Jan 6 hearing live updates: Trump ‘was derelict in his duty’, Republican Kinzinger says

It has been billed as the “season finale” and there is certainly electricity in the air.

The Cannon Caucus Room is buzzing with reporters, photographers, TV camera operators, police officers, congressional aides and spectators ahead of the eighth and – for now – final hearing of the congressional January 6 committee.

Unlike an austere courtroom on the day of a trial, a loud hubbub of voices is filling the ornate and cavernous room, where two chandeliers shine brightly, as people discuss what’s to come (or where they’re heading for the summer).

Reporters from the US and all over the world are tightly packed around desks with an overflow on the front row of the public gallery. Photographers gathered beneath the dais to take close-up shots of the witnesses. Former US Capitol police officer Michael Fanone is sitting nearby.

Members of the committee entered just after 8pm but this time Liz Cheney is in the chair because the usual chairman, Bennie Thompson, has come down with coronavirus. He is speaking via a video link.

After seven hearings that explored what Donald Trump did, this one is expected to focus on what he didn’t do during those 187 indelible minutes on 6 January 2021.