Jan. 6 hearings get underway Thursday evening

Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson presented a recorded video of some of the individuals who stormed the Capitol Thursday night. 

One man said he had “supported Trump all that time. I did believe that the election was being stolen and Trump asked us to come. He personally asked for us to come to D.C. that day, and I thought, for everything he’s done for us…” 

Another individual said Trump mentioned going to the Capitol during his Jan. 6, 2021 speech ahead of the riot, and said that one of his “disappointments” was that Trump said “he was going to go with us, that he was going to be there.” 

Thompson, closing the two-hour-long hearing, said that the committee will reconvene next week and “examine the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol, to try to stop the transfer of power.” 

“We’re going to take a close look at the first part of Trump’s attack on the rule of law, when he hit the fuse that ultimately resulted in the violence of January 6, without objection,” Thompson said. 

Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, in his testimony before the Jan. 6 committee Thursday night, described his experience at the Capitol riot.

"For anyone who didn't understand how violent that event was, I saw it, I documented it and I experienced it," Quested said.

He described his team meeting up with the Proud Boys at around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 6 when they were beginning to walk down the National Mall.

Quested said he thought he and his team were in Washington, D.C., to cover former President Trump's speech that morning.

"There was a large contingent, more than I had expected," he said. "And I was confused to a certain extent why we were walking away from the president's speech, because that's what I felt we were there to cover."

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, in her opening statement Thursday evening, said she was "called a lot of things on Jan. 6, 2021 and the days thereafter."

"I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain," she said. "I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution."

"In actuality, I was none of those things," she said. "I was an American standing face to face with other Americans, asking myself how many times many, many times how we had gotten here."

"I, whose literal blood, sweat and tears were shed that day defending the building that I spent countless holidays and weekends working in," Edwards said. "They dared to question my honor. They dared to question my loyalty, and they dared to question my duty."

She added: "I'm a proud American and I will gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come."

The committee presented a video of Ivanka Trump's deposition Thursday evening.

During her deposition, Ivanka Trump was asked about former Attorney General Bill Barr's findings on whether the 2020 election had been stolen.

"I made it clear I did not agree with the idea that the election was stolen, which, I told the president, was bullsh--," Barr said during his deposition--which the committee shared with the public Thursday night.

Barr added that: "You can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election--that there was fraud in the election."

The committee played Ivanka Trump's testimony, and reaction to Barr's comments.

"It affected my perspective," Trump said. "I respect Attorney General Barr so I accepted what he said."

Thompson swears in the committee's two witnesses during Thursday's primetime hearing: U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and filmmaker Nick Quested.

The two witnesses "were both there" at the time of the Capitol breach, Thompson said.

According to the committee, Officer Edwards was "the first law enforcement officer injured by rioters storming the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021."

Despite suffering a traumatic brain injury, she kept rioters from entering the U.S. Capitol.

Nick Quested is a documentarian who was able to capture the violence that ensued on Jan. 6.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said while former President Trump did not call for help from the U.S. government to protect the Capitol, former Vice President Pence did.

Cheney played audio from the deposition of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who detailed his conversations with Pence on Jan. 6.

"He was very animated and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders--there was no question about that," Milley said. "He was very animated, very direct, very firm."

Milley said Pence urged then-Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to "get military down here, get the guard down here, put down this situation."

In contrast, Milley shared his conversation with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"He said, we have we have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions we need to establish the narrative that, you know, that the president is still in charge and that things are steady or stable," Milley testified, recalling his conversation on Jan. 6, 2021 with Meadows. "That's something I immediately interpret that as politics, politics, politics, red flag for me personally."

Cheney said "there's no doubt that President Trump was well aware of the violence as it developed."

"White House staff urged President Trump to intervene and call off the mob," Cheney said, presenting a document written while the attack was underway at the Capitol.

The document was written by a member of the White House staff "advising what the president needed to say."

"Anyone who entered the Capitol without proper authority should leave immediately," the note Cheney presented read. "This is exactly what his supporters on Capitol Hill and nationwide were urging the president to do. He would not."

"You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help, including Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who was 'scared,'and called multiple members of President Trump's family after he could not persuade the president himself," Cheney said.

"Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended."

Cheney said Trump "did not call his Secretary of Defense on January 6th. He did not talk to his attorney general. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security."

"President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and display and deploy law enforcement assets," Cheney said.

The Select Committee is playing a never-before-seen video of graphic events that transpired during Jan. 6, 2021.

Chair of the committee Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., warned that the video "is hard to watch" before being played during the committee's first primetime hearing Thursday evening.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., during her opening statement, said Americans Thursday evening "will see never-before-seen footage of the brutal attack on our Capitol." 

"An attack that unfolded while a few blocks away, President Trump sat watching television in the dining room next to the Oval Office," Cheney said. "You will hear audio from the brave police officers battling for their lives and fighting to defend our democracy against a violent mob Donald Trump refused to call off." 

"There is no room for debate. Those who invaded our capital 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," Cheney said. 

Cheney added: "President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack." 

Jan. 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson delivered his opening statement during Thursday's primetime hearing.

Thompson, D-Miss., said former President Donald Trump "was at the center of this conspiracy."

"Ultimately, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies..to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy," Thompson said.

During his opening statement, Thompson played a video of former Attorney General Bill Barr's deposition before the committee.

Barr said he had three discussions with Trump between Election Day 2020 and his early resignation from the Trump administration in December 2020.

"I made it clear I did not agree with the idea that the election was stolen, which, I told the president, was bullsh--," Barr said during his deposition. "And you know, I didn't want to be a part of it, and that's one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did."

Barr added that: "You can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election--that there was fraud in the election."

Sandra Garza, the partner of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of natural causes one day after the riots, arrived to Capitol Hill Thursday evening. She was accompanied by members of the Capitol Police, including Harry Dunn, as well as retired MPD officer Michael Fanone.

"I hope we can get some, you know, clarification for the public on how Trump is responsible for instigating that event that day," Garza said. "We know that in our hearts, and I just hope the public gets to see that live and in color literally.”

Garza said that justice for her former partner "would be having Donald Trump in prison, but it doesn't seem like that ever happens."

"The man seems to escape justice time and time again," Garza said. "But maybe today would change that. That would be a wonderful thing. I don't know. We'll see."

The chairman of the Jan. 6 Committee is expected to say that "democracy remains in danger" and that Congress cannot "sweep what happened under the rug" during his opening remarks during the primetime hearing set to begin at 8 p.m. ET.

"We can't sweep what happened under the rug. The American people deserve answers," Thompson will say.

"So, tonight, and over the next few weeks, we're going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger," he will state during opening remarks.

"We must confront the truth with candor, resolve, and determination. We need to show that we are worthy of the gifts that are the birthright of every American."

Former President Donald Trump’s Save America PAC released an ad ahead of the House Jan. 6 Committee hearings Thursday that criticizes Democrats for focusing on the Capitol riots of 2021 instead of rising gas prices, baby formula shortages, inflation and the border crisis.

"Our country is in trouble. Biden is failing badly. And yet the Democrat Congress ignores our problems, instead spending millions on another partisan witch hunt. It's a disgrace," the narrator says in the ad.

The 30-second spot is backed by a $500,000 ad buy and will run on national TV and digital starting today through the weekend, Save America PAC tells Fox News Digital.

When the January 6 Select Committee was empaneled, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the unprecedented step of barring two of the minority party's chosen members from being seated, including Republican Indiana Congressman Jim Banks.

Banks told Fox News ahead of the Thursday night hearing he nonetheless worked independently on his own to investigate the aspects of the Capitol protests that Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are not.

"First and foremost, the Capitol was not secure that day. There was a systemic breakdown of security and leadership within Capitol security; the top levels of the Capitol Police. When Pelosi kicked me and Jim Jordan off that committee and said we weren't allowed to serve on it, we still went to work," he said on "The Story."

Other members of the Jan. 6 committee include Reps. Elaine Luria of Virginia, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Adam B. Schiff of California. Pelosi said Banks and Jordan would endanger the "integrity" of the committee, adding she would only accept the GOP's other nominees: Reps. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Rodney Davis of Illinois and Troy Nehls of Texas.

Read more here: January 6 hearing: Rep. Banks, banned from panel by Pelosi, describes his own investigation

President Biden on Thursday said the Capitol riot was a "clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution."

The president's comments came Thursday afternoon, as he participated in a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Los Angeles, on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas.

"One of the things that can occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on Jan. 6," Biden said. "And, as I said when it was occurring, and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution."

Biden said the individuals who assaulted the Capitol "broke the law to try to turn around the result of the elections."

"And there's a lot of questions," Biden said. "Who's responsible? Who's involved?"

"I don't want to make a judgment on that," Biden said, adding, though, that Americans "will see a lot of detail of what occurred" during Thursday's primetime congressional hearing.

As the House January 6 Commission is hours away from its first public hearing – live on primetime television – the media is loaded with comparisons between the current affair and the landmark hearings that investigated the Watergate scandal nearly 50 years ago.

While both were ostensibly geared towards uncovering the details of events that have been condemned by members of both parties, political climates surrounding the hearings show significant differences."

Despite an early attempt at bipartisanship, the January 6 Committee’s work has become a partisan exercise about which the public is skeptical," bipartisan group No Labels tweeted along with a video showing how slanted the process has become.

A main aspect of the group's criticism is the makeup of the January 6 commission itself. Of its nine members, seven are Democrats and the two Republicans – Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. -- were handpicked by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had chosen five other Republicans, but Pelosi rejected all of them.

The Senate committee that investigated Watergate in 1973 was more evenly split. Of its seven members, four were Democrats and three were Republicans.

Read more by Fox News' Ronn Blitzer: Partisan politics highlight differences between Jan 6, Watergate hearings

Former President Trump on Thursday slammed lawmakers on the Jan. 6 Committee as "political thugs" and "corrupt politicians."

In a post on his own TRUTH Social media platform, Trump said the "political thugs" leading the committee are the same "corrupt politicians" who "brought you the now fully debunked and discredited RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX (and many others!)"

During her weekly press conference at the Capitol Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 is "on the ballot" as the midterm elections approach.

When asked about whether the Jan. 6 riot or kitchen table issues are going to motivate Americans to vote in November, she said the assault on the Capitol has led to democracy being on the ballot.

"I think it's always about the kitchen table issues because these are what moves somebody to vote. Yes, it's about our democracy that is on the ballot. They assaulted the Capitol," said Pelosi.

"They are undermining the elections by by voter suppression and nullification of elections and the rest. And people expect us to take care of that. But they really want to know what we are doing in their interest and how they can manage for their families. It's always been about that. It's always been about the kitchen table issues. And that's what the Democratic Party is. No boardroom corporate boardroom table, but the kitchen table," the speaker continued.

Pelosi also mentioned the passage of the American Rescue Package that she said "put money in people's pockets" and would help Democrats in the midterms.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., led members of the House GOP in a press conference Thursday calling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "sham" Jan. 6 Committee ahead of the anticipated primetime hearing.

McCarthy called the committee a "smokescreen" for Democrats to push their "radical agenda" and keep attention off the Biden administration's failures to secure American streets, schools and secure enough baby formula to feed children.

Republican Study Committee Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is leading a separate GOP-led investigation into Jan. 6 events. Banks told reporters that the Jan. 6 Select Committee is acting as a "Trojan Horse" to conceal real issues impacting Americans.

He said he's confident that the Republican report, which will be released "in weeks to come" will reveal a "trail of crumbs" leading back to Pelosi's office.

On the other hand, Democrats are seeking to show Americans, with their primetime hearing Thursday, that former President Donald Trump was the key to a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

"As much as certain Republicans attempt to say the committee is illegitimate, a sham and political, those claims will not hold a lot of weight when the committee shares what it knows, shares the truth and shares the facts," a person close to the committee told Fox News. 

When the Jan. 6 committee gavels in its primetime hearing Thursday night, the stakes will be high as its members seek to show Americans that Donald Trump was the key to a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Nearly 18 months after the attack on the Capitol by a mob of former President Trump's supporters, the series of hearings may be the committee's best chance to capture Americans' attention before the midterms. 

The committee will have to compete with inflation, rising gas prices, shortages in baby formula and more for political attention.

But with the hearing expected to include video of interviews with top Trump officials and potentially family members, created with the assistance of a former ABC News president, the committee believes it can do just that. 

"The vast majority of the material you will see … is previously unseen," a select committee aide said Wednesday. "Whether it is recording video or audio of witnesses we've interviewed, whether it is records that we've obtained over the course of our investigation.

"We will be revealing new details showing that the mob on Jan. 6 was the result of a coordinated, multistep effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Trump was at the center of that effort." 

Thursday's hearing is expected to be just one of several televised hearings from the Jan. 6 committee, with the next already announced for Monday. 

Read more from Fox News' Tyler Olson: Jan. 6 committee aims to show 'Trump was at the center' of plot to overturn election with primetime hearing

Former Trump White House economic adviser Peter Navarro may be slapped with a gag order pertaining to his high-profile arrest for ignoring a January 6 Committee subpoena, if the Biden Justice Department has its way, according to a breaking report.

Navarro told Fox News on Wednesday the reported reasoning for the potential gag order reflects a glaring hypocrisy.

The DOJ reportedly asked Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, to enact a protective order to prevent disclosure of evidence.

For more on this story: January 6 subpoenas: Peter Navarro calls potential gag order against him DOJ hypocrisy.

The House Committee investigating the Capitol riot  has a lot at stake in the hearings. You’ve heard committee members and other Democrats suggest dire warnings that "the future of democracy" is at stake. During an appearance on CBS, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., — a member of the 1/6 committee — described that fateful day last year as "the first non-peaceful transfer of power in our history." 

The riot at the Capitol was one of the most disturbing events in American history: A horde raiding the Capitol as the House and Senate meet in a Joint Session of Congress to certify the presidential election. That’s about as serious as things get. Still, a wide swath of Republicans nationwide and GOPers in Congress support former President Trump. Even after authorities regained control of the building, 147 House and Senate members voted against certifying election results. 

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday morning, Robert Pape of the University of Chicago laid out the problem facing Democrats heading into Thursday’s hearing. "Donald Trump is now more powerful because of January 6 than he would have been without January 6," testified Pape. 

Political observers from both sides are keenly watching to see what impact the 1/6 committee hearings have. It’s unclear if the hearings can move the meter in the court of public opinion as Democrats hope they will.

For more on this story: What’s at stake for Democrats in the primetime Capitol riot committee hearing.