President Trump tried to destroy democracy on Jan. 6. Will we let him do it again?

As his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, wielding guns, knives and spears, President Donald Trump was doing what he did best: watching Fox News.

For 187 agonizing minutes, he sat in the White House dining room and deliberately chose not to condemn the violence or tell his people to go home. Instead, he made it worse.

In its eighth public hearing, the final of the summer, the Jan. 6 committee detailed Thursday what it repeatedly referred to as the president’s “dereliction of duty” in the more than three-hour period that the insurrection was raging and Trump refused to intervene.

His advisers, his children and many of his Republican allies pleaded with him to call off the attack. In a blatant violation of his oath of office, he did not call the defense secretary, the homeland security secretary or the attorney general, nor did he call for backup from law enforcement.

He did do a few things, however: he phoned Republican senators urging them to delay or object to the certification of the electoral count. He sent multiple tweets, including one attacking his vice president for not having the “courage to do what needed to be done.” That was, as one of the witnesses put it, like “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

He did all of this knowing that the mob was growing increasingly violent. Knowing that people were in danger.

Among the most disturbing revelations from the hearing was that the vice president’s Secret Service detail feared for their own lives inside the Capitol and radioed in goodbyes to their family members as the rioters grew closer.

We came very close to losing our democracy that day. Each hearing the committee has held thus far has reminded us of that.

But will it be enough?

When the Jan. 6 hearings began, plenty were skeptical of what they could actually deliver. They’ve exceeded all expectations, presenting a compelling and often shocking narrative that makes the facts nearly impossible to ignore.

Now, it’s time for America to decide how it wants to move forward. Donald Trump is still the Republican standard bearer. He could become president again. And there are plenty of Republicans out there, including North Carolina’s own Ted Budd, who would very much like to see that happen.

“The forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, said in his closing statement. “The militant, intolerant ideologies, the militias, the alienation and the disaffection, the weird fantasies and disinformation — they’re all still out there, ready to go. That’s the elephant in the room.”

It’s up to the Justice Department to decide whether Trump should face criminal charges for his behavior, but he can still be tried in the court of public opinion. While polling indicates that a majority of Americans blame Trump for the attack, and his favorability among GOP voters is weakening, it remains unclear whether the hearings will make a difference where it matters most.

Fox News, once again, chose not to air the hearing at all. Its hosts have repeatedly minimized the committee and its work, even as Thursday’s hearing showed texts from Fox personalities like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham begging for Trump to call off the mob.

If we allow this to fade into the past, if we allow Trump and the Republicans who enabled him to go forth unscathed, it could happen again. It will happen again.

We can’t just move on, because Donald Trump himself certainly hasn’t. He continues to travel around the country telling people that the election was stolen from him. He still has never shown any responsibility or remorse for what happened on Jan. 6 — not even for the loss of life that occurred that day. Much of his party still stands behind him and clamors for his endorsement.

At the end of the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney asked a simple question:

“Every American must consider this,” she said. “Can any president who made the choices Donald Trump did on January 6 ever be trusted with a position of authority in our great nation again?”

The answer is no.

This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 8:16 AM.