What we learned from the January 6 hearings

The House select committee investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection concluded its series of eight hearings this week with a presentation intended to be the final piece of its narrative puzzle that painted former President Donald Trump as responsible for the violent attack on the US Capitol -- and more broadly, American democracy -- on January 6, 2021.

Over the course of the two months' worth of hearings, the committee tapped into the hundreds of taped depositions, as well as key witnesses who testified live, to present a devastating case that Trump sought multiple avenues to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election even after he was told he lost, that the former President knew ahead of time January 6 could turn violent, and that he chose not to act when his supporters attacked the Capitol and put the lives of lawmakers -- not to mention his own vice president -- in danger.

The focus on McCarthy is all the more notable because the committee issued unprecedented subpoenas to McCarthy and four other House Republicans (the GOP lawmakers have not turned over any documents or sat for interviews). The most damning accounts came not from Trump's political opponents but his inner circle at the White House, as multiple former Trump White House and campaign aides gave firsthand accounts of the President's unwillingness to accept reality and abandon his delusions about the election. Even Trump's own family members like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner provided testimony that painted the former President in an unflattering light at times.