WASHINGTON — The House Select Committee investigating what caused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is beginning a series of hearings Thursday evening by laying out its evidence of a coordinated effort to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election and keep former President Donald Trump in office.
“We can’t sweep what happened under the rug,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., plans to say in his opening remarks, according to an excerpt provided by the committee. “The American people deserve answers. So I come before you this evening not as a Democrat, but as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution. The Constitution doesn’t protect just Democrats or just Republicans. It protects all of us: ‘We the People.’ And this scheme was an attempt to undermine the will of the people.”
Thompson and others on the panel have stressed that the hearings will not only cover the insurrection at the Capitol a year and a half ago, but also address what can be done to keep similar events from happening again.
“Our democracy remains in danger. The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over. There are those in this country who thirst for power but have no love or respect for what makes America great: devotion to the Constitution, allegiance to the rule of law, our shared journey to build a more perfect union,” Thompson plans to say in his opening remarks.
The hearing, which is taking place in prime time after more than 10 months of investigation behind closed doors, marks the committee’s initial report to the American public, and is expected to be followed by at least five more hearings this month. Thompson and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are expected to provide more details at Thursday’s hearing about who will testify at those hearings and the topics they will cover.
House Republicans chose not to officially participate in the committee because Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two representatives whom House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., recommended to serve on the panel. Pelosi asked Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., to serve so the committee would be bipartisan and have a quorum.
Republicans have criticized the committee on social media and in television interviews, rather than pushing back on assertions made inside the hearing room. Hours before Thursday’s hearing began, the Republican National Committee called it a “prime-time political circus.”
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., the highest-ranking Republican on the committee that oversees House functions, has said that if the GOP regains control of the House, one of the party’s first priorities will be to investigate Pelosi and the Jan. 6 committee.
