3 early takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing

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3 early takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing. 1. The committee holds Trump responsible for the attack “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.” That is the top Republican on the committee (and one of only two who agreed to participate with Democrats), Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) directly laying the blame for the violence on Trump. “[W]hen a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union or worse causes a constitutional crisis,” she said, “we’re at a moment of maximum danger for our republic.” Cheney said that over the next month, the committee will present evidence that Trump made not a single call to the Department of Defense or other national security agencies during the attack. The committee played testimony from Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that it was Vice President Mike Pence who made those calls. The committee said it will present evidence that the president “refused for hours to do what his staff, his family and many of his other advisers begged him to do, immediately instruct his supporters to stand down and evacuate the Capitol.” He also yelled at advisers who told him to act, the panel said. And, perhaps most damning, the committee said that he cheered on the protesters’ most violent tendencies. Cheney said, “Aware of the rioters chanting to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea. [Mike Pence] deserves it.’” 2. How the committee plans to tell its story It was always going to be a challenge for the committee to focus the public’s attention on an event from more than a year ago — and to do it over a series of hearings for a month. On Thursday, it laid out exactly how it will try to tell the story of the Jan. 6 attack and who was responsible for it. The committee opened by seeking to jolt the American public back to that violent day with never-before-seen footage of the attackers marching up to the Capitol and smashing windows to get in, overwhelming Capitol Police officers. “We can’t hold this there are too many f------g people. Look at it from this vantage point. We’re f----d,” one officer says. On Monday, the committee will share how they think Trump tried to steal the election, though he knew he had lost. “President Trump ignored the rulings of our nation’s courts,” Cheney said. “He ignored his own campaign leadership.” They played video of Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr, who told the committee he resigned in the final month of the administration in part because Trump was trying to wrestle his way to stay in power: “I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit,” Barr said. On Wednesday, it will detail how Trump “corruptly planned” to replace top Justice Department officials with his own allies, who wanted to endorse investigations of baseless election fraud claims in states like Georgia. (After they threatened mass resignations, he did not end up replacing them.) Later, the committee will spend a significant amount of time on the pressure Trump and his allies put on Pence to overturn election results on that day, something Pence himself said was “wrong.” They’ll also talk about how Trump “corruptly pressured” state legislators and election officials to change election results, and will shed new light on the Trump campaign’s efforts to set up slates of false electors in states he’d lost. Finally, the committee will revisit the day of the attack, accusing Trump of having “summoned” right-wing groups to attack the Capitol, then resisting calls by his allies and family to tell the attackers to go home. And in Cheney’s words, after the attack, White House staff feared that Trump “was too dangerous to be left alone.” It’s a lot for the committee to tackle — all while keeping Americans’ attention span over a long period of time. But the first hearing was objectively riveting, weaving together startling footage of that day — including congressional staffers running for their lives as attackers breached the Capitol — with live testimony from a Capitol Police officer badly injured in the attack and a documentarian who embedded with the Proud Boys. 3. A sharp attack on Trump’s Republican defenders Top Republican lawmakers — even Pence, whose life was threatened by the attackers — have spent the year and a half since the attack downplaying what happened. It’s now a badge of honor in some circles to have been in D.C. protesting election results or to be labeled an insurrectionist. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) compared those who have justified what happened to those who defended slavery and the civil war. “I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” Thompson said in his opening remarks, his Southern drawl evident. “I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrectionists.” And Cheney, whose party has isolated her for her strong criticism of Trump and willingness to serve on this committee, 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.” The committee also shared new information: A number of Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), asked the White House for pardons in the weeks after the attack, for their alleged involvement in trying to overthrow the election. The committee subpoenaed Perry, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and several other House Republicans, who refused to cooperate with their investigation.