Friday, July 22, 2022

Key points the 1/6 Committee hearing brought out yesterday



Various sources are summarizing the hearings from yesterday. Much of this has been made public before, but the 1/6 committee did a splendid job of honestly telling the tale of what the ex-president did and what his intent was during a critical three hour period on 1/6.  

A summary of some of the key points could be helpful for context and memory.

  • After all of T****’s lawsuits alleging a fraudulent election failed in the courts, he planned an a coup for 1/6 as another attempt to stay in power by simply usurping the election outcome. 
  • Republicans in congress initially condemned T**** and his coup attempt, but later defended him and justified the coup attempt in the second impeachment. That is solid evidence of the Republican Party’s moral collapse. I call it moral rot. Prominent Republicans like Kevin McCarthy went from initial anger to sniveling obsequiousness justified by crackpot justifications that would convince no one except hyper-partisans. 
  • T**** knowingly refused to call off the mob of traitors. Although he tried to hide, allowing no photos or other means of tracking his behavior during the critical three hours of violent insurrection, the evidence is rock solid that he knew he could have called it off. T**** intentionally and knowingly refused to call the mob off.
  • The evidence presented yesterday made it undeniable that T**** intended to subvert the election. Instead of calling the mob off, he was calling Republican senators and asking them to delay certifying the vote. 
  • During the coup attempt, T**** posted a couple of Tweets that he knowingly intended to further inflame the mob of traitors to get them to stop the vote certification. He specifically targeted Mike Pence and the mob responded to his incitement once they became aware of it.  
  • The evidence presented yesterday made it undeniable that T**** supported the traitors on 1/6, seeing them as justifiably angry and justifiably attacking the capitol because of his lie that the election was stolen.
  • Only after it became clear that his coup attempt was going to fail, the ex-president called it off, praising the traitors as people he loved and “patriots.”  T**** undeniably saw his violent coup attempt as justified and patriotic. Once law enforcement was mobilizing to shut the insurrection down, T**** reluctantly and half-heartedly asked the violent mob to leave.
  • Republicans in congress refused to seriously investigate the 1/6 coup attempt by an independent commission. That created situation where there would be no serious congressional or Department of Justice[1] investigation. That would have left the evidence forever buried or dribbling out in a complex story that few average people would ever piece together on their own. Democrats wanted an independent commission, but Republicans rejected the idea. That Republican Party refusal left Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) the choice of setting up a bipartisan panel of House members or leaving T**** free to lie about 1/6 without a counter narrative available to the American people.


Sources:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3570067-five-takeaways-from-thursdays-jan-6-hearing/
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3570056-trump-accused-of-dereliction-of-duty-in-dramatic-jan-6-hearing/
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-panel-hearing-3e3dc618ed8cee37147cf6a792c0c0fa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/21/jan-6-hearing-trump-behavior/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/22/jan-6-hearing-revelations-trump-inaction/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/22/trump-election-is-over/
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/january-6-hearing-trump-actions/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62263279



Footnote: 
1. The evidence I am aware of so far indicates that the House 1/6 Committee investigation and the evidence it is publicly showing prodded the DoJ into maybe taking a more serious look at what happened than it had previously. Before the 1/6 Committee hearings started, it wasn't obvious to me that the DoJ was going to do anything about it. If there was a major DoJ investigation before the committee made T****’s coup attempt impossible to ignore, I am unaware of it.

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