Trump “is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened,” Hutchinson told Bret Baier on “Fox News Sunday.”
However, the outgoing state leader said the House select panel investigating the siege had yet to prove more regarding Trump’s role.
“In terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go before they could establish that,” added Hutchinson, who is in the final year of office due to term limits. Trump loyalist and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the GOP candidate to replace him.
The panel’s public hearings on the insurrection to overturn the 2020 election results were set to continue Monday, aiming to prove Trump’s guilt. Hutchinson said establishing a criminal link was a “heavy lift.” But panel members said Sunday they have enough evidence to generate a criminal indictment against the twice-impeached former president.
Hutchinson called Jan. 6 a “costly error” that was “wrong for our country” and “wrong to push in that direction.”
“I think Republicans need to do a lot of soul searching as to what is the right thing here and what is the right thing to say for our party, for our democracy and for our future and not simply appeal to the basest instincts of some of our base,” he said.
