There were times when the Jan. 6 committee’s ninth and final investigative hearing felt, well, lacking. During the first half especially, the proceedings felt less like a series finale and more like a clip show, a time-filler episode aired midseason. There was little of the explosive new testimony that marked the previous installments. It lacked the cohesive theme that the majority of the committee’s prior hearings utilized.
Much of this was because the committee had to methodically work through its findings since the last hearing was held in July in order to get to the payoff in the final act. Once it had finished recapping and reinforcing the myriad of ways in which former President Donald Trump had both encouraged the mob that attacked the Capitol and failed to act once the assault began, the committee took its most consequential step yet.
“The need for this committee to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact-finding,” Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., announced. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in what will likely be one of her final major acts in Congress, then introduced a resolution compelling Trump to appear before the committee to provide testimony and documents. It passed unanimously among the bipartisan committee members.
It’s unclear whether Trump will comply with the subpoena, but it feels unlikely based on his past clashes with Congress. There’s a slim chance that he may relish the opportunity to defend himself before the committee in a way he feels that others have been unwilling to. Either way, Congress has now made clear that it believes that whether or not his testimony is included in the final report, the American people deserve answers for the violence Trump incited on Jan. 6, 2021.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.