Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
I guess I sort of have to write about Jack Smith’s testimony before the House, and I watched a lot of it – but I don’t have much to say, other than the obvious,
He was low-key, to the point, the MAGOPs on the committee kept interrupting Smith and were doing their best to get “moments” that they could use when running for re-election, and the Democrats largely gave lead-in questions to Smith to let him talk.
I don’t think it convinced anyone of anything they didn’t already know or think at this point, but it was good to let the public see Jack Smith and see how low-key and straightforward he is. And – and this is not small thing, no matter how ludicrous – see that he was not, as Trump has long cried out in his own deranged, self-projected moan, deranged.
One notable thing is that for all the MAGOPs ranting and raving, they never made even an effort to discredit what was in the first report that Smith and his team released. So, that only left space for spewing out their efforts to catch Jack Smith in a lie, which was very hard to do when you keep cutting off his answers, and when he was so taciturn and direct in his repeated answers on why Trump is guilty and how he would have proved it in court had he not had been blocked by a Trump-appointed judge, and had to shut down his case (without prejudice) when Trump got re-elected.
Another notable thing is how much Trump was rage-tweeting about Jack Smith during his testimony, not only about how “deranged” the deranged Trump thought him to be, but also how he “should be prosecuted for his actions.” Gee, one wonders how prominent Smith’s attorneys will make that public rant when Trump gets his Justice Department to file charges against him, for whatever ludicrous reason they come up with. Perhaps they can try to bring back the just-dismissed Lindsey Halligan to handle the case.
One overriding question permeated the hearing – why in the world would the MAGOPs agree to have this public hearing, giving Jack Smith the opportunity to explain for four hours why Trump was guilty of crimes?? The most reasonable suggestion that I heard was that it is becoming likely that the second part of Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s indictment in Florida about stealing classified documents – considered the most-damning part of his findings, which was blocked by Trump-lackey Judge Aileen Cannon for unsupportable reasons – will soon be released when the district court overturns her ruling. And since Jack Smith is under court order not to discuss anything about this part of his report, MAGOPs wanted to get him to testify now, when he wouldn’t be able to talk about it. If so, that wish may turn out to be a false hopes, since at the very end of yesterday’s hearing, the Democratic ranking member on the committee, Jamie Raskin, invoked a House rule that would allow the minority party to call a witness – in this case, Jack Smith himself – and hold another hearing.
Yesterday’s hearing didn’t provoke any significant fireworks. It probably didn’t change too many minds. (Though if it changed any, it is more likely that it would be Independents who finally got a see Jack Smith as a quiet, direct, reasonable person – who wasn’t the “deranged” manic that the lunatic Trump has tried to paint him – repeatedly explaining why Trump was guilty of crimes. And a few MAGOPs got the video footage they wanted, telling off Jack Smith in defense of keeping the highly-unpopular Trump with dementia from being convicted of his crimes, as they kept stopping Smith from answering their questions.
All of which not only reinforced the point, but drilled it into the national consciousness in full public display that this isn't really about Trump, since everyone has long ago figured out who he is -- a racist, malignant narcissist, anti-Semitic, pathological liar with dementia, who threatened war against Greenland, Canada and Minnesota, while raising prices from tariffs -- but is about the elected MAGOPs in Congress who have enabled, supported and protected him, and have been the ones who literally passed the laws that were Trump's policies.
And in the end, if they're in a safe Red district, it doesn't matter, because they'll win anyway. And if it happens that they're not in a safe Red district, it doesn't matter either, because they helped make it more likely than even previously that they'll lose.
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