Posted on 07/01/2022 6:21:55 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
In the public testimony that’s come so far, the House Select Committee has carefully laid out the evidence showing that the assault on the Capitol was not a spontaneous event, but the result of a widespread conspiracy that went on over a period of months. That conspiracy put the Proud Boys in place to break through police lines and lead the way into the Capitol. It fabricated claims of election fraud that ensured thousand of the most gullible would be on hand, ready to be shaped into a weapon. It pressured local and state officials in an effort to create some some appearance of fire beyond waves of smoke. And it sent slates of false electors to Washington in order to bolster a faux-legal assault on democracy.
But until a 26-year-old assistant to the White House chief of staff testified on Tuesday, the central figure of that conspiracy largely remained hidden. Until Tuesday, the big missing hole in that conspiracy was Donald Trump.
It’s not that Trump’s name hadn’t come up over and over. Trump was on the phone with state and local officials, trying to cajole, bully, or threaten them into giving him the votes he wanted. Trump was there in the meetings with attorney John Eastman, where they worked out the scheme to turn Jan. 6 from a ceremonial event into a last-ditch effort to derail the government. Trump was there with would-be Attorney General Jeffery Clark. There with Rudy Giuliani. Bent over a table with disgraced former general Michael Flynn and with no one-should-take-me-seriously Sidney Powell. Trump was there months, even years, earlier, undermining the foundations of democratic elections.
But for the most part, Donald Trump’s private words were passed along in snippets and generalities, his attitudes and actions rarely seen in detail when outside the public eye.
What Hutchinson’s testimony did was fill in an essential gap. Not the gap that described how Trump was desperate to join the conspirators at the Capitol so that he could personally lead his forces in assault—though that’s certainly an important thing to know. What Hutchinson’s testimony provided was a chance to see Trump. To see him raging through the halls of the White House, slinging a plate against the wall in a scene that is shockingly familiar to a million victims of domestic abuse. It was visceral testimony. Testimony that made it patently obvious just how hard others were still working not to admit to the kind of man they had helped.
Hutchinson’s testimony was shocking especially because it provided such a clear vision of the angry, petty, raging, and abusive man driving the nation to the brink. It was the first time we were told that the Trump who appeared on stage—to mock disabled people, brag about his love for violence, and spew vile about his every perceived slight—was even worse in private. It presented scenes of a man not only completely lacking in any kind of self-control, but unaware that self-control was something he should have.
This wasn’t Trump described in generalities and paraphrased statements. This was Trump with ketchup running down the walls and the broken plates still on the floor. It’s the man at the center of the conspiracy who was there all along, but who America has been so reluctant to see.
On Wednesday morning, Republicans were rushing forward with unnamed sources to claim that both Security Chief Bobby Engel and other members of Trump’s Secret Service team are ready to testify that Trump didn’t grab the wheel of the presidential limo, or assault Engel.
However, there’s absolutely no doubt that the House select committee would not have put Hutchinson’s testimony before the public if they did not already have corroboration of everything she said. Rep. Bernie Thompson would not risk the reputation of the investigation on unsupported testimony. None of the members of the committee—several of whom have ambitions that go beyond their current position—would risk their political futures on being tied to testimony that could be readily knocked down.
Hutchinson testified she was told about the events in the limo by White House Chief of Operations Anthony Ornato, and it’s a good bet that the committee already has Ornato agreeing to that story.
The more interesting thing about the Republican response to Hutchinson’s testimony is just how specific that response has been. They’ve zeroed in on just a few seconds in that limo, because that’s the only part where Hutchinson wasn’t actually present. The only part where they can bring it back to something … vague. Something with the rage and ugliness stripped away. Maybe they can get Engel or some Secret Service agents to say Trump didn’t actually put his hands on the wheel. Maybe they can find someone who will use a term other than “lunged.” Maybe they’ll say that his efforts to get to the Capitol fell short of “assault.” Maybe.
But none of those Trump apologists seem to be going after the statements that Hutchinson made concerning her own direct experience. None of them are hurrying to have House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sit down to testify about the phone call he made to Hutchinson while Trump was on stage at the rally on the Ellipse. None of them are encouraging Pat Cipollone to step forward and explain why he and so many others did not want Trump going to the Capitol. None of them are telling Mark Meadows to get up there and explain how his former aide is wrong. None of them are challenging Hutchinson about the observations she personally made, day after day, both before and after the election.
In her testimony, Hutchinson came off as absolutely believable. The statements that she made about Trump were absolutely believable. What’s unbelievable is how many people, even at this late date, are still trying to cover up for a man whose actions and statements make him beneath contempt.
Bennie is an old fool and proved that when he associated himself with Liz and Kinzinger.
You mean, she told you exactly what you wanted to hear.
Get the Secret Service to give their testimony and settle the disparaging disagreement.
POST #4 HAS THE WRONG VIDEO!
Uhhh ... Post #4 doesn't have a video.
That one makes more sense.
Right - and it has such a good reputation already having Bernie Thompson - himself an election denier who believes Bush/Cheney stole the 2004 election based on his vote to block certification of the Electors - chairing the committee. It also has an extraordinary reputation by having only Democrat appointed members, in violation of House rules, so it is illegally meeting. All of those things just make 'credibility' jump out at your face.
I was wondering what the heck that was all about. 😋
It was post #5, not 4.
Just slightly. :)
Great video.
Few politicians or media people have any credibility today. And fewer still who believe what they say or write. We live in a society that runs on deception and perception.
Yeah...like the 76 year old President Trump actually wrestling the steering wheel of a limousine from a super fit, much younger, much stronger Secret Service agent. What drugs are these clowns taking anyways?
This is like the fake "Russian collusion dossier" where Trump was supposed to have peed on some bed sheets in Moscow, when President Trump has never even been to Moscow.. How do they even manage to come up with his total nonsense anyway?
National Memo!!???!
Come on, man.
MarvinStinson is one of the biggest far left trolls on FR. He actually believes the nonsense he keeps posting.
Look up his posting history.
How naive can anyone be? That has to be the funniest joke of all time. Those people FEAR nothing...The biggest complaint of the writer is that NO Republicans will come forward to encourage those involved to speak up... Didn’t several of those named this week already volunteer to be heard in the PUBLIC hearing AFTER having given their testimony in a private setting without transcripts given to the committee? Who cares if no Republicans are encouraging them to do so?
A veiled reference to debunked Trump Russia collision?
Do I care if Trump threw a plate? No. Did I care if Hillary threw that lamp at Bill over Monica? No.
At least since 2000 the Democrat party has pushed ridiculous false narratives and baseless charges aimed at undermining confidence in our elections. Gore really got the ball rolling. Some Democrats tried to get electors to be faithless and choose Gore or, later, Hillary. We even saw them weaponize the Justice dept with the bogus Trump Russia collusion narrative.
They wanted something to happen on January sixth because Trump was an existential threat to their agenda. In light of the recent Court actions, Trump is a consequential President.
Let’s not pretend Trump hasn’t had good cause to be angry over the abuse, the lies, the conspiracy against him as a candidate then as a president. There’s been no reckoning and they continue to hound him and try to prevent him from running again. Let the voters decide. Y’all made your case, who are you to keep voters from making a choice to re-elect him or not?
The world was safer, America was treated more fairly and the nation was more prosperous. This prosperity crossed the demographic spectrum. I don’t have to like Trump personally to have seen the good he did and be thankful he disrupted the political class. I don’t like his petulance but you’ve got to take the good with the bad sometimes. He won’t win the White House in 2024 if he doesn’t pivot and rehabilitate his image. That’s what kept him from winning in 2020. He fell into the Left’s trap. He needs to get over the bruised ego and move forward. Stop living in 2020.
Republican leadership s next to nothing. Replace the entire Republican leadership.
Feeble in the mind, always lag behind.
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