What to Expect From the Eighth — But Not Last — Jan. 6 Committee Hearing
The Jan. 6 committee’s public hearings were expected to wrap up on Thursday, with a final, primetime hearing during which the panel will delve into what former President Trump was doing as the attack on the Capitol unfolded last Jan. 6. But Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) announced at the start of the hearing that the committee will hold additional hearings in September.
The committee has so far held seven public hearings that have jam-packed with damning revelations about Trump and his team’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The bipartisan panel has spent nearly a year interviewing hundreds of witnesses and combing through thousands of pages of documents in order to piece together the particulars of the attempted coup, culminating with the attack on the Capitol. The first seven hearings have covered the viciousness of the riot and how Trump inspired it, how the Big Lie that the election was stolen took root, the former president’s pressure campaign to get Mike Pence to illegally block the certification of the Electoral College, the push to get states to go along with the scheme, Trump’s effort to corrupt the Justice Department into aiding his attempt to overturn the election, a slew of bombshell revelations from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and how Trump and those around him very much knew to expect violence on Jan. 6.
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Here’s everything you need to know about what is expected to be the final hearing:
How to Watch the Jan. 6 Committee Hearing
The eighth and final hearing is expected to take place in primetime on Thursday, July 21. The Jan. 6 hearing can be streamed online on the committee’s YouTube page. You can also find a live stream of the Jan. 6 hearings on the streaming service Peacock (part of the NBCUniversal family).
Who Is Testifying During the Jan. 6 Committee Hearing?
Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said recently the hearing will cover the 187 minutes from when Trump’s rally at the Ellipse concluded to when he finally called for the mob of his supporters ransacking the Capitol to go home. Luria will lead the proceedings, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).
Two witnesses will be questioned during the hearing.
Matthew Pottinger: Pottinger was Trump’s deputy national security adviser who resigned on Jan. 6. He was in the White House for most of the day of the attack.
Sarah Matthews: Matthews was Trump’s deputy press secretary who, like Pottinger, resigned following the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. She is expected to speak to the effort to convince Trump to issue a statement calling off the rioters.
It’s been reported previously that Trump was watching TV for most of the riot. Rep. Kinzinger on Thursday tweeted video of several witnesses recounting how Trump was not in the Oval Office or Situation Room on Jan. 6, but instead in the dining room watching the violence on the news.
“You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help,” Vice Chair Liz Cheney teased following the seventh hearing. “This is not ambiguous. He did not call the military. His secretary of defense received no order. He did not call his attorney general. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security.”
What was Donald Trump doing while the Capitol was under siege? Take a look. pic.twitter.com/9mz3P6C4qK
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 21, 2022
Trump’s obstinance extended into his post-Jan.6 messaging, with The Washington Post reporting on Wednesday that the former president struggled on Jan. 7 to tape a message holding the rioters responsible for the attack, and that video of Trump refusing to do so could be played during the hearing Thursday night. Trump did record the video eventually, but as Rolling Stone reported on Thursday, he pushed to record another one doubling down on the lie that the election was “stolen.”
Thursday’s hearing will be the second to be in primetime. The first, the committee’s initial hearing in early June, drew around 20 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
When Is the next Jan. 6 Committee Hearing?
The eighth hearing on Thursday was expected to be the last one, but Thompson announced that the committee will hold additional hearings in September. He did not specify how many additional hearings will be held, or when they will be held. The committee is expected to release a final report of its findings sometime in September.
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