Friday thread: A gripping January 6th first public hearing

It exceeded expectations, putting a message in primetime about the dangerous assault on democracy. What will happen next?

I never thought I’d be praising Liz Cheney. But wow, did she blow it out of the park at the first public hearing of the select committee investigation of January 6th? Cheney laid out what we’ll see in the investigation’s findings — what will go to the Department of Justice —- including that various members of Congress asked Donald Trump for pardons for their involvement in the insurrection.

She, as well as Democratic co-chair Bennie Thompson, hammered Trump mercilessly, with Thompson explaining that the hearings will show how Trump engaged in an “attempted coup.” Cheney made it clear Trump wanted Mike Pence dead, that he said, “Mike Pence deserved it” in response to the crowd screaming “Hang Mike Pence.”