IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Jan. 6 Investigators Want Televised Primetime Hearings

Congressional investigators are looking at late March or early April for when the public hearings could begin.

The congressional panel investigating the insurrection at the Capitol last Jan. 6 wants to hold televised hearings of testimony that would be broadcast on primetime television. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House committee, told Bloomberg News that such hearings would give the public the “best opportunity” to hear the testimony for themselves. “The public needs to know, needs to hear from people under oath about what led up to Jan. 6th, and to some degree, what has continued after Jan. 6,” Thompson was quoted saying in a Tuesday interview, adding that “maybe a series of hearings” would be held. The details are still being worked out, with members of the committee looking at March or April for when the hearings would begin. Axios reports that the hearings are also seen as a way for the committee to counteract the false narrative pushed by Donald Trump and other election truthers that the investigation is unfairly targeting the former president and his allies over what they claim was largely a peaceful protest spun out of control by a few bad seeds.