The airwaves were full of the usual desolatory, cynical baby-nihilism, just days before the 1/6 Select Committee opened hearings on Capitol attack. Will anyone watch? Will they? Right people watch? It will make a difference. The pre-game answers were, in general, no, no way and hell yes, but not necessarily in that order.
A few hearings can make all the difference. The 1/6 Committee — thanks in no small part to the GOP’s own-goal error in not stuffing the panel with distraction machines like Jim Jordan — has put forth a presentation as riveting as it has been damning. Even Fox NewsThey have been broadcast. If Attorney General Merrick Garland is still playing Hamlet over whether or not to prosecute Donald Trump for his 1/6 seditions, it won’t be for lack of evidence.
In fact, this may be the most remarkable aspect these hearings. Although there was so much evidence to present it could have overwhelmed the proceedings. Instead, a steady conveyor belt full of information and revelations has made these events riveting must see TV. They are the new center in Washington, D.C. politics; they have apparently frightened the living hell out of Trump; and there are at most two more to go this coming week before the curtain goes down.
A significant portion of the Tuesday hearing appears to be focused on the tweet heard round the world — Trump’s invitation to the “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” — and how various right-wing extremist groups reacted to it. This is an important point. The committee wants to show Trump that he is more than just a bystander to the chaos, but also that he was the instigator of all the violence. If they can make that case, Trump’s legal woes will be compounded by an order of magnitude.
“People are going to hear the story of that tweet,” committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, “and then the explosive effect it had in Trumpworld, and specifically among the domestic violent extremist groups, the most dangerous political extremists in the country at that point.”
As of Tuesday’s writing, there is no official witness list. Odds are good, however, that we may be hearing from some or all of the following: Jason Van Tatenhove, a former Oath Keepers spokesman from Colorado; Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys member from Florida charged with seditious conspiracy; Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boy from Seattle also charged with seditious conspiracy; and Kelly Meggs, an associate of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and member of Roger Stone’s “security detail” in the days before the insurrection.
It’s obvious that Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House Assistant, set the gold standard for these hearings. Her measured and devastating testimony turned the nation on its head. Worthy of note: Tony Ornato and Bobby Engel, the two Trump allies who contradicted Hutchinson’s description of a violently unhinged Trump attacking his security detail on 1/6, have yet to make a peep under oath regarding their claims. It appears that there is no effort to make this happen.
That was all very big, but Tuesday’s testimony could prove to be even more significant. If the committee has secured the cooperation of members of the Proud Boys, or other extremist organizations, the country could be given a guided tour through the country. terrifying realmMany people didn’t know they existed. These people are the fist in Trump’s authoritarian glove, and to date they have reveled violently in that role. They are the fire Trump played with on 1/6 and they almost burned the entire thing to pieces. I will listen to these people with big ears and expect to emerge with stomach ulcers the size of a car battery.
We may also see one of the bigger fishes in the 1/6 Pond on Tuesday, not to be outdone a bunch of fascist street brawlers. “As White House counsel, Pat Cipollone was privy to the tumultuous final months of the Trump administration,” reports Politico, “weighing in and pushing back on Trump’s efforts at key moments. Hutchinson described him as raising legal concerns about plans to appoint alternate slates of electors, the plan to appoint Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate election fraud and Trump’s proposed march to the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
On Friday, Cipollone testified in camera for the committee for approximately eight hours. According to reports, he was cooperative but did invoke privilege when questions got too close to his professional relationship. Fair and galling: The committee clearly understands attorney-client privilege and was careful not to trigger it too often. “[I]nvestigators focused mainly on Mr. Cipollone’s views on the events of Jan. 6,” reports The New York Times, “and generally did not ask about his views of other witnesses’ accounts.”
The last “person in the room” testimony we got was from Hutchinson, and she blew the roof off the joint. Trump could be buried by Cipollone. Clearly, he vehemently disagreed with Trump’s actions on that day, and now he will have the opportunity to explain why. Trump’s loyalty shield could be destroyed if Cipollone’s testimony is not brutally honest within the limits of privilege. If Pat rolls, it’s hats over the windmill.
There is noise that former Trump adviser and anthropomorphic hate potato Steve Bannon could testify somewhere down the line, but that’s mostly smokeAt this point. It seems that Trump, who has released Bannon from a privilege which actually does not have any legal bearing on his testimony is expecting Bannon as a human bomb to enter and blow up the proceedings. The committee members didn’t arrive with the last drop rain. They intend to interview Bannon in privacy before allowing him to be near a camera. Jury selection for Bannon’s contempt of Congress charges begins a bit more than a week from now, and his motive to speak to the committee may well be connected to those proceedings. The Justice Department certainly thinks so.
Paul Ryan wept. The Trump children are not alright. The hearings will continue, Tuesday at 1:00 Eastern.
