Jan. 6 Committee Holds First Prime-Time Hearing on Capitol Riot
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot held its first public hearing on Thursday evening.
The hearing featured new witness testimonies and unreleased video footage in an attempt to uncover the "culmination of an attempted coup" by former President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in his opening statement that the committee "obtained substantial evidence" that led them to believe the Jan. 6 riot was not impulsive but a "coordinated plan" to "subvert American democracy." He also played a clip of former Attorney General Bill Barr saying he told Trump that claims of widespread election fraud were "bullshit."
Rep. Liz Cheney (R, WY) said Trump "made no effort" to deploy the National Guard or call the military to defend the Capitol during the riot, but emphasized how "Mike Pence did each of those things." She also told her Republican colleagues who continue to support Trump that their "dishonor will remain" once the former president "is gone." Moving forward, Cheney said she hopes to highlight a "sophisticated seven-part plan" that Trump to overturn the 2020 election. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
Most prominent news outlets highlighted live updates of the Jan. 6 hearings at the top of their homepages. Left-rated outlets were more likely to highlight how Trump's team has continually tried to "delegitimize" the hearing by calling it partisan. While Breitbart (Right bias) and other right-rated outlets emphasized how Democrats have "bet their entire political future" on the findings of this hearing, they ultimately agreed that "none of that is to excuse what actually happened" on Jan. 6, 2021.
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