The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6, 2022 attack on the United States Capitol kicked off with a prime-time public hearing last week that proved to be compelling and revealing television. The committee understood the mission: Catch the country’s attention and keep it for two hours.

How is that possible? Simply by accruing all the elements that create a successful prime time crime drama. A working storyline that has an edgy plot, like an attempt to take over the government. You want a villain or a bunch of antiheros. Lots of weapons, violence, police engagement, terror, rioting, mayhem, and death.

But by the end of the show, a hero has foiled the villains, contained the chaos, and instigated some sort of resolution. Every Hollywood production seeking TV longevity has the well-worn memo on what prime time criminal dramas should look like. And the House Select Committee received that memo.

On June 9 the committee commandeered the prime-time scheduling on major networks, airing Day 1 of its hearings into the failed attempt to overturn the will of the people and democracy in this country.

In the hours leading up to the opening of the public hearings, Republican leaders downplayed the importance of the investigation. While Republicans publicly threw mud on the hearings’ prime-time debut, it would not be surprising if they all were huddled somewhere with a bucket of popcorn, glued to their televisions along with their constituents and more than 20 million Americans as Chairman Benny G. Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) revealed the underbelly of the nefarious machine that fueled the intent to thwart the will of the American people.

Tales of lies, deceit, greed, power, politics and jealousy swirled around the room and through the airwaves as they unraveled a plot that began months earlier with the effort to impeach Donald Trump. Because the GOP refused to oust Trump for his treachery, the stage was set for what was to come in November 2020.

Some of the most notable highlights of the evening came by way of video and eyewitness testimony. The leaks coming from the White House after the 2020 election exposed that the Trump family and members of the former president’s own Cabinet were not on board with the “big lie” concocted by the legal team of Rudy Giuliani, had fully understood and accepted that Donald Trump had lost the election.

ET TU IVANKA?

Those leaks proved to be factual because there on televisions around the world, Ivanka Trump stated that she believed the election results to be accurate after a meeting in the Oval Office with her father, White House legal counsel, and then-Attorney General Bill Barr, who confirmed the loss and declared accusations of election fraud nothing short of “bullsh*t.”

Ivanka told the committee, “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying," Officer Caroline Edwards of the Capitol Hill police gave a chilling recollection of what took place on Jan. 6, her account corroborated by police camera and other video footage showing the mob advancing as Edwards struggled to keep a bike rack barrier in place. She lost the battle and was briefly knocked unconscious on the steps leading to the Capitol. Edwards went on to relay that upon regaining consciousness, she joined her fellow officers in “hand to hand combat for hours” with the insurrectionist crowd. She recalled assisting fatally wounded Officer Brian Sicknick before being knocked unconscious a second time.

On the world screen were firsthand accounts of the acts of domestic terrorism the angry mob unleashed. Nick Quested, who before giving testimony acknowledged he was present due to a subpoena, told the committee that he was filming a documentary about American divisiveness, which was why he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. He had been embedded with the White supremacist group The Proud Boys, and the day before noticed a stockpile of guns stashed in one of their hotel rooms a short distance from the Capitol. Quested had traveled with The Proud Boys to Washington under the impression that they would be attending a “Stop The Steal” rally in support of Trump.

BUSTED BY BARR

What was revealing about Quested’s testimony is that he noted that The Proud Boys did not attend the rally. On the morning of Jan. 6, around 11, they headed to the east entrance of the Capitol. In what had to be one of the most gut-wrenching moments on television was the little-seen footage that Quested shot of the riot: the assault on the police, the destruction, the chanting of “Nancy, Nancy” through the halls by the feral mob, the noose outside for Vice President Mike Pence. Horrifying. The takeaway from the first day of the committee hearings was that the failed insurrection attempt at the Capitol was not a spontaneous riot; it was planned, and the persons responsible for selling the idea of election fraud to Trump are Rudy Giuliani and his associate Sydney Powell.

On Monday, the hearings resumed with much anticipation. It would be former Attorney General Bill Barr’s day to shine. The second day focused on the pathology of the insurrection. Why did Trump loyalists and two White supremacist organizations, The Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers come together with hopes of overthrowing the government and democracy, and the will of the American people? Simply put, they endorsed the “big lie” that Trump had had the 2020 election stolen from him. With Trump himself continuously saying that he had won the election, it was not that difficult to galvanize his sycophants to attempt to interrupt the transfer of power and stop then-Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the election results from the states.

$250 MILLION GRIFT

The “big lie” was born the night of the election with a supposedly inebriated Giuliani goading Trump into believing that he won. Barr told the Select Committee that on Nov. 23, after meeting with Trump and Giuliani in the Oval Office, where he again informed the then president that “there was no widespread evidence of election fraud,” he asked Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other White House members before leaving, “How long is he (Trump) going to carry on with this stolen election? Where is this going to go?” Giuliani and Powell kept the lies burning with allegations of voting machine fraud. Former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue would go on to inform Trump that “the allegations of smuggled ballots in suitcases were categorically false.” Yet Trump and his crew, in interviews on FOX News, continued to push the rhetoric of a stolen election, and take in donor contributions of more than $250 million in so-called “Election Defense” and “Save America” funds. Using the narrative of the “big lie,” Trump was able to mislead his followers as to where their contributions would be channeled and why.

Day 2 of the hearings provided Americans with an insurmountable amount of evidence that pointed to the fact that Trump was cognizant of the fact that he had lost the election. He chose to intentionally mislead his millions of followers, run their pockets, and plotted to remain in power, thereby engaging in seditious activities.

Day 3 of the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol will begin on Thursday, June 16, 2022.