GOP Rep. says Trump showed 'negligence' when he didn't intervene during Capitol riot: 'He should have done better'

• A GOP Rep. slammed Trump for not acting during the Capitol riot.
• Rep. Don Bacon told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump "should've done better."

A GOP Representative said former President Donald Trump was negligent for not intervening during the Capitol riot,.

"The president had the opportunity for over three hours to speak up, and I think it was negligence. He should've done better. I didn't care for the way he treated Vice President Pence, I thought that was wrong as well," Rep. Don Bacon told NBC's "Meet the Press" Chuck Todd. "So I've been critical of the president on January 6th and beyond. I thought he should've been a better leader in this case."

Bacon said Trump could have gone on TV or said anything to tell "the protesters to stop."

"I'm all for peaceful protest, but when you're assaulting police and when you're vandalizing the Capitol and you're defecating in the Capitol, which those things happened, it's wrong," he said.

Bacon said he's not a lawyer or judge to say if "dereliction of duty was criminal," but said it was "wrong."

"And as a citizen, I think, you know, the American people have to judge this themselves, whether it's, you know, charging someone for a crime or not, but we have to judge it just from a political standpoint. And I think the American people, by and large, know it was wrong not to intervene and not to say something. We have a duty as citizens, and he had a duty as a president and as a leader. I'm a five-time commander in the Air Force. You've got to speak up and take charge, and he did not," Bacon said.

Rep. Elaine Lurie, a member of the January 6 committee, told Todd that the upcoming hearing will focus on Trump's "dereliction of duty," and how Trump tried to pressure local, state, and federal officials to overturn the election, after baselessly claiming it was rigged against him.

"We've pieced together a very comprehensive tick-tock timeline of what he did," the Virginia lawmaker said.

Lurie also said Trump neglected his duty to act during the riot.

"This man had the microphone, he could speak to the whole country," she said. "His duty was to stand up and say something and try to stop this. So we'll talk about that, what I see to be his dereliction of duty."