Committee Chair Rep. Benny Thompson, D-Miss., outlines how future hearings will focus on the details of the conspiracy and the careful framing of Trump’s knowing lies — committee members explain they see in Trump’s actions arrive The “smart” seven-step plan Overturn the election — but Thursday’s hearing was largely focused on reminding Americans of the stakes involved. This is no ordinary political protest. This is no ordinary election defeat. Donald Trump’s actions before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol marked the end of a 240-year tradition of peaceful transitions of presidential power in the United States.
Instead, Donald Trump began a concerted effort to use the presidency and the tools of the U.S. government to overturn legitimate, real election results — even though his own staff told him, according to testimony aired at the hearing on Thursday, ” Not there.”
First, Trump lied to the public. Then he tried to use the Department of Justice to back up his lies. He pressured state election officials and lawmakers to accept far-fetched legal theories and change election results in their states. His team worked hard to invent and send invalid voter rolls to Washington in the hope that Congress would recognize them and allow him to reverse his losses. He rallied supporters and encouraged armed groups to join him in Washington on Jan. 6, promising in a tweet that it “would be crazy.” He then pressured Vice President Mike Pence to violate his constitutional oath by refusing to certify a valid election result until Jan. 6. In the end, he appeared to refuse to lift a finger — either by calling or tweeting — for hours as the Capitol and Legislature came under fire for federal aid. Instead, according to the committee, only Vice President Pence — who himself hid in a secure loading dock inside the Capitol after hastily evacuated the Senate above — contacted the military and ordered them to respond and protect the Capitol .
All in all, this is the most daring, planned, and unconstitutional conspiracy to confront American history—closer to success than anyone imagined.
Over the course of two hours, the committee successfully reframed the national conversation and focused on the real horrors of January 6th.Doing so has undoubtedly increased pressure on the Justice Department, which is conducting a seemingly slow parallel investigation into hundreds of low-level indictments and charges against the Jan. 6 rioters — including arrest Just yesterday, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan — and some more serious “incite conspiracyThe indictment against the Oathkeeper and Proud Boys leader. So far, it hasn’t infiltrated Donald Trump’s rambling pushers, charlatans, and hangers.
Despite the shocking clarity of the Commission’s opening statement, it remains uncertain whether it will be able to break down America’s political polarization and its increasingly divided and unequal media ecosystem. Of the major networks, only Fox News refused to live stream the hearing, instead allowing its host Tucker Carlson to spit venom on his millions of primetime viewers during an hour-long show that was anomalous Nonstop advertising.
In many ways, Fox’s decision to double down on Tucker Carlson’s lies on Thursday night wasn’t surprising: It did so in the weeks after the 2020 election, as Donald Trump built the Big Lie and made it in the The fire was lit on Jan. 6, and embracing Trump’s lies and undermining the legitimacy of then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory made the network almost an unindicted accomplice in the violence on Capitol Hill.
Heading into next week’s follow-up hearings, the challenge for America now is that none of us know what part of the Donald Trump story we’re living in — the beginning, middle, or end? The committee’s future job is to convince the US to see January 6th as a turning point, not an ignored warning as we’ll say later.
After all, there is a saying that there are no unsuccessful coups. Unsuccessful coups are just exercises.
