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Juana Summers/NPR
About an hour earlier than the primary prime time listening to of the Home committee investigating the assault on the U.S. Capitol, individuals started to trickle into the courtyard of a northwest Philadelphia church.
They have been there for a neighborhood watch occasion, one in every of roughly 90 organized by liberal activists, urging individuals to assemble to look at the uncommon, televised night listening to collectively.
“I anticipate to be shocked, and I did not wish to be shocked at dwelling on my own,” mentioned Melanie Brennan, who lives within the Mount Ethereal neighborhood the place the occasion was being held.
Brennan got here to the watch occasion with a good friend, Chauncey Harris. He had excessive expectations, and mentioned that former President Donald Trump had evaded penalties for too lengthy.
“I hope for now they’re going to have the ability to present individuals what the reality is, so we are able to eliminate our private opinions and simply choose the info on the info,” he mentioned earlier than the listening to started. “That is what I hope occurs. I hope we are able to get some justice on this nation”
Brennan and Harris have been amongst those that gathered at Summit Presbyterian Church to look at the listening to stay, as members of the Home choose panel positioned the blame for the violence that consumed the Capitol on Jan. 6 squarely on the previous president.
Forward of the listening to, Democratic State Rep. Chris Rabb, who represents this a part of Philadelphia and spoke on the occasion, questioned how many individuals can be tuning in.
“It’s probably that almost all of hardworking Individuals is not going to be paying consideration. And I do not say that as a judgement, I say that as an remark,” he mentioned. “And one of many causes I really feel that folk will not be paying consideration is there are lots of people struggling simply to pay the payments.”
He known as this a second for collective motion.
Earlier than Chairman Bennie Thompson gaveled the listening to into order, Tim Brown, one of many occasion’s organizers, presided over a satirical awards ceremony. The unflattering awards have been doled out to Republican politicians.
“The primary award of the night is the Golden Boot award, given to probably the most servile and degrading act of bootlicking by a political toadie,” Brown mentioned.
The nominees for this award — once more, actually, not an award — have been three Republican senators: Mitt Romney of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Brown, the organizing director of Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks, requested individuals to cheer for the politician they’d like to present the award to. Cruz received handily. A lady accepted a trophy, ostensibly on Cruz’s behalf, standing within the entrance of the room, arms outstretched, holding a single, spray painted golden boot.
“I feel it is vital so as to add levity to darkish conditions,” Brown mentioned when requested in regards to the function of the awards ceremony. “In some cases, to take the strain off individuals, but additionally humor is an efficient solution to get the purpose throughout.”
By the point the listening to began, greater than 40 individuals have been seated in metallic folding chairs to look at the livestream, projected on a display screen within the entrance of the room.
Initially, individuals principally watched quietly, often having facet conversations with a neighbor, or clapping to punctuate some extent. That was till Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the choose committee, spoke.
When she addressed fellow Republicans who’ve boycotted the proceedings and painted them as illegitimate, the gang roared so loudly that it was arduous to listen to what Cheney mentioned subsequent.
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who’re defending the indefensible,” she mentioned. “There’ll come a day the place Donald Trump is gone, however your dishonor will stay.”
What Cheney mentioned caught with Raymond Torres, who additionally lives in Mount Ethereal and was making ready to depart because the committee took a quick recess.
“I simply bear in mind the Watergate hearings when Sen. Goldwater confronted Nixon and mentioned you want to resign,” he mentioned. “The Republican senators have probably not confronted Trump and mentioned he must cease mendacity. At the least Liz Cheney has been keen to do this.”
Torres mentioned that whereas he believes many individuals have been tuned in, he was involved about those that did not discover it essential to view the hearings.
“It was very unhappy that Fox Information refused to cowl this, and has acted as a mouthpiece for [the] Republican Occasion, when this can be a nation that should study its historical past,” he mentioned.
Whereas different information networks carried the televised night hearings, Fox Information continued with its typical prime time programming.
Organizer Tim Brown additionally nervous about who would watch the listening to. He mentioned some individuals advised him immediately that in the event that they could not watch collectively, they would not accomplish that in any respect.
When requested why, he mentioned: “Trauma.”
“Individuals have been shocked at among the issues being mentioned. One girl got here as much as me, she mentioned, ‘I could not have watched this alone, this was too terrorizing.’ Whenever you noticed these individuals breaching the Capitol, cops preventing for his or her lives, it was simply horrendous.”
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