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Capitol Riot Hearings: Meet the panel investigating the January 6, 2021 'uprising'

The first hearing of the committee will reportedly take place on June 9 at 8 pm ET

The much-awaited hearings into the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots will commence from June 9 at 8 pm ET. The panel constitutes nine members, both Democrats as well as Republicans, who will work together to find what led to 2021’s infamous violence at the US Capitol.

The panel said, “The committee will present previously unseen material documenting January 6th, receive witness testimony, preview additional hearings, and provide the American people a summary of its findings about the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”

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Who are part of the committee?

Bennie Gordon Thompson

Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson is the chairperson of the committee. Thompson is well-known for his efforts to safeguard and improve voting rights. The 74-year-old is also “the chair of the Committee on Homeland Security since 2019 and from 2007 to 2011”. Recently, he took to Twitter to share a link of a Washington Post article while writing: “Here is how you can view the Jan. 6 committee hearings and what to watch for.”

Recently, he told NPR, “I'm a passionate believer that, in a democracy you have to follow the rule of law. It has nothing to do with individuals, it has nothing to do with wealth. It has nothing to do with status in the community. It's the law. The law is colorblind.”

Thompson also spoke with CNN and said, “People I know fought and died in this country for me to have the right to represent them and for them to have the right to vote. I’m not going to let any insurrectionist, rioter, crazy person come here and take this pin.”

House majority whip Jim Clyburn vouched for Thompson’s selection and added: “We have so many people over here who are much more interested in the headline than they are in making headway. Bennie is not interested in making the headlines. Here he is, growing up, under the imperfections of this country — being affected adversely by this country's imperfections. Yet he is one being looked to now to do what is necessary to preserve it.”

Liz Cheney

An attorney as well as representative for Wyoming's at-large Congressional District since 2017, Liz Cheney belongs to the Republican party but after the January 6 incident, she became a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump. She was also one of the nine Republicans who voted for his impeachment.

In a January 2022 tweet, slamming the former president, Cheney wrote, “Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election. He’d do it all again if given the chance.”

Also, in February 2022, she tweeted: “I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”

Recently, the 55-year-old said, “I have found myself, especially since January 6th, thinking often of my great-great-grandfather and of the Union he fought to defend. The question for every one of us is, in this time of testing, will we do our duty? Or will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies?”

Adam Kinzinger

Kinzinger, representative for Illinois's 16th congressional district, is another Republican who is a part of the committee alongside Cheney. The 44-year-old not just voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riots but has also opposed many of his own party’s policies.

In the wake of the Texas school shooting massacre, he took to Twitter to call for gun controlling laws - opposite to what majority GOP members believe. He tweeted: “As a strong Second Amendment defender, I believe we have to be the ones putting forward reasonable solutions to gun violence. I'm focused on saving lives & I'm hopeful more of my colleagues will reach across the aisle to do the same.”

Jamie Raskin 

Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin is also a part of the committee. He earlier served as the lead impeachment manager at the post-6 January trial of Trump. It has been said that at the time, he “came close to tears while describing the weight of evidence and the dangers posed not just by the event itself but the precedent it set for presidential conduct.”

Recently, the 59-year-old tweeted: “This week, @January6thCmte starts sharing evidence of the chilling inside plan to overturn the 2020 election and block the constitutional transfer of power. America will see footage and records we have documenting the dangerous extremist assault on our constitutional order.”

Zoe Lofgren

Democratic representative from California, Lofgren was also part of the post-6 January impeachment of Trump. She said at the time, “A trial without all the relevant evidence is not a fair trial. It would be wrong for you senators, acting as judges, to be deprived of relevant evidence of the president’s offences.”

The 74-year-old’s website describing her states that she “currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and the Committee on House Administration.” Besides, she is “also the Chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation. It is the most diverse delegation in the House and outnumbers all other state House delegations."

Elaine Luria

Luria is a Navy veteran, who is currently working as representative from Virginia's 2nd congressional district. The 46-year-old Democrat was inside the Capitol when the attack happened. On the riots’ anniversary, she said: “Abraham Lincoln said in response to potential threats to our Republic, 'If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.’ These words continue to ring true today.”

Pete Aguilar

Aguilar is an ex-mayor of Redlands and currently serving as the representative from California's 31st congressional district. The Democrat recently spoke about the upcoming hearing and reportedly said that “the televised events will not be a ‘Disney production’, but the committee is clearly invested in making sure they come off as intended.”

Stephanie Murphy

The 43-year-old is a Vietnamese-born US leader who belongs to the Democratic party. She commented on her being a part of the committee and said, “To see the citadel of American democracy assaulted is a reminder that our democracy is not self-sustaining. It needs to be preserved and protected by American patriots of every political stripe.”

Adam Schiff

The 61-year-old Democrat is a lawyer, author, and politician, who spoke about the televised-hearings and said: “Our goal is to present the narrative of what happened in this country, how close we came to losing our democracy, what led to the violence. Americans I think know a great deal already – they have seen a number of bombshells already [and] there’s a great deal they haven’t seen. But perhaps the most important is the public has not seen it woven together, how one thing led to another.”