Jan. 6 hearings get off to dramatic start: ‘Our democracy remains in danger’
The first televised hearing of the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol began Thursday night with powerful denunciations of former President Donald Trump — amid mixed prospects for whether the panel will bring about justice over the unprecedented attack on democracy.
“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy and ultimately … spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert America democracy,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the special committee.
“Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup,” he continued. “The violence was no accident. It represents President Trump’s last stand, most desperate chance, to halt the transfer of power.”
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., left, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listen. (Andrew Harnik/)
Hearings to come will detail a “seven-part plan” to overturn the 2020 election and keep Trump in power, according to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“He did not condemn the attack. Instead, he justified it,” she said of the ex-president.
Further, upon being told some of his supporters were calling for former Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged, Trump said they might have “had the right idea,” Cheney recounted in one of several stunning moments during the hearing.
The committee played clips of previously unseen interviews with former Attorney General Bill Barr and with Ivanka Trump, daughter of the ex-president and one of his main advisers.
Discussing Trump’s attempt to cast the election as stolen from him, Barr called the effort “bulls--t.” In a separate interview, Ivanka Trump said she accepted Barr’s views on the election.
The hearing featured testimony from U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was seriously injured during the siege, and documentarian Nick Quested, who recorded members of the far-right Proud Boys as they attacked the Capitol.
Edwards described injuries she suffered during the riot and subsequent right-wing efforts to smear her.
“I was called Nancy Pelosi’s dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain,” she said. “I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things.”
From left to right, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., are seated as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite/)
The hearing — broadcast on every major network with the marked exception of pro-Trump Fox News — came on the homestretch of a nearly yearlong investigation into the attack on the Capitol as lawmakers met to finalize the 2020 presidential election.
The committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans interviewed more than 1,000 people and subpoenaed top members of the Trump administration, though the ex-president’s allies fought the process tooth and nail.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (J. Scott Applewhite/)
Core aspects of the Jan. 6 siege are not in dispute. Trump was seen on television riling up thousands of his supporters gathered near the White House. They gathered after the ex-president had raged for weeks that Democrats stole the 2020 election from him — an allegation that repeatedly floundered in court.
“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” the 45th commander-in-chief said in one of the quotes highlighted by Democrats who eventually impeached him for inciting the attack.
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (Evan Vucci/)
After the speech, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent members of Congress from certifying President Biden as the election’s winner. Four people died during the attack, and five police officers died afterward.
The special committee depicted Trump as an enemy of democracy, with Cheney saying he wanted to “destroy” the government.
Video clips highlighted division within the White House in January, with some officials described as encouraging Trump to try to overthrow the election and others resigning in disgust over the Jan. 6 riot.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key advisor, was seen playing down the internal turmoil. He dismissed White House lawyer Pat Cipollone’s threat to resign over Trump’s false election claims as “whining.”
While the House impeached Trump — for the second time during his presidency — over his role in the siege, the evenly divided Senate voted against punishing him. Since then, the Justice Department has charged more than 800 people with crimes related to the attack, according to NPR.
FILE - Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (John Minchillo/)
Republican leaders have sought to undermine the investigation almost from the start. After blocking the creation of an independent commission, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two GOP nominees to the special committee, citing their “statements and actions” opposing congressional approval of the 2020 presidential election results.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) bashed the hearings earlier Thursday.
“It is the most political and least legitimate committee in American history,” he said at a press conference.
Cheney — one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year, making her a pariah in the GOP — had harsh words for members of her party who have stood by him.
“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” she said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of Calif., speaks during a news conference on the House Jan. 6 Committee, Thursday, June 9, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/)
The hearings evoked comparisons to the congressional hearings of 1973 and 1974 investigating the Watergate break-in, which created a public reckoning and led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
But with many Trump supporters firmly opposed to the work of the committee, it remained unclear Thursday whether the panel had the power to change anyone’s mind.
“In order to work at all, it has to be a blockbuster. It’s got to be four-and-a-half stars out of four. It’s got to be dramatic, it’s got to flow, it’s got to be succinct at the same time,” Doug Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College, told the Daily News.
Thompson voiced hope that the hearings will bolster democracy.
“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug,” he said. “The American people deserve answers.”
“We’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards, because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson added.
With News Wire Services
