Congress on Thursday, January 6, 2022, will mark the one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters sought to stop the counting of electoral votes and overturn the 2020 election results. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. ET at the Capitol and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced several events, which will be live-streamed.
“These events are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance, and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism, and prayerfulness,” she said in a letter to her Democratic colleagues.
A House pro forma session will be held on the House floor at noon, with prayer, a statement from the chair, and a moment of silence. At 1 p.m. ET, Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden will moderate a conversation between historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham to establish and preserve the narrative of January 6.
At 2:30 p.m. ET, members of Congress will reflect on January 6, presided over by Representative Jason Crowe. A prayer vigil will be held at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Here’s a roundup of network coverage (all times Eastern):
ABC: David Muir will lead coverage, with a sit-down interview with Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges set to air Wednesday evening on World News Tonight and Nightline. Juju Chang will anchor Nightline from Washington, and The View will feature guests Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the authors of Peril. ABC News Live will feature retrospectives with correspondents and producers who were covering the attack, and Hulu will present the ABC News Investigative Unit documentary Homegrown: Standoff to Rebellion.
CBS: Tony Dokoupil will co-host CBS Mornings from the Capitol, and Norah O’Donnell will anchor CBS Evening News from the location. Paramount+ will premiere Indivisible: Healing Hate, a six-part documentary series narrated by Mandy Patinkin that traces the origins of anti-government extremism. CBSN will feature daylong coverage, with a special edition of the daily politics show ‘Red and Blue’ that will air at 8 p.m. On Sunday’s episode of ’60 Minutes,’ O’Donnell will profile StoryCorps founder Dave Isay about a new project to get Americans across the political spectrum to stop demonizing one another and start communicating face to face.
NBC: Savannah Guthrie will co-host Today from Washington, with a live interview with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), vice-chair of the House January 6th Committee. Lester Holt will anchor NBC Nightly News from Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, with an interview with Pelosi. The network is planning special reports throughout the day, with Guthrie anchoring Biden’s remarks in the morning, Tom Llamas anchoring the House floor moment of silence, and Holt anchoring the prayer vigil.
CNN: In addition to the cable net’s coverage throughout the day, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper will moderate Live from the Capitol: January 6th, One Year Later, a two-hour special starting at 8 p.m. from National Statuary Hall. It will feature remarks from Pelosi and nine other House members, along with members of the January 6th Committee, including chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and vice-chair Cheney, as well as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Officers who were at the scene defending the Capitol that day also will participate.
Fox News: In addition to the network’s coverage throughout the day, Bret Baier will feature an interview with Cheney on Special Report at 6 p.m. Congressional correspondent Chad Pergram, who was reporting live from the Capitol on January 6, will share his experiences. FoxNews.com will feature interviews with Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) recounting their experiences in the chamber.
MSNBC: Along with the net’s coverage of the day’s events, Morning Joe will feature interviews with Woodward and Costa. At 2 p.m, Katy Tur will anchor coverage of the congressional commemoration ceremony and will be joined by Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd. Starting at 4 p.m., Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell will feature analysis and interviews with lawmakers. Streaming channel The Choice from MSNBC will feature analysis from Zerlina Maxwell and Mehdi Hasan.
PBS: On Wednesday, PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff will interview Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). On Thursday, NewsHour will air Woodruff’s interview with Vice President Harris. Woodruff also will interview Thompson and will discuss the events of the day with Amna Nawaz, Lisa Desjardins and Yamiche Alcindor.
C-SPAN: The public-service cable net’s coverage begins at 7 a.m. with Washington Journal. It also will cover the all of the above-mentioned ceremonies live and, starting at 6 p.m., will re-air the events of the day including Biden, members of Congress, historians, and more. The net also will take viewer calls and social media comments throughout the evening.
Five people died as a result of the violence on January 6, and former President Trump was impeached on a charge of inciting the violence (he was later acquitted by the Senate). The House of Representatives has set up a select committee to investigate the origins of the attack.
In a letter to his Democratic colleagues this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote that January 6 participants were “fueled by conspiracy and the ravings of a vengeful former president” and “they sought to destroy our Republic.”
Schumer continued that Senate Democrats will “will make clear that what happened on January 6th and the one-sided, partisan actions being taken by Republican-led state legislatures across the country are directly linked, and we can and must take strong action to stop this antidemocratic march.” He called for the Senate to change its rules around debate and announced the Senate will debate and vote before Martin Luther King Jr. Day on changing the rules if the GOP blocks voting rights legislation.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy wrote in a letter to Republican colleagues that the “actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be.” But he continued that Democrats are “using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country.”
