Kinzinger, Jan. 6 committee declares attack an ‘attempted coup’ in first primetime hearing

The chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election opened Thursday’s prime-time hearing declaring the attack an “attempted coup” that put “two-and-a-half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk.”

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, said “the world is watching” the U.S. response to the panel’s yearlong investigation into the Capitol riot and the defeated president’s effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. He called it a “brazen attempt” to overturn the election.

“Democracy remains in danger,” Thompson said. “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve and determination.”

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol conducted the first in a series of hearings laying out its initial findings Thursday night, a look at evidence the panel has been gathering for the past year.

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, one of two Republicans along with U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, who sits on the committee, said on Twitter before Thursday’s hearing: “Tonight, we’ll begin to uncover the facts of what happened and lay them out for the American people. We owe it to the next generation to uphold our oath and defend our democracy. Self-governance requires accountability and responsibility – from each and every one of us.”

Kinzinger did not speak during the first portion of Thursday’s hearing. Thompson and Cheney led an introduction into presenting a never-before-seen video and other evidence, aiming to show the deadly violence that day and also a backstory as Trump tried to overturn Biden’s election victory.

“This is what happened on Jan. 6. The world watched as a violent mob attacked the @uscapitol; unleashing their rage on our frontline defenders,” Kinzinger tweeted prior to the primetime hearing. “It was an insurrection and it’s a moment in our history that we must ensure can never happen again.”

Thompson opened Thursday’s hearing, saying “Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup.”

The evidence presented demonstrated Trump ignored advisers who told him he had lost the election and there was no evidence of fraud.

In one clip, the panel played a quip from former Attorney General Bill Barr who testified that he told Trump the claims of a rigged election were “[expletive].”

Cheney explained there were half a dozen staff within the White House on Jan. 6. Trump didn’t want to call off the riot. Cheney said Trump was yelling, angry at advisers who told him he needed to be doing something more. Cheney said the evidence presented by the committee demonstrates “Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the election and constitutional obligation to relinquish power.”

According to the Associated Press, there was an audible gasp in the hearing room, when vice chairman Cheney read the account that said when Trump was told the Capitol mob was chanting for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged, Trump responded that maybe they were right, that he “deserves it.”

Trump was angry Pence did not refuse to accept the certification of Biden’s victory.

“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said.

Referring to the Jan. 6 committee as “the unselect committee of political thugs,” Trump issued a statement Thursday night saying he still believes the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen.

This is the first of more hearings to come. The panel plans to use the more than 1,000 interviews they have conducted to spotlight people who played pivotal roles in the siege – and to show that it was a deliberate, unprecedented attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Thompson said during his opening remarks, the panel plans to “Remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”

In the second portion of the hearing, U.S. Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards testified as well as filmmaker Nick Quested.

“It was carnage. It was chaos,” Edwards said, admitting she is not combat trained. “I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”

In a montage presented during the hearing, it was noted the Proud Boys’ participation tripled following Trump’s “stand back and stand by” comment. Another montage video showed rioters speaking in their own words, talking about the influence Trump’s words had on their actions to riot at the Capitol.

The House panel was formed last summer after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of an independent Jan. 6 commission that would have had an even number of Republicans and Democrats and operated outside of Congress. When that proposal failed, Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a Democratic-led panel to investigate the attack. The House approved the formation of the committee in June 2021, and the panel started its work within weeks.

The Jan. 6 panel’s two Republicans – Cheney and Kinzinger – joined the committee at Pelosi’s invitation. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all of his members from the panel after Pelosi rejected some of the members he selected.

Cheney, the panel’s vice chairman, and Kinzinger have firmly aligned themselves with the Democrats on the probe, saying their duty to investigate rises above partisanship. Other Republicans decry the investigation as another partisan effort to go after Trump.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.