The public hearings being held this month by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the first of which took place during prime-time Thursday evening, are expected to be the focus of this week’s Sunday show circuit.
The committee launched its series of hearings by laying out the framework of its public case against former President Trump, who the committee argues was at the center of an illicit plan to retain power that directly led to the violent insurrection.
Thursday’s hearing included raw footage of the Capitol riot, snippets of recorded interviews from former Trump officials and in-person testimony from a documentarian and one of the over 150 police officers who was injured during the attack.
“It was something like I’d seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards said in her testimony. “There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up. They had, I mean, I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t, I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”
Filmmaker Nick Quested told the committee about what he’d witnessed following members of the extremist group the Proud Boys on Jan. 6. Video he captured that day of the riot and the meeting between the Proud Boys and another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, was also shared during the hearing.
Quested will appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday alongside Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Elain Luria (D-Va.). Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), also members of the panel, are set to appear on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” respectively.
The Jan. 6 committee shared comments from members of Trump’s inner circle who said they had pushed back against the former president’s repeated false claims that election fraud had cost him a second presidential victory in 2020, most notably Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who served as his senior adviser.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, for instance, claimed to the committee that he had told Trump there was “absolutely zero basis for the allegations” that the election was stolen, insisting that Trump’s ongoing campaign was “doing great, great disservice to the country.”
Those snippets of recorded testimony from those close to Trump were included in a lengthy opening statement from the committee’s vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“All Americans should keep this fact in mind: On the morning of Jan. 6, President Trump’s intention was to remain President of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his Constitutional obligation to relinquish power,” Cheney said.
She took a moment to admonish her fellow Republican lawmakers, who have continued to support Trump following the Capitol attack.
“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,” said Cheney.
Cheney is one of two Republican members of the nine-person Jan. 6 committee. The other, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), will also make appearance on the Sunday shows circuit this week, on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.); Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.); filmmaker Nick Quested.
CBS’s “Face the Nation” — Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.); Jill Peterson and James Densley, co-founders of The Violence Project; Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.); former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.); former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.); Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.)
Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Features” — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio); Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.); Lt. Col. Oliver North, Author, “Tragic Consequences”; Adam Laxalt, Nevada Senate Candidate