Jan. 6 panel chair Bennie Thompson has COVID, primetime hearing to go ahead

The House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot will move forward with its primetime hearing Thursday after Chairman Bennie Thompson announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Panel spokesman Tim Mulvey confirmed Tuesday that Thompson (D-Miss.) had told his fellow panel members to “proceed” with the highly anticipated meeting.

“Committee members and staff wish the chairman a speedy recovery,” Mulvey added.

Thompson said he was experiencing “mild symptoms” and would be “isolating for the next several days.”

“Gratefully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted … I strongly encourage each person in America to get vaccinated and continue to follow the guidelines to remain safe,” he said in a statement. “COVID-19 is still present, and we must do everything we can to fight this virus.”

Thompson’s absence from Thursday’s hearing will be his first since the series of summer meetings began on June 9. As chairman, Thompson has gaveled each hearing in, sworn in various witnesses, delivered opening statements, put forward questions, and declared the hearings adjourned.

Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) will likely lead the hearing in Thompson’s stead.

Cheney’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Thursday’s hearing — the eighth held by the committee this year — is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and feature live testimony from two former Trump White House staffers, ex-deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and ex-deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.

The hearing is expected to focus on former President Donald Trump’s actions during the more than three hours that the US Capitol was under siege on Jan. 6, 2021.

Both Pottinger and Matthews resigned the day of the riot and have already appeared before the committee in pre-taped depositions — portions of which have been played in previous hearings.

One clip shared last month showed Matthews blasting Trump’s decision to tweet against former Vice President Mike Pence after rioters breached the Capitol.

The tweet in question read: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country. And our Constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones, which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth.”

“That was the last thing that needed to be tweeted at that moment … the situation was already bad, so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that,” Matthews told the committee.