1/6 panel: Capitol riot an ‘attempted coup’

An image of Ivanka Trump is displayed on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (Jabin Botsford//The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election opened Thursday’s prime-time hearing declaring the attack an “attempted coup” that put “two and half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said “the world is watching” the U.S. response to the panel’s yearlong investigation into the Capitol riot and the defeated president’s extraordinary effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

He called it a “brazen attempt” to overturn the election.

“Democracy remains in danger,” Thompson said. “We must confront the truth with candor, resolve and determination.”

The committee was presenting never-before-seen video and a mass of other evidence, aiming to show the “harrowing story” of the deadly violence that day and also a chilling backstory as Trump,

the defeated president, tried to overturn Biden’s election victory.