Wall Street Journal on Jan 6 hearings

Started by RussCarroll, 06/12/2022 02:57AM
Posted 06/12/2022 02:57AM Opening Post
The House inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot launched its TV miniseries Thursday night, and the trick for parsing the proceedings is to keep two ideas in tension. Do Democrats want to unfairly besmirch the entire GOP with the Jan. 6 disgrace, while distracting voters from 8.6% inflation and $5-a-gallon gasoline? Yes.

Yet did the committee offer a damning look at President Trump’s scheme to stay in office after losing the 2020 election? Also yes. Fresh video of the riot is a reminder that Jan. 6 was a brutal melee of fists and chemical sprays. “I was slipping in people’s blood,” said Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards. The footage is visceral, even if similar scenes were already on YouTube.


The committee did offer some new and ugly details. “Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence, ’” Rep. Liz Cheney said, “the President responded with this sentiment: Quote, maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence, quote, deserves it.” Who is the source of that quotation? The committee didn’t say.

Ms. Cheney also said that Mr. Trump gave no orders to the National Guard on Jan. 6 to aid the besieged police, even as Mr. Pence was calling in the cavalry from his post at the Capitol. “There were two or three calls with Vice President Pence,” said Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in audio testimony. “He issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders.” In effect, “get the Guard down here, put down this situation.”

Mr. Milley also spoke with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “He said, we have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,” Mr. Milley recalled.

So was Mr. Pence in fact giving orders to the military, while the President watched the riot on TV and abdicated his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief? This was reported by the press soon after the riot, citing anonymous officials. But it’s something else to hear it from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

The same goes for the testimony about Mr. Trump’s flimsy theories of undetectable mass voter fraud. “I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bull—,” Attorney General Bill Barr testified.

Alex Cannon, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, recounted a conversation with Mr. Meadows: “I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.” The point is that Mr. Trump was told by his own advisers that he lost the election but still deceived his supporters.

The committee appears to be trying to build a case of “seditious conspiracy” against Mr. Trump, but here the evidence isn’t persuasive. Ms. Cheney offered no evidence that Mr. Trump communicated directly with the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys, who were the vanguard of the assault on the Capitol.

The President spread falsehoods about the election. He invited supporters to Washington on Jan. 6, tweeting on Dec. 19 that it “will be wild!” He riled up the crowd and urged it to march on the Capitol. After violence began, he dawdled instead of sending help. Mr. Trump bears responsibility for the mayhem. But inspiring followers to march is not the same as leading a criminal conspiracy.

One irony is that the largely Democratic committee’s evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump’s designs on overturning the election were foiled mainly by Republicans, including many in his Administration. White House lawyers threatened to resign if he fired Justice Department officials who didn’t indulge his fraud theories. GOP state legislators refused to name new electors. His judicial appointees rejected dubious fraud claims. Above all, his own Vice President stood up to Mr. Trump’s public and private pressure not to count electoral votes.

The committee calls Jan. 6 an “attempted coup.” That makes it seem as if there was a chance of success. There wasn’t. It was an impossible plan hatched by screwballs, and it would have gone down as such if the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers hadn’t breached the Capitol. In the event, Congress still returned to fulfill its duty and count the electoral votes.

***
Many Congressional Republicans dishonored themselves by voting to object to electors, even after the riot. But most of the GOP refused to go along. The person who owns Jan. 6 is Donald Trump. Remarkably, he seems to welcome this. “January 6th was not simply a protest,” he wrote Thursday on Truth Social, “it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”

Pity the people who went to Washington believing this nonsense, not least the more than 800 who have been charged with criminal offenses. Thursday’s hearing ended with video of rioters explaining their thinking, as their criminal charges flashed on the screen. “I did believe that the election was being stolen,” one man said, “and Trump asked us to come.”

Mr. Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on Jan. 6, and he is still doing it.
Posted 06/12/2022 03:14AM #1
"Do Democrats want to unfairly besmirch the entire GOP with the Jan. 6 disgrace, while distracting voters from 8.6% inflation and $5-a-gallon gasoline? Yes."
It should be obvious the actions of the committee and the projected date of its conclusions occurred long before the inflation and gas prices became the dominant issues of today so the opening statement in the editorial is overtly false. Additionally, it is not the Democrats that besmirched the GOP; it is the GOP that has besmirched itself by its actions in attempting to decertify the vote in the 2020 presidential election and to whitewash the January 6 insurrection as "legitimate political discourse."
Finally, leave to an editor to proclaim the outcome of the committee before the committee has presented its work. That's pretty much what I'd expect from someone whose only world they see is the one that ends at the tip of their own nose...
Posted 06/12/2022 03:48AM #2
Ratings for the Jan 6 Congressional Mafia hearings show that it was a dismal failure for all the networks that broadcast it.  

All the networks who put on the Donkey Show had fewer viewers than if they had simply run their regular news broadcasts.

The only appeal was to far left lunatic Democrats with Trump Derangement Syndrome.  

 https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2022/06/10/broadcast-networks-jan-6-hearings-drew-smaller-audiences-nightly
Posted 06/12/2022 03:53AM #3
Originally Posted by Richard Davis
Ratings for the Jan 6 Congressional Mafia hearings show that it was a dismal failure for all the networks that broadcast it.  

All the networks who put on the Donkey Show had fewer viewers than if they had simply run their regular news broadcasts.

The only appeal was to far left lunatic Democrats with Trump Derangement Syndrome.  

 https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2022/06/10/broadcast-networks-jan-6-hearings-drew-smaller-audiences-nightly
Another deflection from Davis from a site that ignores the total figure of people who watched at the time- TWENTY MILLION- and that preliminary figure doesn't include those who watched on podcasts and streaming services afterwards. That analysis from a site selected by Davis is a joke!
Posted 06/12/2022 03:57AM #4
Originally Posted by Richard Davis
Ratings for the Jan 6 Congressional Mafia hearings show that it was a dismal failure for all the networks that broadcast it.  

All the networks who put on the Donkey Show had fewer viewers than if they had simply run their regular news broadcasts.

The only appeal was to far left lunatic Democrats with Trump Derangement Syndrome.  

 https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2022/06/10/broadcast-networks-jan-6-hearings-drew-smaller-audiences-nightly
20 million spread over all of those networks. That's just who watched it live, many more streaming on Youtube, ect.   
Posted 06/12/2022 04:14AM #5
Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Another deflection from Davis from a site that ignores the total figure of people who watched at the time- TWENTY MILLION- and that preliminary figure doesn't include those who watched on podcasts and streaming services afterwards. That analysis from a site selected by Davis is a joke!
Just angry and Butthurt are you that it wasn't a big hit as you had hoped?  It was a bust. Pure and simple.

Ratings numbers don't lie.  

BTW, your senile President now has the worst ratings of any President in US History.  

He's a failure and your leftist Dems will get clobbered in 2022. 


How does that make you feel?  wink
Posted 06/12/2022 04:17AM | Edited 06/12/2022 04:19AM #6
Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

20 million spread over all of those networks. That's just who watched it live, many more streaming on Youtube, ect.   
Here's the rub for you.  Had they run their regular nightly news on ABC, CBS, and NBC, the ratings would be higher.

Does that provide you with a clue as to just how bad it was?   smile

I simply must ask, because inquiring minds want to know.  

Does your brain function, or as the Italians would say....  "is she a broke"?
Posted 06/12/2022 04:20AM #7
Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

20 million spread over all of those networks. That's just who watched it live, many more streaming on Youtube, ect.   
Me, for example.  I had work to do Thursday night.
Posted 06/12/2022 04:26AM | Edited 06/12/2022 04:27AM #8
Originally Posted by Russ Carroll
The House inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot launched its TV miniseries Thursday night, and the trick for parsing the proceedings is to keep two ideas in tension. Do Democrats want to unfairly besmirch the entire GOP with the Jan. 6 disgrace, while distracting voters from 8.6% inflation and $5-a-gallon gasoline? Yes.

Yet did the committee offer a damning look at President Trump’s scheme to stay in office after losing the 2020 election? Also yes. Fresh video of the riot is a reminder that Jan. 6 was a brutal melee of fists and chemical sprays. “I was slipping in people’s blood,” said Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards. The footage is visceral, even if similar scenes were already on YouTube.


The committee did offer some new and ugly details. “Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence, ’” Rep. Liz Cheney said, “the President responded with this sentiment: Quote, maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence, quote, deserves it.” Who is the source of that quotation? The committee didn’t say.

Ms. Cheney also said that Mr. Trump gave no orders to the National Guard on Jan. 6 to aid the besieged police, even as Mr. Pence was calling in the cavalry from his post at the Capitol. “There were two or three calls with Vice President Pence,” said Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in audio testimony. “He issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders.” In effect, “get the Guard down here, put down this situation.”

Mr. Milley also spoke with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “He said, we have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,” Mr. Milley recalled.

So was Mr. Pence in fact giving orders to the military, while the President watched the riot on TV and abdicated his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief? This was reported by the press soon after the riot, citing anonymous officials. But it’s something else to hear it from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

The same goes for the testimony about Mr. Trump’s flimsy theories of undetectable mass voter fraud. “I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bull—,” Attorney General Bill Barr testified.

Alex Cannon, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, recounted a conversation with Mr. Meadows: “I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.” The point is that Mr. Trump was told by his own advisers that he lost the election but still deceived his supporters.

The committee appears to be trying to build a case of “seditious conspiracy” against Mr. Trump, but here the evidence isn’t persuasive. Ms. Cheney offered no evidence that Mr. Trump communicated directly with the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys, who were the vanguard of the assault on the Capitol.

The President spread falsehoods about the election. He invited supporters to Washington on Jan. 6, tweeting on Dec. 19 that it “will be wild!” He riled up the crowd and urged it to march on the Capitol. After violence began, he dawdled instead of sending help. Mr. Trump bears responsibility for the mayhem. But inspiring followers to march is not the same as leading a criminal conspiracy.

One irony is that the largely Democratic committee’s evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump’s designs on overturning the election were foiled mainly by Republicans, including many in his Administration. White House lawyers threatened to resign if he fired Justice Department officials who didn’t indulge his fraud theories. GOP state legislators refused to name new electors. His judicial appointees rejected dubious fraud claims. Above all, his own Vice President stood up to Mr. Trump’s public and private pressure not to count electoral votes.

The committee calls Jan. 6 an “attempted coup.” That makes it seem as if there was a chance of success. There wasn’t. It was an impossible plan hatched by screwballs, and it would have gone down as such if the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers hadn’t breached the Capitol. In the event, Congress still returned to fulfill its duty and count the electoral votes.

***
Many Congressional Republicans dishonored themselves by voting to object to electors, even after the riot. But most of the GOP refused to go along. The person who owns Jan. 6 is Donald Trump. Remarkably, he seems to welcome this. “January 6th was not simply a protest,” he wrote Thursday on Truth Social, “it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”

Pity the people who went to Washington believing this nonsense, not least the more than 800 who have been charged with criminal offenses. Thursday’s hearing ended with video of rioters explaining their thinking, as their criminal charges flashed on the screen. “I did believe that the election was being stolen,” one man said, “and Trump asked us to come.”

Mr. Trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on Jan. 6, and he is still doing it.
I'm proud of my old classmate Mike Pence.  I am extremely hopeful that the long range fallout from this testimony (and more to come) is the end of DJT as a viable candidate in '24.   I wish I could move along to optimistic, but there are too many people out there like our own astromarters, who simply see no evil when it comes to Trump.  Rich likes to rant about Trump Derangement Syndrome when he gets riled up, which is pretty much always.  I actually see some deranged thinking about Trump here, but it is not James, Rod, or Jim M. who are guilty.

Jim
Posted 06/12/2022 04:27AM #9
Originally Posted by Richard Davis
Does your brain function, or as the Italians would say....  "is she a broke"?
You know, F off with your commentary. It's unbecoming.