Within Hearing Distance: Day 5

​And the beat goes on.  With another very impactful day of public testimony of the Jan. 6 Select Committee hearing.
 
Before it all began though, I absolutely loved Adam Kinzinger’s opening statement which I’m sure was directed precisely at Republicans who have demonized him.  So, I thought it was brilliant for him to point out that he fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how when he decided to run for Congress, he felt that like he had risked his life defending the country, we should expect elected officials, at the very least, to risk their jobs to defend the country, especially since that doesn’t compare to soldiers risking their lives.  It was a magnificent prologue.  Because it not only spoke about himself in a devastating put-down to angry Republicans, but it also spoke to elected Republicans in Congress who have been craven and risked nothing to defend the country.
 
I also loved the video montage of former Attorney General’s explaining their sworn duty to protect and defend the Constitution.  And how the job was just that, not to defend the president.  And that if there was a conflict, they would resign.  All of them – Attorney General after Attorney General after Attorney General.  It was great “show biz,” but even more it was superb politics.  Because there’s really no argument against it.
 
As for the witnesses and their testimony, it seemed that the day was more focused and structured than other days.  And was especially impactful for that.  I think that this structure was because, unlike previous hearings, it was pretty much focused on one, specific event, albeit with a few detours.  But by being about pressure from Trump to use the Justice Department to push his Big Lie, and with the three witnesses all pretty much being in the same room at the same time, and overlapping one another and confirming one another, it added great force to what was being said.
 
My favorite line in through all the Select Committee investigation this has been acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue’s put down of Trump’s hoped-for choice to become new Attorney General, the woefully unqualified Jeff Clark, saying right to his face in front of Trump.  “Yes, you’re an environmental lawyer.  Go back to your office, and we’ll call you if there’s an oil spill.”
 
In their own ways, the three were as good witnesses as Rusty Powers two days before – pointed, emphatic, willing to speak the truth against relentless push-back and the risk of losing their jobs, and each telling almost the same story, confirming it over and over and over.  Unlike Powers, though, I didn’t get the sense that they would vote for Trump again if given the chance.  Though in today’s Republican Party, that’s sadly hard to tell.

In fact, Neal Katyal did make a great, and angry point afterwards on MSNBC that as great as their testimony was – why were they silent during the second impeachment?  And as Ari Melber followed immediately after, they all did great and important duty at the time – but were AWOL after, for whatever reason only they know.
 
And as impactful as the days testimony was – and it was unrelenting and powerful -- it has to be viewed stepping back so one can see major news of the day about the DOJ search of Jeff Clark’s home. 
 
I thought that Chuck Rosenberg on MSNBC had an important clarification to the reports about the “raid” on Clark’s home.  He clarified this wasn’t actually, officially “a raid” as it was being called, it was law enforcement implementing a legal warrant signed by a judge after being given compelling evidence of a crime.  It was critical to say that and make clear that this wasn’t the FBI Gone Wild.  And then he added that whatever the reason for the warrant and how it was handled, “This is not a good day for Jeff Clark.”  And all the better when we heard later in the day that during the search, Clark was outside on the street in his PJs.  A wonderful image.
 
More to the point, the moment I heard the news story of the search warrant on Clark’s home, my first thought was to write a friend who’s been concerned that Trump isn’t being investigated.  I said that I was sure he’d agree with me that there’s no way the DOJ would do this if they weren’t investigating Trump.  As it turns out, later in the day Neal Katyal said on MSNBC that this was “The hugest news available to us.  Much bigger than the hearing today.”  And then he added, “To me, it’s unthinkable that there isn’t an investigation of Donald Trump” – almost word-for-word what I wrote in my original note, though he actually knows what he’s talking about and gave all the legal reasons why it was so.

And it was fascinating – in a long investigation for which we thought we know all the people involved – to see news reporters and analysts stunned by the introduction of a new name they’d never heard, Ken Klukowski.  It turns out he worked with Jeff Clark to draft the letter to Georgia officials that was intended to push claims of fraud.  And further, the previously unknown Klukowski worked with Trump attorney John Eastman in the pressure campaign against Vice President Pence.
 
And I was very glad that they finally addressed the members of Congress who asked for pardons – though after the big build-up, the presentation of it was a bit matter-of-fact.  Though it’s still got a lot of attention and brought about a bunch of panic-tweets from several of those named.  In fact, I was particularly pleased because I’ve actually been holding on to a link for the tweet that Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) sent a few weeks ago after his name came up at the hearings when he wrote that any suggestion he asked for a pardon was an “absolute, shameless, soulless lie.”  So, I linked to that and finally got a chance to reply, “Apparently your definition of "absolute, shameless and soulless lie" means different from what you think. As it happens, Cassidy Hutchinson was under oath under penalty of perjury. You tweet. But feel free to testify under oath! Or just say, "Oops."
 
By the way, there was one, very small comment that leaped out to me that didn’t get commented on.  It was in video of a speech Trump made where he says something like how lawyers and politicians are prepared to fight.  And he then adds “and other parties.”  I know one that can explain away all these “other parties” as supposedly being any number of Republican officials or the general public acolytes who were prepared to fight – but it sure seems from what we know that “other parties” prepared to fight meant groups literally prepared to fight, like the Proud Boys.
 
And the best Republicans can offer is – we should have had our people on the committee.  Yeah, ya think??!  As I noted in an article here last January that this was McCarthy’s most stupid mistake.  Man, is it ever showing that to be the case.  To the country’s benefit.
 
In fact, I think the luckiest people yesterday were the Supreme Court Justices who voted to throw out New York state’s law requiring a concealed gun permit.  Their ruling got buried by the news of the day.  Though before the hearing started, I was happy by the very angry public and state reaction so far.  And I’m sure, as it has a chance to stand alone in the light of day, will engender even more anger.  It may be that between this and abortion the furious public will be driving how many Democrats campaign.

But if the Supreme Court ruling was going to be overshadowed by anything, I'm glad it was such a strong day by the Select Committee.

I had one other takeaway from the hearings yesterday.

As far as politics go, I don't particularly like Adam Kinzinger.  He's quite conservative, less so than the most over-the-edge on the farthest right, but a very solid conservative who (according to Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight.com) voted with Trump 91.7% of the time.  I certainly admire him beyond measure for his courage and strength standing up for defending the Constitution and democracy against the fury of his party, even to the point of not running for re-election.  It's deeply, profoundly impressive.  But his politics are not even close to mine.  But -- they most definitely are the politics of his party.  And as I watched this young, eloquent, smart, very conservative, thoughtful Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, what I thought was:  this is who the GOP has pushed out of their party.  This seriously impressive man, regardless of my own politics, had a long future in the Republican Party, the very-real chance of becoming a senator and a party leader.  But because he stood up to the defend the Constitution, Republicans pushed him out.  It's the same in many way with Liz Cheney, whose credentials are different, but has a deeper legacy in the party and is even more conservative.  The GOP pushed them out of the party.

Because that's who the Republican Party is today.  A party that enables ble racism, white supremacy, corruption, two impeachments, swindlers, 31,000+ documented lies and, ultimately, fascism. ​