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Jan 6 Hearing: a quick summary of the 7-12-22 highlights [1]

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Date: 2022-07-12

I watched the hearing today; here's a few takeaways:

1) Trump was tired of hearing he lost, and being told what he could not do. He wanted people around him who will just do what he wants, regardless of whether it is legal or not.

2) After a December meeting as described as unhinged, Trump decided to play the violence card. When team crazy couldn't get anyone to go along with their crazy ideas, and as they kept flailing and failing, Trump was already thinking what else he could do - that's when he started the tweets that would lead to a mob showing up in DC. (Also, the crazies had free entry to the White House - which was unprecedented.)

3) People at Twitter were freaking out over Trump's tweets and the responses they were getting. They did nothing. The one witness who spoke with their identity concealed warned there was going to be blood. The committee showed how the tweets were picked up by social media and received as a call to arms by Trump supporters and right wing groups. (There were selections of assorted social media posts, including Alex Jones and Steve Bannon.)

4) Trump's best buddies like Roger Stone were actively bringing the militias, white supremacists, racists, etc. together, with plans to show up on January 6 - and they were planing to be there with arms and explosives. Trump wanted to have a real threat at his disposal. He got it.

5) Before January 6, there was a rally January 5 in the evening. Although it was too extreme for Trump to appear on stage with any of the speakers, he was aware of it and approved. The rhetoric was incendiary.

6) Trump's speech on January 6 was written and revised to attack Pence; the call to march on the Capitol was being anticipated days before the event. Trump ad-libbed incendiary remarks to rile up the crowd.

7) Video clips from White House Counsel Cippolone confirmed earlier testimony and added some new things. More to come in the next hearing.

8) Having riled up the crowd, Trump did absolutely nothing to call them off or stem the violence until the message after hours of violence, when he told them he loved them, they were very special, and to go home. Trump never contacted the military for help or anything else; Pence did.

9) Republican members of Congress were aware ahead of time that there could be violence. Some of them had met with Trump - and would later ask for pardons. They knew Trump was trying to overturn the election, and did nothing to stop him. Quite the contrary.

10) Two witnesses spoke, one who had broken away from the Oath Keepers, and one who had gotten swept up in the Big Lie. Both of them made clear that it was Trump who was inciting what happened on January 6.

The committee is doing a masterful job confirming previous testimony and connecting dots. The presentation is compelling; Liz Cheney has been devastating. The next session will be looking at the events of January 6 minute by minute next week. There are big gaps in the official White House log of phone calls and other records for the day; Trump was allegedly using phones of aides at times, presumably to avoid leaving a record of his activities. Reconstructing that timeline should be… revealing.

To recap:

Trump refused to accept the results of the election and immediately started the Big Lie which continues to this day. (It's now essentially the GOP platform.) This, despite numerous people around him telling him there was no evidence to support the Big Lie.

There was a concerted effort to challenge the vote in multiple states in court — which failed.

There was a campaign of pressure and outright intimidation on election officials to get them to change the results. (They didn’t.)

There was an attempt to get the Justice Department to challenge the election results, or at least say something publicly to cast doubt on the election. (They didn’t.)

There was the Eastman plan to have Pence reject certain electors in favor of alternate slates of Trump supporters. (Totally bonkers and rejected by everyone with an ounce of sanity.)

Today’s hearing showed that resorting to mob violence was one more last-ditch attempt to overturn the election.

The hearings are showing that Trump was involved in all of this.

The closing statements by Raskin, Murphy, Cheney and Thompson were masterful. Raskin in particular made an important point: he openly described what Trump was trying to do, and what the Republican Party was involved in, as what is seen in authoritarian movements. They refuse to accept election defeats and they believe violence is a legitimate recourse when they lose.

Raskin also praised Capitol Police officer Sgt. Gonell for his actions on January 6, and related how the violence Trump incited has forever changed Gonell’s life. To paraphrase Raskin, “American carnage is Trump’s legacy.”

There was a bit of a bombshell at the end, with Cheney reporting Trump was trying to get a witness to testify; the committee was contacted by the attorney for the witness who reported this. Tampering charges anyone?

For those who want to go to the full testimony (and the prior hearings), here are some links:

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/12/2109991/-Jan-6-Hearing-a-quick-summary-of-the-7-12-22-highlights

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