Rep. Elaine Luria prepares to lead Jan. 6 committee hearing, focusing on threat to democracy

There’s a line her Navy commanding officers would snap out if Elaine Luria got a bit too longwinded in a presentation — and Luria said it’s been a help while plowing through depositions and transcripts preparing to take a lead in the Jan. 6 committee’s hearing Thursday.

The line: “Where’s the reference?”

“It’s something anyone in the Navy is going to know,” Luria says. “It means ‘where’s the facts’?”

For the past year and a half, in what had been weekly meetings with the other eight members of the committee — lately, they’ve been more frequent — she’s been focused on finding the facts that will tell the story of what former President Donald Trump did for the 187 minutes between the first assault on the Capitol and his eventual message to supporters to desist.

The overarching message that strikes home with her is of a continuing threat to American democracy.

“People say it wasn’t successful because the election wasn’t overturned,” she said. “But we need to look at how it was successful: It convinced a large number of Americans to lose faith in elections, it had success in social media divisiveness and spreading disinformation, it convinced people it is OK to use violence for political ends.”

There’s still work for the committee to do, too.

“I can tell you, the investigation is continuing and if anything is accelerating,” Luria said.

New information, like that presented by Christopher Newport University graduate Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, or the deletion of Secret Service agents’ Jan. 6 text messages, emerged as the committee members prepared for the hearings, she said.

Still on the committee’s to-do list are decisions about criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, as well as proposals for legislation aimed at preventing another such attack on election results.

The Jan. 6 committee’s hearing will be eighth of a series that has focused on the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has downplayed the significance of what witnesses, including former senior staffers, have said.

“I’ll give you this preview: the president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television” as supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who will be leading the hearing with Luria, during an interview Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com