I mean, I think the question for me is, was it enough to keep people interested for the remaining five hearings? I think that's an open question. It was a deliberate attempt to sort of bring people viscerally back to feeling how close we came to our democracy being in jeopardy - right? - that these violent protesters wanted to overturn the election and were going after elected leaders, including the vice president, the speaker of the House, and were attacking Capitol Police officers. And I think what they were trying to do was remind the American public what happened that day and just how violent it was, and also about sort of how coordinated it was. I mean, what did you see as the goal of this committee coming into tonight's hearings?ДEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: They've been saying that they wanted this to be their opening argument. KHALID: After the hearing wrapped up for the evening, Edwards was seen embracing Sandra Garza, the partner of Brian Sicknick, who was the Capitol Police officer who died on January 7 following the insurrection. They were - you know, they had - I mean, I saw friends with blood all over their faces. There were officers on the ground, bleeding. Edwards described part of what she experienced in pretty raw detail.Д¬AROLINE EDWARDS: What I saw was just a war scene.

And after a short break, the committee then heard from two witnesses, a documentary filmmaker named Nick Quested and a Capitol Police officer who was injured during the riots, Caroline Edwards. KHALID: Then the committee showed an 11-minute film with footage of the insurrection on January 6. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them, that the election was stolen and that he was the rightful president. LIZ CHENEY: On this point, there is no room for debate. She was attempting to show that President Trump and most of his senior aides actively precipitated and encouraged the rally at the Capitol and waited hours and hours and hours to encourage the pro-Trump extremists who broke into the Capitol building to leave. We're going to let Asma take it from here.ДЄSMA KHALID, BYLINE: At the outset of this nearly two-hour hearing, Congresswoman Liz Cheney from Wyoming spent a good amount of time just laying out the narrative.

Just after the hearing ended, our colleagues Asma Khalid, Deirdre Walsh and Ron Elving offered their insights for the NPR Politics Podcast. The committee, which is chaired by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, laid out new evidence that former President Donald Trump and his supporters attempted a coup to overturn a legitimate presidential election. Capitol made its opening arguments on prime-time television last night. The House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S.

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