Judge Luttig reveals why he spoke so slowly at Jan. 6 hearing

[meadowlander]

14. I've testified as an expert witness in hearings before.

None of the questions coming your way should generally be surprising to you. You are being asked to speak because you are an expert in that field and have studied and spoken on the topic many time before.

You think about what you want to say ahead of time and you practice it until you can convey it effectively.

A lot of the time you are also just reading a written statement that you prepared ahead of time so you could wordsmith it and check it with your lawyers, coordinate with the other witnesses so you aren't repeating each other, check that the level of technical language you are using is appropriate for your audience, etc.

I find it a bit surprising that anyone with as much experience as Judge Luttig has would be speaking "at the pace he was thinking" in the hearing "so he could choose the right words for the occasion."

How much warning did he have that he was going to be testifying and what has he been doing in the meantime?

Not everyone is a great public speaker. I'm certainly not. But when your words count and you only get to say them once you compensate for that by preparing ahead of time, not delivering so slowly and circuitously on the day that people can't follow your train of thought.

My impression was that he tried to wing it on the day, got overwhelmed, choked a bit, and punted some of his early answers. And he knew it because he was apologising on the stand for how convoluted some of his responses were.

Did he have useful information? Sure. Did he convey it in an effective way to a general audience? Not really. It's not the end of the world though because most people watch the news, which was able to cherry pick and get other people to explain his points, instead of the long form hearings.

But no, it isn't "petty" to comment on his poor delivery. It was poor delivery and it inhibited his ability to connect with his audience and convey information to them. Which was the point of him being there.