The House
select committee investigating former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection of the US
Capitol held its first public hearing on Thursday. 

In a strong-worded statement, committee vice chair Liz Cheney called on Republicans defending Trump. She said the GOP members who “defend the indefensible, “there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” 

Also read: Who is Nick Quested, documentary filmmaker who testified at Jan 6 public hearing?

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, in his opening statement said “the world is watching” the U.S. response to the panel’s yearlong investigation into the Capitol riot and the defeated president’s extraordinary 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.”

Also read: Rep. Scott Perry, other lawmakers sought pardons from Trump after Jan. 6: Liz Cheney

Highlights:

– Documentarian Nick Quested: “We arrived at the mall and observed a large contingent of Proud Boys marching toward the Capitol. I documented the crowd turn from protestors to rioters to insurrectionists. I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and the profanity.”

– Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer, who was injured during an altercation with some Proud Boys members while defending the US Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot provided her testimony. 

 “I, whose literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends working in.”

Also read: Jan 6 committee chairman Thompson compares Capitol riot to slavery, KKK

– The committee played unreleased footage of January 6, 2021 in chronological order. “It is hard to watch,” Rep. Bennie Thompson said ahead of the video.

– Cheney: “The president’s claims in the election cases were so frivolous and unsupported that the president’s lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, not only lost the lawsuits, his license to practice law was suspended.”

–  Cheney: “Republicans are defending the indefensible. Donald Trump will be gone but your dishonor will remain”

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said that Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and “multiple other Republican congressmen” sought pardons from then-President Donald Trump after Jan. 6, 2021.

“Representative Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” Cheney said on Thursday night during the committee’s prime-time hearing.

– Ivanka said that she accepted that former Attorney General William Barr’s statement saying there was no fraud sufficient to overturn the election. 

– GOP
Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the committee, blamed former President Donald
Trump for the insurrection during her opening statement.

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

“There
is no room for debate. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement
for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them — that the
election was stolen, and that he was the rightful president.”

–   Democratic Rep.
Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the House select committee, in
his opening remarks, compared those trying to justify the actions of Jan. 6
insurrectionists to those justifying racism in US history.