- Former President Donald Trump is expected to watch, so is President Joe Biden.
- Two witnesses will testify tonight, including Caroline Edwards, an injured Capitol Police officer.
- British documentarian Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack, will testify.
- House Republicans criticize the investigation as illegitimate and partisan.
WASHINGTON – The nine House members investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack begin to unveil what they’ve learned Thursday in a primetime hearing, the wind-up to a year-long effort to uncover every detail of that day, including what former President Donald Trump did or did not do as the violence intensified and what can be done to prevent a repeat.
- ⏳ What got us here?: A mob of Trump supporters, in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election, overwhelmed police, broke into the Capitol and ransacked the building in a deadly riot Jan. 6, 2021. This committee was formed to investigate the attack and produce a report, which is expected in the fall.
- 🖊️What is about to happen?: At 8 p.m. ET during a live hearing from the Capitol, Jan. 6 committee members promise to weave a tapestry of cooperating witness testimony, text messages and emails, pictures and video to chronicle for the American public what happened and why.
- 📜What’s at stake?: The committee hopes to provide the most comprehensive account yet of the riot, the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years, and recommend ways to prevent another threat to the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another. The hearings come months before the midterm elections, when Republicans seek to retake control of Congress.
Thompson: American democracy ‘remains in danger’
The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, will open Thursday’s hearing saying efforts to undermine the Constitution and thwart the will of the American people aren’t over, according to excerpts of his remarks.
Thompson, D-Miss., will say “our democracy remains in danger” and must be protected through the investigation of the Capitol attack. He said a series of hearings this month won’t just look backward at what happened Jan. 6, 2021, but also forward to protect the rule of law.
“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug,” Thompson will say. “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve and determination.”
–Bart Jansen
Who’s on the panel:Meet the members of the January 6 House select committee ahead of first public hearing Thursday
What is Donald Trump doing during the hearing?
Don’t expect former President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to testify –but Trump is expected to watch, according to people who have spoken with him in recent days.
Trump, a prolific and mercurial watcher of television news during his four years in the White House wants to know what the special House committee, packed with political opponents, will bring out to show to the American people, particularly since he has no allies on the committee to tip him off ahead of time, said two people who have talked with him recently and spoke on condition of anonymity about private conversations.
The original panel would have included GOP allies of Trump but House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy removed all five of his choices after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them.
– Chelsey Cox
Trump tuned in:Who will be Jan. 6 hearing’s most avid viewer? Donald Trump, with a team ready to hit back.
Jim Jordan spurns Jan. 6 committee as Saturday subpoena deadline looms
In an 11-page letter sent to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned the panel’s legitimacy and again asked its members to share the information amassed on him before he agrees to testify.
“While some courts have recognized the Select Committee’s investigation as having a legitimate legislative purpose, it does not necessarily follow that the Select Committee’s subpoena to me is in furtherance of a legitimate legislative purpose,” Jordan writes in the letter, sent the day of the committee’s first public hearing.
Jordan is one of five GOP members subpoenaed by the select committee, alongside Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; Andy Biggs of Arizona; Mo Brooks of Alabama; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Jordan has until Saturday to comply with the subpoena.
– Ella Lee
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What’s is the Jan. 6 committee’s hearing schedule?
Thursday’s hearing is the first in a series of public hearings on the Jan. 6 committee’s findings.
The next hearing is Monday at 10 a.m. The rest are expected to be held over the next few weeks.
– Chelsey Cox
Who’s watching?:Jan. 6 committee’s long-awaited hearings promise revelations. Will a divided US want to hear them?
House GOP Leader McCarthy declines to address 2020 election legitimacy
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday declined to say clearly whether President Joe Biden rightfully won the 2020 election.
“We’ve asked this question a long time,” McCarthy said to reporters during a press conference. “Joe Biden is the president. I think you can look that there’s a lot of problems still with the election process.”
McCarthy, who said Thursday he has answered the questions many times before, has shifted his views since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt. He suggested days after the attack that Trump resign, but has refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the committee investigating that day.
– Erin Mansfield
Biden calls Jan. 6 attack a ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’ ahead of primetime hearing
President Joe Biden called the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution” Thursday, hours before a House committee investigating the insurrection holds its first public hearing.
“A lot of Americans are going to see for the first time some of the details that occurred,” Biden said, giving unprompted remarks on the hearing at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Los Angeles at the Summit of Americas.
“I think these guys broke the law and tried to turn around the results an of election. There’s a lot of questions – who’s responsible, who’s involved? I’m not going to make a judgment on that.”
– Joey Garrison
More:Menendez: Mexico’s president tried to ‘blackmail’ Biden to invite ‘dictators’ to Americas summit
First 2 witnesses are injured Capitol Police officer, documentarian
Two witnesses are expected at the first hearing. One is Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when the mob pushed her to the ground after breaking through a fence of bicycle racks outside the Capitol.
She was the first of 140 officers injured that day, according to the committee. Other officers have recalled hearing her pleas for help.
The other witness is an acclaimed British documentarian, Nick Quested, who filmed around the Capitol during the attack. The day before the riot, Quested also filmed the leaders of two far-right groups – Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who are each charged with seditious conspiracy – meeting in a parking garage near the Capitol, according to the New York Times.
More:Who invaded the US Capitol on Jan. 6? Criminal cases shed light on offenses
What Republicans are saying: Some blast committee as illegitimate, partisan
House Republicans have blasted the committee as illegitimate, partisan and a sham because of how it was set up.
The heart of the complaint is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to seat GOP Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio on the panel. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., then pulled his nominees rather than have her vet them. Pelosi then appointed nine members – including GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – rather than the 13 authorized.
Federal courts have upheld the panel’s authority repeatedly. But Republicans argue the one-sided appointments mean there will be no meaningful cross-examination of witnesses or alternate views presented during hearings.
What we don’t know about Jan. 6:What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized
Biden plans to watch hearings
President Joe Biden is expected to watch some of Thursday’s hearing despite hosting the Summit of the Americas in California, according to White House chief of staff Ron Klain.
Biden waived executive privilege to give the committee access to Trump administration documents as part of the investigation.
“These are important hearings,” Klain told MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” on Wednesday. “He believes in executive privilege generally, but there is no executive privilege to overthrow the government of the United States. There is no executive privilege to protect plans on an insurrection.”
More:After Jan. 6, lawmakers want to clarify that vice presidents have ceremonial role in counting votes
More:What we don’t know about Jan. 6: What Trump’s family told the committee, whether attack was organized
More:Prosecutors charge former Proud Boys leader, 4 others with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack
More:Who has been subpoenaed so far by the Jan. 6 committee?
