Rep. Thompson: ‘The Conspiracy to Thwart the Will of the People Is Not Over’

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D.-Miss., chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said at Thursday night's hearing that "we can’t sweep what happened under the rug."

"The American people deserve answers," he said. "So I come before you this evening not as a Democrat, but as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution. The Constitution doesn’t protect just Democrats or just Republicans. It protects all of us: ‘We the People.’ And this scheme was an attempt to undermine the will of the people."

He added that "our democracy remains in danger."

"The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over. There are those in this country who thirst for power but have no love or respect for what makes America great: devotion to the Constitution, allegiance to the rule of law, our shared journey to build a more perfect Union."

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“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here," he said.

Thursday's prime-time hearing will open with eyewitness testimony from the first police officer pummeled in the mob riot and from a documentary filmmaker tracking the extremist Proud Boys, who prepared to fight for Trump immediately after the election and led the storming of the Capitol.

Starting with President Trump’s “Save America Rally” speech, to rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol and ending with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris confirmed as the next President and Vice President of the U.S., here’s a look at what happened at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.