Jan. 6 Hearing Highlights Trump’s Pressure on State Officials

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot held its fourth public hearing this month on Tuesday, highlighting former President Donald Trump’s “pressure campaign” on state officials in the weeks following the 2020 election. 

Committee chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) gave opening statements before Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the committee’s arguments and primary witnesses. In her remarks, Cheney said Trump “had a direct and personal role” in pressuring state officials and that efforts to overturn the 2020 election deserved the Justice Department’s attention. 

The hearing featured three Republican witnesses: Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Raffensperger’s COO, Gabriel Sterling. Bowers said his commitment to the U.S. Constitution motivated his resistance to Trump and Rudy Giuliani's fraud claims. Raffensperger and Sterling discussed Trump's “disinformation” and pressure in Georgia. All three witnesses discussed threats made against themselves and election workers in their states. 

Major outlets across the spectrum — including both CNN (Left bias) and Fox News (Right bias) — featured live coverage of the hearing at the top of homepages. However, CNN stood out by displaying coverage of the topic with the tagline, “ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY.”