US Democrat politicians Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have suggested outgoing US President Donald Trump may have been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Capitol riots.
Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, and House Speaker Pelosi made the comments during the 'You and Me Both' podcast released on Tuesday.
Clinton said that Americans had "learned a lot" about the country's system of government since Trump was inaugurated four years ago and said she thought he had "other agendas" while in office.
"What they all are, I don't think we yet know. I hope historically we will find out who he's beholden to, who pulls his strings," she said.
"I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol. But we now know that not just him, but his enablers, his accomplices, his cult members, have the same disregard for democracy."
Pelosi revealed that during the discussions in Congress over the past two weeks that she had told Trump: "'With you, Mr President, all roads lead to Putin'."
"I don't know what Putin has on him politically, financially, or personally, but what happened last week was a gift to Putin, because Putin wants to undermine democracy in our country and throughout the world," she told Clinton.
"And these people, unbeknownst to them, maybe, are Putin puppets. They were doing Putin's business when they did that at the incitement of an insurrection by the President of the United States."
The women questioned during the podcast whether a "9/11-type commission" was needed to investigate Trump and the Capitol riots, with Pelosi saying she was for it there was "strong support" in Congress.
The House Democrats, led by Pelosi, last week introduced an article of impeachment against Trump for his actions during the riots.
Congress was due to meet on January 6 to count the electoral college votes and certify Democratic candidate Joe Biden as the next US President.
However at a rally before the meeting, Trump told protesters: "You don't concede when there's theft involved. Our country has had enough and we will not take it anymore."
Then during the protests he released two tweets which were found to be at "risk of further incitement of violence".
President-elect Biden is due to be inaugurated on Thursday morning (NZ time).
Newshub.co.nz will be live-updating events from President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration from 4am, while The AM Show will have live coverage and expert opinion from 5:30am.
