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Tuesday at the Select Committee: more attention on a pathetic man when he swans in for dinner [1]
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Date: 2022-07-08
Until now, the select committee has focused its public hearings on the high-level plotting by Trump to seize a second term by deploying an army of loyalist lawyers to promote fringe constitutional theories. On Tuesday, the committee will instead plunge into conspiracy-driven fever swamp, where groups like the Proud Boys flourished and strategized openly ahead of Jan. 6.
The hearing is unlikely to produce explicit evidence of Trump’s approval of the groups’ tactics or plans, but the more important concept, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), is “convergence.”
“Our investigation shows that there was a tremendous convergence of interests between the domestic violent extremist groups and the broader MAGA movement,” Raskin, who will lead next week’s hearing, told Nightly in an interview. “This hearing will be the moment when one sees both the convergence of efforts at a political coup with the insurrectionary mob violence. We see how these two streams of activity become one.”
The select committee only recently obtained one of its most potent pieces of evidence on the nexus between Trump and the Jan. 6 violence from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified that Trump was informed early on that members of his rally crowd were armed. Hutchinson also testified that she heard the words “Oath Keepers” and “Proud Boys” when Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was around.
Tuesday’s hearing is of intense interest to the Justice Department, which is preparing to try sprawling seditious conspiracy cases against the leadership of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The department already agreed to delay the Proud Boys trial from August until December, citing potential “prejudice” created by the public hearings, as well as the likelihood that the select committee publicly dumps 1,000 witness transcripts into the public domain in September.
www.politico.com/...
x “Each night, assorted MAGA tourists and administration bootlickers would descend on the [Trump Hotel] atrium bar on the small chance they’d get to glimpse Trump himself in his abundant flesh”
A must read
https://t.co/X0J7rvcF3J — Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) July 8, 2022
When he wasn’t melting down over how “very badly” he was treated or acting like a seditious lunatic, Donald Trump could be downright serene in certain Washington settings—and never more so than when he would swan in for dinner at the Trump International Hotel, a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and the only other place where he would ever agree to eat.
Unlike the Obamas, who would sneak out for date nights at trendy restaurants, Trump was hardly discreet when he went out to dinner. For Trump, a big, applauded entrance was as essential to the experience as the shrimp cocktail, fries, and 40-ounce steak. Each night, assorted MAGA tourists and administration bootlickers would descend on the atrium bar on the small chance they’d get to glimpse Trump himself in his abundant flesh—like catching Cinderella at the castle, or Hefner at the mansion.
The hotel gave every impression of being a tight and well-managed operation, in contrast to the proprietor’s side hustle down the street. Lots of Washington reporters would hang around the establishment, too. We could always pick up dirt that Trump and his groveling legions tracked in. The place was crawling with them, these hollowed-out men and women who knew better. You might catch Rudy rushing out to smoke a cigar, red wine staining his unbuttoned tuxedo shirt (that was the night of the Mnuchin wedding, I think). Or see Trump’s favorite pillowy-haired congressmen—fresh off their Fox “hits”—greeting the various Spicers, Kellyannes, and other C-listers who were bumped temporarily up to B-list status by their White House entrée.
But the guests who stood out for me most were Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy and the busybody senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. I would sometimes see them around the lobby or steakhouse or function rooms, skipping from table to table and getting thanked for all the wonderful things they were doing to help our president. They had long been among the most supplicant super-careerists ever to play in a city known for the breed, and proved themselves to be essential lapdogs in Trump’s kennel.
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things. But on top of that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily the sorest loser, the most prodigious liar, and the most interminable victim ever to occupy the White House. He is, quite possibly, the biggest crybaby ever to toddle across history’s stage, from his inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter, ketchup-flinging end . Seriously, what public figure in the history of the world comes close? I’m genuinely asking.
www.theatlantic.com/...
x On December 2nd 2020, General Flynn endorsed a call for limited martial law.
Less than three weeks later he called for the same when he was at the White House, without calling it Martial Law.
This was the press release:
https://t.co/xERZI4jNd4@visionsurreal @emmersbrown pic.twitter.com/TNz2mkKRKG — ☂ The Pee Tape 📹 🇺🇦 (@the_peetape) December 25, 2021
x "During the Afghan and Iraq wars, the careers of two military officers often intersected. Army General Michael Flynn and an Army Reserve colonel named Phil Waldron worked together on secret projects in both countries, Waldron said."
https://t.co/Cbzq5Q003a — Margaret Dumont (@MargaretDumon12) July 8, 2022
x Pat Cipollone, Trump's former White House counsel, is reportedly set to meet with the Jan. 6 select committee behind closed doors for a transcribed interview.
https://t.co/Febu2RTWIv — NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) July 8, 2022
x Why on earth is there a 7 hour and 37 minute gap in White House call records from January 6th? And why on earth don't we have more answers about it yet? — Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) July 8, 2022
x As Japan's PM, Shinzo Abe visited at least five different Trump properties after @realDonaldTrump's election.
via @1100penn
https://t.co/izbRmVPz02 — Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) July 8, 2022
x "Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour," DiSabato said. "That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there.
https://t.co/4haZGia4lk — James Tate (@JamesTate121) July 7, 2022
x Yes, Trump should face serious consequences --But if no conviction? Eminent historian & @thenation editorial board member Eric Foner lays out the next best way to dump Trump.
https://t.co/R9ea9ZK5bT — Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) July 8, 2022
Democrats and even some Republicans now agree President Trump should face serious consequences for goading a mob to attack Congress last week. But how? Vice President Pence has ruled out an invocation of the 25th Amendment, which would allow him (perhaps only temporarily) to assume the presidency. While the House of Representatives may approve an article of impeachment, the Senate is out of session until the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration. There is no time for an impeachment trial while Trump is still in office, and Biden does not want a trial to dominate his first weeks in office. Trump may escape without punishment.
But there is a way of dispensing some justice, even just the first dose: The long-forgotten Section Three of the 14th Amendment bars from occupying public office anyone who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and subsequently participates in or gives “aid or comfort” to rebellion or insurrection. The amendment gives Congress the power of enforcement. (The House impeachment article contains an allusion to this provision.) Congress can use this authority to prohibit anyone who on Jan. 6 violated an oath in this way, up to and including the president, from ever again serving in a government post, local, state, or national.
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