The January 6 Committee Is Going to Have the Final Word

[Nevilledog]

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Bill Kristol
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"The committee seems to take seriously its responsibility to establish an official record of the insurrection, and to communicate that record to the public in as accessible a manner as possible. That clarity is bracing in a moment fogged with lies."

theatlantic.com
The January 6 Committee Is Going to Have the Final Word
By establishing an official record of the insurrection, the members are creating clarity in a political moment fogged with lies.
3:12 PM · Jul 2, 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/january-6-bennie-thompson-trump-blame/661466/

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https://archive.ph/vb0CI

During its astonishing Tuesday hearing about Donald Trump’s actions on the day of January 6, the House select committee investigating the insurrection made clear that the integrity of its work is under threat. “The same people who drove the former president’s pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about January 6,” warned committee chair Bennie Thompson. “But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth won’t be buried.” The main individual he seemed to have in mind was Cassidy Hutchinson, once an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who testified to the former president’s violent and bizarre behavior—demanding that rally-goers with guns and knives be allowed onto the Ellipse to hear his speech and exploding in rage when his security detail refused to drive him to the Capitol, as rioters there began to overwhelm law enforcement.

At the hearing’s end, the committee displayed messages received by some of those interviewed by investigators, apparently in an effort to push them to toe Trump’s party line rather than speak honestly. (Reporting has since revealed that one of those messages was sent to Hutchinson herself.) Speaking again of Hutchinson, Thompson declared to witnesses who had bowed to such threats or participated in making them: “Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail.”

As Thompson’s comments suggest, the January 6 committee has made the work of uncovering truth the lodestar of its public hearings. In a sense, of course, every congressional hearing is an effort to establish facts: Witnesses commonly swear, as Hutchinson did, to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”; false statements before Congress can be prosecuted even if they’re not made under oath. And as a committee established to uncover what happened on January 6, naturally the panel would be focused on the truth of the matter. But the January 6 committee’s hearings have so far been unusually powerful as a paean to the value of facts. The committee seems to take seriously its responsibility to establish an official record of the insurrection, and to communicate that record to the public in as accessible a manner as possible. That clarity is bracing in a political moment fogged with lies.

Almost from the beginning of this series of blockbuster hearings, the committee has been up-front about its intention not just to tell the truth, but to do so bluntly and directly. During the committee’s first open session in June, Thompson attempted to cut through “legal jargon” that might be off-putting to viewers, telling them that all discussion of arcane criminal statutes and legal culpability “boils down to this: January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup.” Trump and his supporters, Thompson argued, had tried to “rewrite history” by playing down what happened. And so, Thompson said, it was crucial that the committee “remind you”—the public—“of the reality of what happened that day.”

*snip*

[sop]

1. The 1/6 Truth and Reconciliation Committee will get a guilty verdict in the court of public opinion.

That's great. It would be better to have Trump and his henchmen found guilty in a court of law.

[empedocles]

2. If the Committee can get 'a guilty verdict in the court of public opinion', that

will help in November, - and will help sustain legal opinions.

[kentuck]

3. They have done a great job!

Rather sneaky the way Brit Hume attempted to portray it as one-sided and not permitting cross-examination. There will be plenty of time for cross-examination when and if the trials begins. This is an investigation. It doesn't need Jim Jordan mucking up the works at this stage.

It was good that Adam Kinzinger straightened him out.