Fifty years ago, “Americans were captivated by the Watergate hearings, recalls a columnist from Washington Post. This week, the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol ransacking promises an equally gripping spectacle when it releases ‘never before seen documents’. and lay out facts that, in the words of Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, ‘will blow the House up’.”
“However, continues Katrina vanden Heuvel, also director of the left-wing weekly The Nation, the auditions are unlikely to have the same public appeal as the Watergate auditions, for very bad reasons.”
The Democrats hope to make these six television hearings, which start Thursday, June 9, a “blockbuster”. Five months before the mid-term elections, where the latter risk losing control of Congress, they must make it possible to “refocusing voters’ attention on Jan. 6, to tie Republicans directly to an unprecedented plot to undermine democracy itself,” écrit The New York Times. Viewing meetings have even been organized across the country.