The highlight of last night’s Congressional Jan.6th committee hearing on CSPAN was the juxtaposition of Sen Josh Hawley, Republican of Nebraska, inciting rioters with a raised fist before they breached the Capitol, and later fleeing in fear for his life from the same crowd.
Those images symbolized the hypocrisy and the cowardice of the Trump-led GOP that brought this country to the brink of destruction.
The main point of the hearing was to focus on Trump’s role as he sat in his dining room and watched the riot on TV for three hours and seven minutes, doing nothing to stop it, despite multiple pleas from his staff to do so.
There were no new startling revelations, just a confirmation of what we already knew. Trump was never truly Commander-in-Chief, but rather a demagogue who exploited the alienation of millions of people to rise to power. Once he got there, he did little of substance, like most Presidents, but uniquely in our history, when it came time to leave he refused to.
I don’t think the hearings are changing many people’s minds about these things, but what everyone who still cares about this country and its viability as a democracy has to hope is that support for Trump is slowly eroding among the GOP base to the point he never will be able to hold public office again.
Meanwhile, it truly is encouraging that a bipartisan group of Senators are trying to reform and tighten up the electoral vote counting process to avoid the gray areas that Trump tried to exploit in 2020.
We came way too close to disaster. Even some Republican leaders realize that now.
LATEST LINKS:
Bipartisan Senate Group Strikes Deal to Rewrite Electoral Count Act (NYT)
A bill to prevent Trump’s attempted coup is finally ready — and must pass (Edit Bd/WP)
Trump instigated his supporters’ attack on Congress and threats against Pence, Jan. 6 committee says (CNBC)
Josh Hawley seen fleeing pro-Trump mob he ‘riled up’ with fist salute in newly released Jan. 6 footage (NBC)
The U.S. congressional probe of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters wrapped up its summer hearings with a prime-time presentation focused on the three hours of rage following the former president's raucous speech that day. (Reuters)
Jan. 6 panel probes Trump’s 187 minutes as Capitol attacked (AP)
Trump had 'extreme difficulty' with his speech on the day after January 6 (CNN)
Even a day after Jan. 6, Trump balked at condemning the violence (WP)
Liz Cheney, Front and Center in the Jan. 6 Hearings, Pursues a Mission (NYT)
A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia. [AP]
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Police in San Bernardino, California, released body camera footage showing officers fatally shooting a Black man in the back. The footage offers new details on Saturday’s police killing of 23-year-old Robert Adams, who family says may have been unaware of law enforcement’s presence until they exited an unmarked car with guns drawn. [HuffPost]
A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and said Georgia’s restrictive 2019 abortion law banning most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present could take effect immediately. Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions, amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy. [AP]
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House-passed legislation codifying protections for same-sex marriage is dividing Republican lawmakers in Congress after support for marriage equality hit a record high last month. Pressure is now building on the Senate to take up the bill, which has garnered the support of a handful of GOP senators. [HuffPost]
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