WASHINGTON — The House January 6 Select Committee's first nationally televised hearing Thursday night seemed designed to convince Americans that former President Trump's claims of a stolen election "lit the fuse" for the deadly riot that ensued.
A key piece of the panel's evidence was a dramatic clip of a never-before-seen video of the clash.
It provided a bird's-eye view of the violence — from the time the mob first gathered near the Peace Monument to the moment it pushed past police lines and entered the building.
More than 19 million of Americans watched the video for the first time on live TV, according to early overnight rating data compiled by Nielsen
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia, 2nd District), who serves on the House Select Committee, had a front-row seat.
"Those images all pieced together, a lot of the footage that hadn't been seen publicly before, both taken by the documentarian and camera footage from the Capitol cameras themselves, the totality of it was just visceral, it was this brutal attack, it was so loud, it just brings our how much violence and chaos there was on January 6th," she said.
This was just the first of six planned hearings. The next one, next Monday, will focus more on former President Trump's role.
"In the hearing that we'll be holding on Monday, we'll be delving more into the facts about, Trump knew he lost the election," said Luria. "He was told by his advisers from every level in the executive branch as well as his campaign, all of his advisers were providing him the facts about the election results. But he made a choice. And he chose to continue perpetuating a lie about stealing the election. So that will be the topic we focus on in the next hearing."
Even before the hearing began, some Republican lawmakers criticized the select committee.
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) called it "the most political and least legitimate committee in American history."