How to watch the Jan. 6 committee hearings and what to watch for

When are the hearings’ dates and times?

The first hearing will start Thursday, June 9, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The committee hasn’t announced a formal schedule for the rest, but there could be as many as eight through June, with a final hearing in September — right before the November midterm elections.

How to watch the hearings

The committee usually live-streams its hearings, and most major TV news stations will be airing at least some of them — though they could go on for hours, and it’s not yet clear whether news networks will stay with the entire hearing each time one is held. The Washington Post will have anchored coverage and analysis beginning Thursday night on www.washingtonpost.com.

What to watch for

The committee plans to detail their findings of what they say was a months-long Republican conspiracy to overthrow Joe Biden’s legitimate election victory, led by President Donald Trump. The committee could even accuse Trump of committing a crime by intentionally trying to stop Congress’s certification of Biden’s win on Jan. 6, 2021. But Congress’s power is limited; ultimately, the Justice Department would have to decide whether to prosecute.

Investigators have not gotten many close Trump allies or top Republican members of Congress to testify. So they plan to call in staffers to some of the top players, like aides to former vice president Mike Pence, or former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. And they plan to play videos of their previous interviews with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, report The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner.

Each hearing will have a theme. On Thursday, lawmakers are planning to introduce the public to what they’ve been up to for the past 11 months since Democrats in Congress voted to set up the investigatory committee. Only two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) sit on it, and there are no Trump allies on the committee. They will make an opening statement that offers an overview of the Jan. 6 events.

Other hearings could focus on what Trump did (or didn’t do) on Jan. 6; how he and his allies tried to dismantle the electoral process in the weeks after Election Day, to keep him in power; how disinformation spreads; and policy recommendations to prevent such an attack from happening again.

Another question the committee must grapple with: how to make the public care about the intricate details of an attack that’s more than a year old. In an interview with CBS that aired this weekend, Cheney, the top Republican on the committee, tried to spin things forward, saying that Trump has expressed no remorse for what happened — and that that’s worrisome for the next election.

“We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack,” she added. “And so, people must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”