5 takeaways from the hearing on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

WASHINGTON — The bipartisan Jan. 6 Select Committee made one thing clear in its rare prime-time televised hearing Thursday night: It plans to show that former President Donald Trump is to blame for the deadly Capitol riot.

The committee laid out an agenda that it said will track each of the steps Trump took to stay in power despite losing the popular and Electoral College vote — and in the process painted Vice President Mike Pence as the real leader as Trump loyalists assaulted the Capitol.

“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the committee.

The presentation included a mix of charges against Trump and his allies, graphic videos of the ferocious charge on the police guarding the Capitol, clips of Republican and White House insiders rejecting Trump’s claims and testimony of two witnesses to the attack.

Held in a refurbished large hearing room in the Cannon House Office Building, the seven Democrats and two Republican committee members sat under a huge screen facing a witness table, rows of tables for reporters and seats in the back occupied by lawmakers and others.

Only the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Cheney spoke or asked questions as the other seven members watched — a rarity for a congressional committee.

Trump responded to the hearing by attacking the committee.

“So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and Irregularities that took place on a massive scale, and decided to use a documentary maker from Fake News ABC to spin only negative footage," Trump said. "Our Country is in such trouble!"

Here are five highlights of the hearing.

Republicans v. Trump

The hearing showed clips of interviews and depositions of several White House insiders — including Trump’s daughter Ivanka and Attorney General William Barr — saying that Trump had been repeatedly informed he had legally lost the election.

Trump campaign lawyer Alex Canon, whose job was to monitor voter fraud, said he told Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in November that he had found no vote fraud issues in any of the key states — and he said that Meadows replied, “So there’s no there, there.”

Barr said in another clip: “I repeatedly told the president in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election.” He also rejected allegations of manipulated voting machines as “complete nonsense.”

Barr’s views influenced Ivanka Trump, according to another clip. “It affected my perspective,” she said. “I respected Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”

A war zone

After clips shown of the ferocity of the crowd attacking the police line defending the Capitol, Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described the scene as “carnage” and “chaos.” At first, in midst of the assault, she did not see the broader picture, but then she stepped back.

“When I fell behind that line and I saw, I can just remember my, my breath catching in my throat. Because what I saw was just a war scene,” she said.

“I couldn't believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up … I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping people's blood,” she said.

“I never in my wildest dreams would think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle,” Edwards said. “I'm not combat trained, and that day, it was just hours of the hand to hand combat.”

She added, “And I just remembered, I just remember that moment of stepping behind the line and just seeing the absolute war zone.”

Cheney chastises critics

Last year, House Republicans stripped Cheney of her party leadership role as conference chair and turned their backs to her because she blamed Trump for the Capitol riot. Last night, Cheney scorched the Republican Party’s fealty to Trump.

“In our country, we don't swear an oath to an individual or political party. You take our oath to defend the United States Constitution and that oath must mean something,” Cheney said. “Tonight. I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

Not on Amazon

In a prebuttal Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, “We've got an investigation right now. We'll see what that turns up.”

In charge is Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) — McCarthy’s choice for the panel’s ranking member until Democrats blocked Banks for working against certifying Biden’s election and McCarthy boycotted the panel.

Still, Banks identified himself as the committee’s “ranking member” in at least one request for agency information for his ad hoc probe, Cheney revealed last fall.

Banks said Thursday he is probing security failures at the Capitol, not the riot’s cause.

McCarthy said he would say when the report is ready, but added it will not be on sale on Amazon — a jab at a New Yorker version of the Jan. 6 committee report already being presold for $17.99 with a delivery date of Sept. 13, 2022.

Hearings ahead

Cheney outlined the topics of the next four hearings this month.

Second hearing: How Trump and his advisers knew they lost the election but spread false and fraudulent information to persuade his followers that fraud had stolen the election from him.

Third hearing: How Trump corruptly planned to replace the U.S. attorney general so the U.S. Justice Department could spread his false stolen election claims.

Fourth hearing: How Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes on Jan. 6.

Final two hearings: How Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the United States Capitol. And while the violence was underway, how Trump failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.