US Capitol riot hearing: Trump accused of 1/6 'attempted coup'
Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, said Mr Trump had "lit the flame of this attack".
Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said the riot endangered American democracy.
Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's election victory.
After almost a year of investigation, the Democratic-led US House of Representatives select committee opened on Thursday evening by showing clips from interviews conducted with members of Mr Trump's inner circle.
The footage was aired of testimony by former US Attorney General Bill Barr, saying the former president's claims that the election was stolen were baseless.
"We can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election," said the former attorney general.
The hearing also featured a recording of testimony by Ivanka Trump, the ex-president's daughter, saying she "accepted" Mr Barr's rejection of her father's conspiracy theory.
Before the House inquiry opened on Thursday evening - the first of six hearings expected this month - Mr Trump dismissed it as a "political HOAX".
The former president has publicly hinted about another White House run in 2024. He continues to peddle unsubstantiated claims that the last election was rigged by mass voter fraud.
Mr Thompson, the committee's chairman and a Mississippi lawmaker, told the hearing: "Jan 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brave attempt, as one writer put it shortly after Jan 6, to overthrow the government.
"The violence was no accident. It was Trump's last stand."
Ms Cheney, the committee vice-chair and a Wyoming congresswoman, said: "Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen and that he was the rightful president.
"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack."
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