By Jim McCraw

The committee investigating the January 6^th riot at the Capitol has now presented an amazing mountain of evidence, direct testimony, live witnesses, tweets, phone calls, emails, messages and comments from a small army of witnesses, almost all of whom are not only registered Republicans but also were members of government at some level.

The latest hearing, broadcast in prime time and carried by at least four networks, concentrated this time on the possible dereliction of duty by a sitting president of the United States in that he started a riot and refused to stop it even after blood was shed in the Capitol and the vice president’s life was threatened. Even after members of his own family implored him to make it stop.

Instead, the former president chose to sit on his prodigious ass in front of a TV tuned to Fox News for three hours, sending out more inflammatory tweets through the afternoon.

The former president has known since the morning after the 2020 election that he lost. He lost by a lot in the popular vote, and he lost by a lot in the Electoral College.

After 60 allegations of voter fraud were shut down by judges all over the country because there was zero proof, the Big Lie just got louder and wider and Stop The Steal was born.

For two months, aided and abetted by Republican officeholders and politicians from coast-to-coast, the Big Lie prospered while the democratically elected President-elect was trying to build his team while being attacked daily from the right-side media for having stolen the election from their boy.

There was no proof. The guy who lost never, ever offered any proof of fraud while The Lie Machine invented stories and videos about voting machines controlled from space, truckloads of ballots being removed, and secrets being passed in voting places, all of which was nonsense.  The Attorney General of the United States, a devout Republican, said so.

The guy who lost stirred up so much anger, so much frustration, so much hostility that thousands of his deluded followers went to D.C. to show support. All the rest is on video for everyone to see.

The former president has committed crimes, including dereliction of duty. But there was dereliction of duty all over D.C. the night before, the day of, and the day after by so many, many more.

•••

From Our Twitter Poll

So there are a lot of anti-Americans out there. BFD. The leader of the cult should not be in the position of authority. He failed spectacularly when he was.

--GG

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He never should have been in the first place.

--Virginia Lynne Stevenson

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How can there possibly be 27% of Americans who have seen what we have seen think he could serve in authority anywhere?

--Elizabeth Beans

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Democracy was used to come to the conclusion that Trump should not be trusted with any authority position.

--Tokyoo

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

 In a Twitter poll (unscientific) The Hustings conducted last weekend (@NewsHustings), 76.4% agree with Rep. Liz Cheney’s statement that Donald J. Trump “should never be trusted with any position of authority again,” while 23.6% disagree. There were 810 respondents to the poll.

Some comments from those who disagree are below. In the left column, scroll past contributing pundit Jim McCraw’s commentary to read comments from those who agree with Cheney…

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I don’t understand how anyone could say ‘yes.’ Do they not understand democracy?

--Carolyn

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Liz Cheney should never be trusted with any position of authority ever again. There. Fixed it.

--Dos Equis Virus

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Neither should @LizCheney! We may get our wish!

--American Patriot

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Liz Cheney is finished and the J6 committee members need to be investigated after the Red Wave.

--Rob Jeffcoat

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What a joke.

--wrayrae

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These are the same people who said he colluded with Russia and they were just covering up for Hillary, Obama and the DNC.

--Dambmad

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You lost me at ‘Liz Cheney says.”

--Sarah the Pittbull Dog (Jeff)

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Perfect time to ask this since thousands are attending the Trump Rally and are there supporting him and not answering fake news fake polls.

--Angie

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People love the establishment.

--Ryan

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Ken Zino

Once again the United States Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol advanced its case that Donald Trump knowingly sent an armed and dangerous mob -- 800 charged so far and half have pled guilty -- to the U.S. Capitol in furtherance of his Big Lie that the election was stolen. This has been abundantly refuted by his Attorney General, and White House counsel, among many other senior members of his cabinet and White House and reelection staffs. 

There is a perverse irony in the strategy used by Trump and other Republicans and right-wing media outlets to personally attack the credibility of the increasing numbers of former Republican Trump-believers who continue to testify that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was the last and most violent act in his desire to retain power at all costs. These attacks prompt more and more Republican insiders to come forward to defend and assert that previous witnesses were telling the truth. 

In last night’s testimony, Trump White House insiders testified they resigned the evening of January 6 because they would not defend the indefensible. More are on the way; the Select Committee will re-convene in September. 

Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said last night “But in the course of these hearings, we have received new evidence; and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward. Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful, and those continue. Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break. And now, even as we conduct our eighth hearing, we have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American people, and more to gather.”

Last night we learned that for 187 minutes on January 6, Trump watching Fox News in the dining room of the West Wing refused multiple requests by his aides and allies to intervene and call off the mob he unleashed. Neither the violent words of rioters on Fox News that he was watching, nor the pleas of capital police and Secret Service members who were in the midst of the ongoing riot moved Trump to take any action. Trump even ignored the pleas of his own family, including Ivanka and Don Jr., to send people home.

Why not? Simply put the mob he created was doing exactly what he wanted –- disrupting the count of the Electoral College votes of the election he lost. 

“Even though he was the only person in the world who could call off the mob he sent to the Capitol, he could not be moved to rise from his dining room table and walk the few steps down the White House hallway into the press briefing room,” said Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), via video feed. 

“Where cameras were anxiously and desperately waiting to carry his message to the armed and violent mob savagely beating and killing law enforcement officers, revenging the Capitol, and hunting down the Vice President and various members of Congress. He could not be moved,” Thompson said. 

Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), who served 20 years as an officer in the United States Navy, provided the civic lesson: 

“Article II of our Constitution requires that the president swear a very specific oath every four years. Every president swears or affirms to ‘faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States’ and, to the best of their ability, ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ 

“The President also assumes the constitutional duty to ‘take care’ that our nation’s laws be ‘faithfully executed,’ and is the ‘commander in chief’ of our military. Our hearings have shown the many ways in which President Trump tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the days leading up to January. “With each step of his plan, he betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty,” Luria said.

“I thought that January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” said former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews last night. “President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.” She did that night. 

Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security advisor also said in live testimony he immediately decided to resign when he saw Trump’s tweet denouncing Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Closing thought by Liz Cheney: “The defeated president turned his supporters’ ‘love of country’ into a weapon.” 

Trump lied and continues to lie. People died. Let’s not let Trump kill our democracy. He needs to be held accountable for dereliction of duty. 

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By Stephen Macaulay

Gallup has been tracking the confidence that Americans have — or perhaps I should say “don’t have” — in newspapers since 1973 (the year Roe v. Wade was decided; Nixon was sworn in; the Watergate hearings began; the OPEC oil embargo caused a rise in gas prices) and TV news since 1993 (the year NAFTA was signed; the World Trade Center was bombed; and two former police officers were convicted of violating the civil right of Rodney King).

As of the latest polling, Gallup says 5% have “a great deal” of confidence in newspapers and 4% feel the same way about TV news. The polling organization adds to those figures those who express “quite a lot” of confidence so as to make the numbers not quite as pathetic: 16% for newspapers and 11% for TV news.

While the numbers for those who have “some” confidence are, well, OK, 37% and 35%, respectively, those numbers should be considered in the context of the “very little” numbers: 43% for newspapers and 49% for TV news.

Who knew that the likes of David Muir and Lester Holt were held with such skepticism?

As you may recall, Donald J. Trump, when president, called the media “the enemy of the American people” on more than one occasion. In 2017 the Gallup “great deal/quite a lot” combined numbers for newspapers were at 27%, and TV news at 24%. There has been a fairly consistent decline since. After all, who wants to read or watch things they have no confidence in?

(A digression: There is often criticism expressed by the likes of Trump and his acolytes, minions and enablers that the “mainstream press” is some how fake or otherwise misleading. It used to be that people who were Republicans believed in the “free market,” including the free market of ideas. To be sure whether we are talking about NBC or The Washington Post, these outlets are owned by giant corporations. Consequently, one might think that is in and of itself a restriction on what gets reported or how it gets reported. (Yes, Fox News is owned by a giant corporation, as well.) But the point is, these corporations became giant, in large part, because of their appeal to a large percentage of people the same way that McDonald’s has sold billions of burgers. The mainstream press needs to appeal to the majority of the people because if it doesn’t, then it will likely lose those who are willing to spend time with it, the same way that McDonald’s would lose patrons if it suddenly decided that it would serve only ostrich burgers. Yet because the mainstream press didn’t — and doesn’t — see the world in the same way that Trump sees it, it is somehow bad. Which is bizarre to consider vis-à-vis the claims of his landslide victory: There is an insufficient number of people on either side of the bell-shaped curve in order to have a majority. Therefore the mainstream is the place where most Americans are.)

Where do these Americans who have little confidence get information regarding the findings of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol (think about those words: Attack on the United States Capitol)?

Well, it seems that a prime-time broadcast isn’t going to have a heck of a lot of effect nor the reporting by a whole room of Pulitzer Prize winners.

So maybe those people are simply a lost cause. The majority of people who believe what can be considered “accepted reality” (e.g., no, there was no Venezuelan manipulation of voting machines, nor satellites beaming data to Italy) are the ones who need to be addressed. Period.

 “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”—Donald J. Trump

///

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”--Article II, Section 1, Clause 8

Yes, the Constitution. The document that codifies the laws that Americans are supposed to uphold because if they don’t, then they are in violation of the rules of the Republic. Most Americans are simply born in the U.S. and consequently don’t swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. But in some cases — including assuming the office of the Presidency — there is, hand on Bible, an affirmation that its defense will be undertaken, a defense of the democracy, something bigger than any one person, something for which legitimate patriots have died for during the years since 1788, the year the Constitution was ratified.

While the Committee members have done a masterful job, once again, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of what happened on, and adjacent to, January 6, let’s put that aside.

So far as I know there has been no conspiracy theory that all of the video that has been displayed on the Attack on the United States Capitol is fake.

What we have seen was happening.

So we stipulate this: There was an attack on the United States Capitol by an armed force.

It is similarly clear that the objective of those attackers was to “Stop the Steal.” Under those particular circumstances said stopping was to be accomplished by preventing Congress from undertaking its legal duty to certify the 2020 Presidential election.

“The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President. . . .”--from the 12^th Amendment

Which brings us back to that oath.

“. . .the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Armed attackers trying to subvert the Constitution.

The “best” of his ability was to watch TV?

Here’s the thing: it isn’t hard to understand that:

1. Trump lost the election
2. Trump knew he lost the election
3. Trump figured there was a way that he could subvert things to his benefit
4. Trump tried to subvert things regardless of having be told by many people that it would be wrong
5. Trump broke his oath

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

“The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.”—Article III, Section 3

Those who attacked the U.S. Capitol were trying to overthrow the government. They were armed. And we’ve learned they were organized.

Did Donald Trump try to stop them?

Doesn’t “we love you, you’re very special” sound like aid and comfort?

Let’s put that aside.

“[H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”—Article II, Section 3

Did Trump fulfill his Constitutional duty?

It doesn’t take a prime-time broadcast to make people willing to think know what Donald Trump did—and what he didn’t do.

People who are willing to believe his self-serving lies are seemingly beyond redemption. 

Forget the fringe. Let’s do what’s right for the majority of Americans who put their hands over their hearts and say “. . .and to the Republic, for which it stands. . .”, those people who obey the law, even if it is a local ordinance about parking.

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Ready for Thursday’s eighth hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol? Read our coverage and analysis of the first seven hearings, with commentary by Stephen Macaulay and Ken Zino by scrolling down this page, and on to Pages 2, 3 and 4.

Leave your own comments on the hearings and/or other political news and issues in the comments sections or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

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The House Select Committee … concentrates tonight on ex-President Trump’s 187 minutes of radio silence during the January 6^th attack on the Capitol, with the panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) tuning in virtually because he has COVID-19. 

Hearing VIII: Begins 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Read our coverage/analysis and commentary Friday in this space. Add your comments in the boxes in any of these three columns, or email editors@thehustings.news.

Expected to testify live Thursday are Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security advisor, who resigned the White House on January 6, 2021, and Sarah Matthews, former press aide. The Select Committee has not confirmed these names. 

Report due: The 1/6 panel has confirmed it will publish an interim report on the Capitol attack in September.

About those Secret Service texts: The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog Office of Inspector General learned last February that the Secret Service had killed most of the smartphone texts related to January 6, The Washington Post scoops, citing sources familiar with the situation. The Inspector General’s office also was ready to issue a public report in October 2021 that the Secret Service was stonewalling on requests for records and texts in connection to the Capitol insurrection, WaPoreports.

Can’t happen again?: Bipartisan groups of Senators proposed two bills designed to reform the 1887 Electoral College Act and end any doubt that an incumbent presidential candidate, like Donald J. Trump, could disrupt the Electoral College count (per Roll Call). The Electoral College Reform Act, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) would require at least one-fifth of both the House and Senate to object to a single state’s Electoral College votes, up from the current requirement of a single Congress member, as per the 1887 law. The Collins/Manchin bill also would remove an 1845 law that allows a state legislature to declare a “failed election” and specify that the date of a presidential election could be moved for “extraordinary and catastrophic events.” 

Eight more Republicans and five Democrats have joined Collins and Manchin in supporting this potential closing of loopholes that some historians warned of prior to the November 2020 presidential election. A second and complementary bill, supported by five Republicans and seven Democrats, would double the maximum federal penalty to two years in prison for anyone convicted of intimidating or threatening election officials, poll watchers, voters or candidates, and boost penalties for stealing, destroying, concealing or altering election results, to a $10,000 fine and two years in prison, Roll Call reports.

The two bills will advance through two different Senate committees.

•••

Speaking of the above … Donald J. Trump’s attorney and former America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been subpoenaed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney for District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of the former president’s alleged Electoral College tampering in Georgia, according to Politico. Queue the recording of Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; “I just want 11,780 votes … .”

Speaking of the above, Part II: The government rested Wednesday in its Contempt of Congress case against former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, after calling a congressional staffer and an FBI agent to the stand, The Washington Post reports. Defense countered that Bannon had been speaking with the House Select 1/6 panel as recently as last week, and that the defendant was negotiating, and not refusing, to hand in documents or testify.

--Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile...

(WED 7/20/22)

Georgia AG targets false electors … As Democratic frustration continues to build over U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s lack of action while the House Select Committee investigates the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has deemed 16 Republicans who falsely signed Electoral College certificates in late 2020 to be criminal “targets,” (per Politico). Willis revealed the determination in a court filing to fend off a legal move to disqualify her from leading the grand jury investigating the effort to overturn Georgia’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden. The filing was by one of the alleged false electors, Burt Jones, who is a candidate for lieutenant governor for the state. 

•••

MAGA Republican wins Maryland primary … Term-limited Gov. Mark Hogan is a popular moderate Republican in an otherwise deep-blue state, but his hand-picked successor, Kelly Shulz, is projected to lose the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday to Trump-backed state legislator Dan Cox, the AP reports. Cox had criticized Hogan’s “restrictive and protracted” COVID-19 lockdown efforts, and unsuccessfully sought to impeach him over the issue. 

With provisional and mail-in ballots yet to be counted, the Democratic race is too close to call, AP says, with Oprah Winfrey-backed celebrity author Wes Moore leading Tom Perez, Labor secretary for the Obama administration who served as Democratic National Committee chairman during the Trump administration. 

Upshot: Hogan was an early moderate Republican critic of then-President Trump and is considered a likely candidate for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

•••

Latest on those Secret Service texts … The Secret Service claims deleted texts from January 6, 2021, are not recoverable, The Washington Post reports. The National Archives has called on the agency to report back within 30 days about their “potential unauthorized deletion.”

--Todd Lassa

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(TUE 7/19/22)

Georgia AG targets false electors … As Democratic frustration continues to build over U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s lack of action while the House Select Committee investigates the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has deemed 16 Republicans who falsely signed Electoral College certificates in late 2020 to be criminal “targets,” (per Politico). Willis revealed the determination in a court filing to fend off a legal move to disqualify her from leading the grand jury investigating the effort to overturn Georgia’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden. The filing was by one of the alleged false electors, Burt Jones, who is a candidate for lieutenant governor for the state. 

•••

MAGA Republican wins Maryland primary … Term-limited Gov. Mark Hogan is a popular moderate Republican in an otherwise deep-blue state, but his hand-picked successor, Kelly Shulz, is projected to lose the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday to Trump-backed state legislator Dan Cox, the AP reports. Cox had criticized Hogan’s “restrictive and protracted” COVID-19 lockdown efforts, and unsuccessfully sought to impeach him over the issue. 

With provisional and mail-in ballots yet to be counted, the Democratic race is too close to call, AP says, with Oprah Winfrey-backed celebrity author Wes Moore leading Tom Perez, Labor secretary for the Obama administration who served as Democratic National Committee chairman during the Trump administration. 

Upshot: Hogan was an early moderate Republican critic of then-President Trump and is considered a likely candidate for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

•••

Latest on those Secret Service texts … The Secret Service claims deleted texts from January 6, 2021, are not recoverable, The Washington Post reports. The National Archives has called on the agency to report back within 30 days about their “potential unauthorized deletion.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

And write this way, to add your civil comments on hearings by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. Hearing VIII begins 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday on most news channels and online (or check C-Span, like we do). You can find coverage and analysis plus commentary by Ken Zino and Stephen Macaulay by scrolling down this page, and by going to Pages 2, 3 and 4.

Submit your opinion, civilly, in the comments box in any of these columns, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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Scroll down this page and turn to Pages 2, 3 and 4 to read our complete coverage and analysis on all seven hearings held so far by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, featuring left-column commentary by Ken Zino and right-column commentary by Stephen Macaulay.

Leave your own comments on the hearings and/or other political news and issues in the comments sections or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Did the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, deserve the criticism and acrimony from Fox News and other right-wing media over his pushback on former President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? Leave your comments on this or any other recent issues – including our coverage, analysis and commentary by Stephen Macaulay and Ken Zino on the January 6 hearings -- in the comments section, or email editors@thehustings.news. 

Find coverage of and commentary on last Tuesday’s seventh hearing by scrolling down this page. Hearings V and VI are on page 2. Hearings III and IV are on page 3, and coverage of and commentary on the first two hearings are on page 4.

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Can Senate Democrats get anything done before the November 3 midterms? Does the party have any chance of holding on to its paper-thin Senate majority, or even expand it to overcome the blocking votes of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ)?

Let us know your thoughts, and whether you lean left or lean right, by hitting the comments box in any of these columns (unlike Facebook or Twitter, subject to moderation), or with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

Tune in Friday for our coverage and commentary on the U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol’s eighth public hearing, scheduled for Thursday, July 21, at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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When Steve Bannon last week took a 180-degree turn and agreed to testify in his contempt of Congress trial beginning Monday, he promised a “misdemeanor from hell” for the Biden administration, confirming that the Trump confidant-turned-podcaster had indeed planned to represent for the former president. After all, Donald J. Trump was now lamenting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) refusal to appoint any MAGA-leaning Republicans to the U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol.

But U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols late last week put the kibosh on the legal defense Bannon’s attorney had planned, The Washington Post reports. This was the judge’s “lawyerly way” of recommending Bannon take a plea deal rather than “face long odds at a short trial,” a law professor told WaPo.

Your civil, respectful comments, whether pro-MAGA or anti-Trump, on Bannon’s trial and the upcoming eighth hearing by the United States Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, and on any of the first seven hearings are welcome here. Just fill in a comment box in one of the columns (unlike Facebook or Twitter, subject to moderation) or email editors@thehustings.news.

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