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For months, the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol meticulously gathered evidence, carefully wrote and rewrote scripts, and carefully gathered video witnesses to present to their television audiences.
Then came Monday, when this pattern of extreme caution gave way to a fight. With less than 24 hours notice, the committee announced that there would be a hearing the next afternoon with a single live witness: Cassidy Hutchinson, 25, a former White House aide.
The result was the most explosive testimony day to date in a series of revelation-rich audiences. Hutchinson stated that former President Donald Trump knew his supporters were carrying guns that day, but urged them to the Capitol anyway. He also explained Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato by telling him that Trump had angrily lashed out at a Secret Service agent after the president was informed that he could not accompany the mutineers as they marched from the Ellipse.
Many people close to the committee’s work say that the abrupt decision to make public Hutchinson’s testimony, which surprised even some of its main collaborators and meant presenting to the world details that the committee itself had known only a few days earlier, it was necessary to prevent her story from leaking. With evidence that Trump’s allies were trying to influence his decision to speak, some members also worried that he might back down if they expected more.
As the dice rolled, the committee drew attention to its message that Trump’s role in precipitating the Jan. 6 attack was illegal, unconstitutional, and disqualifying any future candidate for public office. .
Hutchinson’s account of cleaning Trump’s ketchup from the walls of the White House and begging his former boss, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, to unplug the phone and help quell the Capitol riot was seen by more spectators than all but one of the NBA Finals. this year’s games.
But in rushing Hutchinson to the witness stand, the committee has also been exposed to criticism because it did not thoroughly verify his claims.
Hutchinson has been subjected to intense scrutiny by Trump and his allies, who have accused him of lying or ridiculed him for transmitting hearing that they would not stand trial.
So far, no one has publicly corroborated his account of a fight between Trump and the Secret Service in his presidential SUV, but it is also not known that anyone has disputed it under oath. Officials have said anonymously that the Secret Service agents involved are willing to contradict Hutchinson in a sworn testimony, although they do not appear to have done so.
A person familiar with the investigation who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to address sensitive issues, described the story of Trump being thrown at a Secret Service agent as an “unforced error.” suppose a colorful one aside, when the main point, Not discussed, was that Trump was furious because he was forbidden to go to the Capitol.
“The reality is that Cassidy told the truth about a conversation that was streamed to her, and I don’t see any incentive for her to lie,” the person said. “But the reality is that the committee must be perfect. They probably shouldn’t have taken him there. I think we know that Secret Service agents are very protected from their details. “
Others, however, supported the decision to move forward as quickly as possible to make Hutchinson’s testimony public.
“It was exactly the right call,” said Ted Boutrous, a prominent Democrat lawyer and donor. “They had a super credible witness for no reason not to tell the truth. There are reasons why he wouldn’t have wanted to take a step forward. He conveyed the facts very accurately in terms of what they told him.”
Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor who investigated the Watergate scandal, noted that it is irrelevant that Hutchinson’s testimony is not kept in criminal proceedings. The House committee is trying to persuade Americans that Trump should not regain power, he said, and is doing so effectively by creating a dramatic and digestible story.
“She was very well prepared,” Akerman said. “And they minimized the risk by making fragments on tape. You can’t do that as a prosecutor, where you put your testimony and you do the sum at the same time. The public is learning everything that happened here.”
A committee aide described Hutchinson’s testimony as “a historic moment in the committee’s work to maintain the rule of law and protect American democracy. Anyone who questions the seriousness and impact of this hearing or he didn’t see it, he doesn’t understand the committee ‘s body of evidence or he has another agenda. “
Public polls released in recent days offer little idea whether audiences have begun to change their minds. A poll released Thursday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago shows that 49 percent of respondents say Trump is responsible for the attack on the Capitol, within the margin of error of the outcome of the January, 46 percent.
These figures may not reflect the impact of Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday, which attracted the largest audience of any of the daytime hearings to date. The committee’s first hearing, which aired at prime time on June 9, drew more than 20 million viewers at a dozen outlets. Hutchinson’s audience on Tuesday drew 13 million viewers, according to Nielsen, a remarkable figure for daytime television.
Fox News, which did not make its debut in prime time, has televised the daytime work of the panel, and even one of its most renowned personalities has praised it. “This testimony is impressive,” Bret Baier, presenter of the chain’s 6 p.m. news program, said Tuesday during a break in Hutchinson’s appearance.
Later, after concluding the hearing, Baier belittled Trump’s attempts to deny his charges, noting that the former president was making his comments on his own social media platform and Hutchinson was “under oath at the Capitol.” .
According to Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican strategist who co-organizes Bulwark’s “Focus Group” podcast, audiences have broken with Trump voters in a way that not many obsessions do inside the Beltway. In three groups conducted with Trump voters since the hearings began, participants reported being aware of the hearings or seeing parts of them.
“This is not a technical term, but I would describe his commitment as‘ hatred observation, ’” Longwell said. “They say, ‘Oh, I turned it off, it’s so partisan that they’re just trying to get Trump.’ But at the end of the day, they’re still following him.”
Trump’s deputies initially tried to dismiss the hearings and point to other issues, such as gas prices. But that failed, Longwell said, because of the effectiveness with which the committee used Trump’s own aides and other Republicans known as witnesses.
Trump’s allies have been forced to respond, pushing headlines and getting Fox News to spend time covering rebuttals. Trump has also been issuing an ongoing audience comment on his Social Truth platform, marked by frequent denials.
“His false story … is ‘disease’ and fraudulent,” Trump wrote Tuesday about Hutchinson, calling the committee a “kangaroo court.”
So far, however, the committee has avoided having to make any retractions, a possible reflection of the global prudence with which it has proceeded.
The panel twice announced delays because members said they had to be careful not to make any mistakes in their preparation. On June 15, the third scheduled hearing was postponed to avoid holding three proceedings in a single week and the risk of errors.
“They’re just technical issues. The staff who put all the videos together, you know, doing 1, 2, 3, was overwhelming,” committee member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Told reporters that day at the Capitol. “So we’re trying to give them some space to do their job.”
One week later, as the rest of Congress headed for a 17-day break, the committee abandoned plans to hold one or more hearings during the Independence Day recess for similar reasons: an avalanche of new material had of being digested and carefully reviewed before that. could be exposed in front of a national television audience.
Legislators and committee aides have described a process in which their teams go through the statements, both written and video, to gather the most revealing details and package them. The team then returns to the depositions and video to see what the witnesses said just before and after the selected clips, to protect themselves from any suggestions from pro-Trump witnesses who have been cited out of context.
Taking the time to check the details, committee members said they hoped to avoid giving ammunition to Trump and his allies to discredit their work.
“There’s been a deluge of new evidence since we started. And we just have to catch our breath, review the new evidence, and then incorporate it into the hearings we’ve planned,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D -Md.) To journalists on June 22nd.
But Hutchinson’s revelations brought about a change of plans.
Hutchinson gave the first of four statements behind closed doors to the committee in February. Some of the most compelling details of Tuesday’s hearing, however, did not emerge until the last of these sessions, during the week of June 20th. Committee members then agreed that they should question Hutchinson in a live hearing as soon as possible.
If not, they feared the details would leak, drip by drip, undermining the drama of a television audience with a great script. Members also worried that pro-Trump forces would try, perhaps successfully, to intimidate Hutchinson into changing his story or refuse to testify in public.
The young woman’s desire to risk her career and …