Before the first prime-time hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol nearly two months ago, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin asserted that the new revelations would “blow the roof off the house.” The committee established high expectations — and needed to deliver.
After more than a month of public hearings, it’s difficult to refute Raskin’s assertion. The committee meticulously and methodically painted a picture of the extent to which former President Donald Trump abdicated every responsibility he carried as president before, during and after Jan. 6.
Both prerecorded and live witnesses — from former assistant to chief of staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, to former Attorney General Bill Barr, to Trump’s own family member Ivanka Trump — underscored that the former president was informed countless times that he lost the election and about the violence at the Capitol. Not only did he fail to act (in fact, he watched television for hours during the insurrection), but continued to refuse his defeat.
