First hearing makes convincing case against Trump
By Jonathan Bernstein / Bloomberg Opinion
At long last, the House Jan. 6 committee held its first hearing, and made it a pretty good one.
Right at the top, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., gave us the right wording: Former President Donald Trump’s actions and those of his associates were an effort to “overthrow the government.” That’s what this is all about. That’s why the investigation is so important; it’s why the public side of the committee’s responsibilities are so critical. If the committee is correct, then this was among the most heinous and disloyal actions by a president in the history of the United States.
In the two-hour, prime-time session, the committee members only outlined the case that they’re making — what Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., one of two Republicans on the panel, called a “sophisticated seven-part plan” by Trump to overturn the election. Thompson and Cheney were clear: While the violence of Jan. 6 was part of the plan, no one should think that the attack by itself was the central story line.
The committee emphasized two further points. One was that everyone inside Trump’s White House and his campaign knew that he had lost; that there was nothing to any of the wild stories of fraud; and that they all told Trump exactly that. This may be important for any legal case against the former president or his allies, since it shows that they knew what they were peddling was false. It’s also useful in understanding the bigger picture. The truth is, there was nothing extraordinary about the 2020 election. It was close, but not especially so. If anything, it was unusually clean. The professionals on the campaign and Trump’s legal team knew it and told him so. Claims to the contrary not only amounted to a lie, but a lie in service of overturning the government.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/viewpoint-first-hearing-makes-convincing-case-against-trump/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
