It’s been two years, six months, and six days since your correspondent took his seat in the first of a series of hearings that Democrats hoped would end Donald Trump’s presidency.
After a whistleblower reported that Trump had withheld U.S. defense aid to pressure the new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to announce false investigations into Joe Biden and his son, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. commissioned a trusted lieutenant, Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. – with the quarterback of the then president’s misdemeanor investigation.
Those hearings, which were televised nationwide, ended with the House vote to oust Trump. But when it came to convincing Republicans he had abused his power, the answer was a collective shrug and an acquittal in the Senate.
A year later, Democrats received another bite on the impeachment block after Trump incited a crowd of his supporters to storm the Capitol. But even though a new set of impeachment managers arrived armed with hours of video and tons of reports on the Capitol insurgency (including some from your correspondent), they still failed to get the votes needed to condemn Trump and provoke a voting that prevented him from running. for the office again.
Now, a year, five months and two days after the worst attack on the Capitol since Major General Robert Ross ordered British troops to set it on fire in 1814, House Democrats – and two Republican allies – have their third and perhaps last chance to achieve something. a measure of responsibility for the man who, according to most accounts, tried to end American democracy.
Unlike the last two opportunities to hold Trump accountable, Democrats will count on the help of some unlikely sources when the hammers of the January 6 select House committee open the first of six scheduled hearings.
According to committee aides, the panel will use the prime-time television audience to reveal “a small … but significant part” of the video-recorded testimony of key figures in Trump’s inner circle. “This will include senior Trump White House officials, senior Trump administration officials, Trump campaign officials, and, in fact, members of the Trump family,” one official said.
All of Thursday night’s cable and broadcast networks (except for Fox, which ignores audiences because broadcasting them would upset viewers who depend on being outraged by Democrats) will also include “substantive multimedia presentations” produced by a veteran government-backed television executive. select committee.
The decision to professionalize the process of revealing its findings, sources tell me, was informed of the previous two failures of the Democrats. And it was largely done with the advice of the two Republican panel members, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and the committee’s vice chair, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. A source familiar with the committee’s internal deliberations described the contributions of the two GOP members as “invaluable.”
They will also receive help from former aides to Mike Pence, the man Trump threw at the mercy of a crowd after he refused to help in his quest to undo the election results. Another source familiar with the panel’s plans said Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, and his former lawyer, Greg Jacob, could appear as star witnesses at later hearings, perhaps as early as Monday, when the a second public meeting of the committee is scheduled to be convened.
But the most valuable contribution to the select committee’s efforts almost a year ago comes from none other than House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
After failing to prevent the House from passing a resolution authorizing the work of the select committee, McCarthy tried to stack the Republican side with Trump’s loyalists. This included two members, Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, who had led the charge of installing Trump in the White House for a second term, with voters’ wishes being cursed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected both Banks and Jordan, citing the possibility of the two men being called as witnesses in the investigation. But instead of choosing two other Republicans equally Trumpy to serve on the committee, McCarthy grabbed his ball and went home in a itchy fit. Now, no Republican who has denied the legitimacy of Biden’s victory or who has denied the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol sits on the committee, which means that these hearings, unlike previous impeachment hearings of Biden. Trump, they won’t have anyone sabotaging them from within.
And maybe that means the third time will be the charm.