People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This past Thursday, the January 6 House select committee held its first public, televised hearing detailing the committee’s investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The second proceeding will be held Monday, June 13th, at 10 a.m. ET.

As my husband and I watched the hearing Thursday night, we both felt a glimmer of hope that perhaps the “former guy,” his staff and associates (which include former White House Staffers, U.S. representatives, senators, and the wife of a certain Supreme Court judge) might face justice. The opening statements by Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) regarding former president Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 riot, and his attempts to overturn the democratic process were both chilling and powerful.

In her opening statement, Rep. Cheney stated, “Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power. In our hearings, you will see evidence of each element of this plan.”

Rep. Cheney also said: “Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the U.S. government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. He did not call his Secretary of Defense on January 6th. He did not talk to his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets. But Vice President [Mike] Pence did each of those things.”

As we watched the televised proceedings demonstrating how Trump’s attack on the facts hypnotized his supporters and led to violence and the outright beatings of Capitol police, my stomach dropped. Video from Capitol police bodycams and clips from footage shot by documentary filmmaker Nick Quested gave me a clearer picture of what happened that dark day. Quested’s clip of Proud Boy head Enrique Tarrio meeting with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in an underground garage the night before Jan. 6, the video of the Proud Boys leading the charge of the Capitol attack, and interviews with convicted Oath Keepers and Proud Boys inspired by Trump’s tweets painted a picture of deliberate planning.

January 6th was in fact, an attempted coup.

As I drove through my very “red” neighborhood the day after Thursday’s hearing, I wondered if my neighbors would consider taking down their “Trump 2024,” “F#ck Biden,” and “Gods, Guns and Trump” flags after the televised hearings. That was wishful thinking. The flags are still there, flapping in the breeze beneath the Stars and Stripes. I doubt that they will come down. 

I am indeed glad that the January 6th hearings will continue to be aired for the public: The American people need to know what happened, and most importantly, we need facts and not lies. 

Call me a pessimist, but I doubt that my flag-flying neighbors will be swayed by either testimony, video footage, or facts. Perhaps they are of the opinion that the capital riot was not an attempted coup, but a true act of patriotism to “take back America.”

Such opinions are a true confession of character.