Trump blamed for Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection

After conducting more than 1,000 interviews and collecting nearly 150,000 documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, the Jan. 6 committee held its first public hearing that was broadcast on live television and across various social media platforms June 9.

The hearing shined a light on far-right extremist groups, specifically the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, both of which had members charged in the conspiracy to seige the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the confirmation of President Joe Biden.

The nine-member Jan. 6 Committee was largely formed through a party-line vote July 1, 2021, has seven Democrats and two Republicans, and is chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Thompson in his opening statement drew a correlation between growing up in a state known for its racism and the events and people involved in the insurrection.

“I am from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” Thompson said. “I am reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Thompson said the oath that literally all members of Congress swore to uphold was challenged Jan. 6, 2021 when former President Donald Trump tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to his successor as all presidents have done since President Abraham Lincoln.

“Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020,” Thompson said. “The American people voted him out of office. It was not because of a rigged system. It was not because of voter fraud. Don’t believe me? Hear what his former attorney general had to say about it.”

The committee then cut to a recording of former Trump Attorney General William Barr. Barr said Trump was adamant there was fraud, and his disagreement with Trump contributed to his decision to vacate the position.

“Donald Trump had his days in court to challenge the results,” Thompson said. “He was within his rights to seek those judgments. In the United States, law-abiding citizens have those tools for pursuing justice. He lost in the courts just as he did at the ballot box. And in this country, that’s the end of the line.”

“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” he later said.

Thompson said many members of Congress wanted an independent investigation of the insurrection, but claimed it was stopped by the members of the GOP.

Following Thompson’s address at the start of the first hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, provided an opening statement. Cheney cited Trump’s tweet at 6:01 p.m. following the insurrection in which he not only didn’t condemn the actions of the mob, but defended it.

Cheney said despite the urging of “his staff, family and many advisors, Trump refused to instruct his supporters to stand down and evacuate the Capitol.”

“Tonight, you will see never-before-seen footage of the brutal attack on our Capitol, an attack that unfolded while, a few blocks away, President Trump sat watching television in his dining room off the Oval Office,” Cheney said. “You will hear audio from the brave police officers battling for their lives and ours, fighting to defend our democracy, against a violent mob Donald Trump refused to call off.”

“Tonight and in the weeks to come, you will see evidence of what motivated this violence, including directly from those who participated in this attack,” she continued. “You will see video of them explaining what caused them to do it. You will see their posts on social media.”

For the next hour and a half the hearings continued to show video, testimony and other evidence of the attack on the Capitol.

The hearings will continue to take place over the next couple weeks, with the next hearing scheduled for June 13, at 10 a.m.