How To Host A Congressional Hearing That Actually, Like, Does Something

There are certain moments in congressional history that have lived on even longer than the octogenarians who stalk the halls of Capitol Hill. They are the scenes that feel torn from the pages of a political drama: Sen. Howard Baker Jr. repeatedly asking during the Watergate hearings, “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” Army lawyer Joseph Welch excoriating Sen. Joseph McCarthy with a rhetorical question during the Army-McCarthy hearings: “Have you no sense of decency?” A panel of tobacco executives testifying one by one before Congress, incredulously, that nicotine is not addictive. 

Under the right circumstances, a congressional hearing can be a satisfying resolution to a tense political conflict, one that allows society to move forward. Doesn’t that sound nice right about now?

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is hoping its hearings will be remembered in the same light. On Thursday, the committee will begin a run of public hearings to reveal what its investigation has uncovered and provide guidance on how to avoid a similar assault in the future. Rep. Jamie Raskin has promised the hearings will “blow the roof off the House,” and in a statement to FiveThirtyEight, Rep. Adam Schiff said, “I wouldn’t expect these hearings to look like a typical congressional hearing.”