Robespierre's own political ideas implied his readiness to strike at many of his colleagues in the committees, and Tallien was one of the men condemned. Robespierre's rivals were determined to strike first. During a session at the National Convention on 9 Thermidor (27 July), Tallien interrupted the robespierrist speaker Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and, after going up to the tribune, brandished a dagger and threatened to stab Robespierre in the chest if the Convention did not decree his accusation, calling him "the new Cromwell". The movement was successful: Robespierre and his closest allies were arrested and guillotined, and Tallien, as the leading Thermidorian, was elected to the Committee of Public Safety. He was instrumental in suppressing the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Jacobin Club; he attacked Jean-Baptiste Carrier and Joseph Le Bon, who had been representatives of Robespierre to Nantes and Arras respectively, and he fought with energy against the insurgents of Prairial (20 May 1795).