The Capitol riot hearings reveal a divided America in cross-section

Almost everyone in the US seems to have an opinion on what happened on 6 January 2021, from DC insiders and elites to working-class people in small towns, writes Holly Baxter

Over and over again, people said that they believed they had been called to Washington DC by Trump (Getty)

By now, pretty much everyone has formulated an opinion about the 6 January insurrection. If you disagree with my point of view on it, you might call it the 6 January political conversation, or the 6 January rally. You’d deny that the aim of the rioters was to overturn democracy in the name of Donald Trump, and you’d talk about a couple of bad apples and a majority of very fine people. You might even say that the legitimate supporters of Trump were set up by agitators from antifa, or Democrats in cahoots with the CIA.

Few Americans are unsure where they stand on the issue, so why are the 6 January hearings – led by a committee of seven Democrats, plus two Republicans who have been basically excommunicated for their audacity – such a big deal? The first aired on primetime television last Thursday; the second on Monday, with more to come. The first was deliberately made easy to watch, running through the evening on all TV stations (except Fox News, though it did air on Fox Business). It seems clear that the government wants everyday Americans to watch what’s going on.

And, despite the fact that we all know what happened by now, the hearings have still made for surprisingly compulsive watching. The testimony from one Capitol Police officer who was badly injured by rioters was supplemented by video footage of her being thrown to the ground and knocked out cold. She returned to duty minutes after regaining consciousness, nursing a concussion she didn’t yet realise she had, and spent hours helping to hold the line while dressing the wounds of other injured people. She described how she thought to herself that she didn’t know exactly how to react, because she hadn’t been “trained in active combat”.

That moment really hammered home what we’d heard in numbers and written details about the Capitol Police officers who were injured, or even died, as a result of the insurrection. Video footage of the protesters violently attacking police also starkly illustrated the hypocrisy of the Maga supporters who professed their supposedly conservative values – some even carrying “Blue Lives Matter” flags – while causing grievous injury to officers who got in their way.

What makes the hearings so compelling is the fact that many people in Trumpworld who have so far been able to avoid saying anything about the riot were subpoenaed and forced to appear. That made things even more nail-biting when Monday morning’s hearing was unexpectedly delayed by 30 minutes because of the non-appearance of one expected attendee. It turned out that former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien had bowed out because of a “family emergency”; his lawyer said later that Stepien’s wife had gone into labour. The hearing proceeded anyway, with some video footage of Stepien, but many felt they’d been denied their pound of flesh.

Those hoping for a bit of intra-Trumpworld drama, however, were not disappointed as Trump’s conspicuously favourite child and one-time adviser, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, turned on the former president. Ivanka told the 6 January committee that she “accepted” what attorney general Bill Barr had said: namely that the election hadn’t been stolen from Donald Trump, and that Joe Biden had won fair and square. The 45th president said on right-wing Twitter-wannabe social media website Truth Social after the hearing that Ivanka had “checked out” by then, and just wanted to “be respectful” to Bill Barr (“he sucked!” The Donald added. I guess only some members of the Trump family concern themselves with being respectful.)

Barr himself testified at the second hearing on Monday, claiming that Trump had become “detached from reality” and adding that he had seen Jared Kushner outside the Oval Office when the “big lie” was in full swing. According to Barr, Kushner agreed with his assessment that Trump was deluded, and said “We’re working on it” when Barr asked how they could bring him back to reality. Watching Kushner and Ivanka Trump distance themselves through leaks and testimonials is a truly fascinating thing; it’s no secret that Ivanka harbours political ambitions, and such developments leave many viewers wondering if these are steps she’s agreed with her father, or whether she’s now casting him aside as so much toxic ballast.

Another interesting element of the hearings have been the people who changed their minds. Video footage of those who participated in the riots and were charged with a variety of misdemeanours came at the end of the first hearing, and they were fascinating to watch. Over and over again, people said that they believed they had been called to Washington DC by Trump to overturn the election. They wholeheartedly took on the ”big lie” that the election had been stolen, and believed they were doing the country a service by refusing to let Biden’s certification happen. They imagined that they would become heroes.

There is something truly poignant about watching such interviews, where the sad faces of radicalisation stare out of a screen at you. Like brainwashed Isis brides, a number of people appeared seriously to believe that they were soldiers in a righteous war, and that any violence would therefore be justified and forgiven – perhaps even celebrated. Perhaps the saddest example of this was Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old veteran from California who travelled to DC to storm the Capitol and was shot dead by police as she attempted to break in through a window. It’s hard to believe that, before she became a far-right conspiracy theorist obsessed with QAnon and was moved to fly thousands of miles to try to change the results of an election, Babbitt was a Democrat who voted for Obama.

Truly, these hearings have shown a cross-section of America, from DC insiders and elites down to working-class people in small towns thousands of miles away who found themselves fired up on conspiracies. Though few will necessarily have a “Come to Jesus” moment after watching these – and for the people who tune in to Fox News, the opportunity won’t be there – the testimonies will make for an important historical record. Indeed, the true worth of these hearings probably won’t be obvious until 10 or 20 years down the line.