Members of the January 6 Committee reportedly used teleprompters during the primetime hearing on Thursday evening.
Photos appear to show a running teleprompter in front of the committee’s nine members while they were making statements and playing video evidence.
“WOW they are using teleprompters,” the House Republicans’ Twitter profile posted along with a photo that featured the members and a teleprompter.
Of the committee’s nine members, there are seven Democrats and just two Republicans. Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MI), Liz Cheney (R-WY), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) sit on the committee.
Despite the House resolution creating the January 6 committee requiring Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to appoint five out of 13 Republicans after consulting with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Pelosi handpicked anti-Trump Republicans Cheney and Kinzinger to serve on the committee.
Pelosi’s deviation from the House resolution is the subject of several lawsuits, including one filed by former President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Thursday’s primetime hearing was the first of several sessions the committee plans to hold over the course of the next few weeks. The hearing featured selectively edited clips of testimony by multiple former Trump advisers and testimony from two in-person witnesses, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards and filmmaker Nick Quested.
Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney during a hearing in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, June 9, 2022. (Alex Brandon/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although Quested was one of the committee’s star witnesses, he previously claimed that “someone in authority left the door open and the mob walked in.”
After the hearing, former Trump spokesperson and adviser Jason Miller blasted Cheney for intentionally taking his portion of video testimony out of context.