The One Video to Watch From Last Night’s Capitol Riot Hearing

Last night, almost every major TV network devoted three hours to a congressional hearing by the January 6th Committee, which is investigating the attempted coup by Donald Trump and his supporters after the former president lost the election in 2020. But if you missed the broadcast, there’s only one video you need to watch. Because it’s the video everyone is talking about.

You’ve obviously seen scattered clips here and there of the violence perpetrated by neo-fascist supporters of Trump on January 6, 2021. But no one has properly edited a video that sums up the entire sequence of events in a succinct manner that’s easy to understand. Until now, that is.

The video is just 10 minutes long, but lays out the sequence of events on January 6th, from Trump’s rally in front of the White House and the moment he told his followers to march to the U.S. Capitol, to the violence that unfolded in a plot to overthrow the government. The Capitol building was, of course, where they were counting the votes to certify the 2020 election. And Trump knew exactly what he was doing by whipping up his supporters into a frenzy and then telling them to march down to where they were counting votes.

Once Trump’s followers get to the Capitol, all hell breaks lose. And by the time they make their way into the building—first beating police and then smashing windows—it’s clear that they’re ready to murder any elected leader in their way, Republican or Democrat. In fact, we see footage from inside Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s office, where his staff is seen fleeing in terror. And then there are the chants—about both Vice President Mike Pence, tasked with certifying the election, and about Democratic Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a stock-standard villain to the Fox News crowd.

Even if you know the whole story, the video edited by the Committee includes new footage that’s never been shown publicly before. It’s a searing indictment of Trump and every other treasonous neo-fascist who violently stormed the Capitol that day. And it’s been uploaded in full to Twitter.

If you want to watch the entire hearing from Thursday night, that’s still an option. The Washington Post has a good, unedited livestream, though you’ll want to fast forward to 1 hour and 32 minutes if you want to skip the Post’s pre-coverage.

The U.S. as a democracy stands at a fork in the road right now. It can either hold accountable President Trump and other politicians who were actively helping the insurrectionists that day by prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law, or it can watch as the neo-fascists try to take the government by force one more time. Because Trump has made it clear he’s not going away anytime soon.

“The Unselect Committee didn’t spend one minute studying the reason that people went to Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, far greater than the Fake News Media is willing to report, or that the Unselects are willing to even mention, because January 6th was simply not a protest. It represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Thursday.

“It was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a country that was about to go to HELL…& look at our Country now!” Trump continued.

Any functional society would’ve put Trump in jail after the coup attempt and barred him from ever holding public office again. But, failing that, we’re about to see what happens, between now and 2024, when Trump supporters get to try out a sequel.

The next hearing by the Committee is on Monday, June 13, 2022, at 10 a.m. ET. Let’s hope they have more planned than just videos and chit-chat.

Last night, almost every major TV network devoted three hours to a congressional hearing by the January 6th Committee, which is investigating the attempted coup by Donald Trump and his supporters after the former president lost the election in 2020. But if you missed the broadcast, there’s only one video you need to watch. Because it’s the video everyone is talking about.

You’ve obviously seen scattered clips here and there of the violence perpetrated by neo-fascist supporters of Trump on January 6, 2021. But no one has properly edited a video that sums up the entire sequence of events in a succinct manner that’s easy to understand. Until now, that is.

The video is just 10 minutes long, but lays out the sequence of events on January 6th, from Trump’s rally in front of the White House and the moment he told his followers to march to the U.S. Capitol, to the violence that unfolded in a plot to overthrow the government. The Capitol building was, of course, where they were counting the votes to certify the 2020 election. And Trump knew exactly what he was doing by whipping up his supporters into a frenzy and then telling them to march down to where they were counting votes.

Once Trump’s followers get to the Capitol, all hell breaks lose. And by the time they make their way into the building—first beating police and then smashing windows—it’s clear that they’re ready to murder any elected leader in their way, Republican or Democrat. In fact, we see footage from inside Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s office, where his staff is seen fleeing in terror. And then there are the chants—about both Vice President Mike Pence, tasked with certifying the election, and about Democratic Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a stock-standard villain to the Fox News crowd.

Even if you know the whole story, the video edited by the Committee includes new footage that’s never been shown publicly before. It’s a searing indictment of Trump and every other treasonous neo-fascist who violently stormed the Capitol that day. And it’s been uploaded in full to Twitter.

If you want to watch the entire hearing from Thursday night, that’s still an option. The Washington Post has a good, unedited livestream, though you’ll want to fast forward to 1 hour and 32 minutes if you want to skip the Post’s pre-coverage.

The U.S. as a democracy stands at a fork in the road right now. It can either hold accountable President Trump and other politicians who were actively helping the insurrectionists that day by prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law, or it can watch as the neo-fascists try to take the government by force one more time. Because Trump has made it clear he’s not going away anytime soon.

“The Unselect Committee didn’t spend one minute studying the reason that people went to Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, far greater than the Fake News Media is willing to report, or that the Unselects are willing to even mention, because January 6th was simply not a protest. It represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Thursday.

“It was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a country that was about to go to HELL…& look at our Country now!” Trump continued.

Any functional society would’ve put Trump in jail after the coup attempt and barred him from ever holding public office again. But, failing that, we’re about to see what happens, between now and 2024, when Trump supporters get to try out a sequel.

The next hearing by the Committee is on Monday, June 13, 2022, at 10 a.m. ET. Let’s hope they have more planned than just videos and chit-chat.