Trump’s forces are preparing for the next storming of the Capitol. This time, they plan to win | Jonathan Freedland

The danger to US democracy didn't end on 6 January - his followers are now ripping up the safeguards that foiled them

The pictures are appalling, the words terrifying. If Thursday's opening session is anything to go by, the primetime televised hearings into the storming of Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 will be both revealing and disturbing. But though their focus is on a winter's day 18 months ago, they are not about America's past. They are a warning about its future.

Make no mistake, the revelations of what exactly took place when a violent mob broke into the halls of the US Congress, seeking to overturn a democratic election by preventing the formal certification of Joe Biden's victory, are a valuable, and shocking, addition to the historical record. The House committee that has been investigating the attempted insurrection for the past year - gathering in excess of 140,000 documents and speaking to more than 1,000 witnesses - discovered that Donald Trump's response, on learning that the rioters were chanting Hang Mike Pence", was to say that his vice-president deserves" it.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. To listen to his podcast Politics Weekly America, search Politics Weekly America" wherever you get your podcasts