent bipartisan commission for 9/11. And now we have this sort of hybrid for January 6. Do you believe after this opening day, that it is something that’s going to get to the truth and make a difference for the future?

TOM KEAN, FMR CHAIRMAN OF 9/11 COMMISSION: It’s going to be very helpful, because we’re going to find out things we don’t know already on this terrible day. But it’s hard, because it is not bipartisan as it should be. Whether or not the American people will therefore accept its findings or whether people will fight over those findings. We still have to see. But at least we’re having some sort of investigation. There’s something that simply has to be investigated if we’re going to go on as a future of this democracy.

AMANPOUR: OK, so it’s important, I want to drill down on that before getting to the specifics, the very dramatic specifics of what in transpired today. You know, you say, we’ll have to see what the American people accepted. Describe your commission and what briefly, if you could, and what you think, was the reason for which it was accepted. And in fact, Congress did act on your recommendations.

KEAN: Oh you authorized this by United States Congress, and then by the President. The members are appointed by both parties in both Houses. And I was Chairman, I was appointed by the President. And, as we — and then we did, I did something else, which turned out to be very important. When I was named chairman, I met the vice chairman for the first time Lee Hamilton, who is a very respected member of Congress for years. I said, Lee, I’m going to do nothing in this commission, without your approval. Now, in Congress, the chairman is everything. The vice chairman is nothing. So Lee was taken back by that. When the Democrats heard that I was going to do nothing is chairman without the approval of the vice chairman, the Democrat, things got a lot easier. Because, and we did things together. All through the process, everything we did was bipartisan, except as bipartisan. And therefore neither side was able to criticize. That was very, very important. And unfortunately, this is not set up that way. Republicans don’t have any veto power. It’s going to be run by the Democrats and hopefully run well by the Democrats. But it’s, it’s more difficult to have it accepted. It’s wonderful to find the truth, first of all, secondly, more difficult accepted by the American people, if it is not outwardly bipartisan.