The point of Monday’s second bipartisan January 6th Select Committee Hearing is to present the evidence that Trump knew he lost the election but decided to continue lying about his loss by spreading the Big Lie.
The Big Lie “set the stage” for the domestic violence of January 6th, the committee claims.
The committee will work to connect the attempted coup on 1/6 to then President Donald Trump’s choice to falsely claim the election was stolen from him.
Trump came to this strategy after his other campaign strategies failed to give him an outcome other than losing.
Committee Chair Bennie Thompson tweeted: “We swore an oath to defend the Constitution, against all enemies: foreign and domestic. That oath was put to the test on January 6th, 2021.
Over the next few weeks, the Select Committee is going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day.
Our work must do much more than just look backwards because our democracy remains in danger.
When the threat to our Constitution and our democracy loom large—nothing could be more important.”
The planned panels were as follows, but Trump campaign chair Bill Stepien has pulled out having told the committee his wife is in labor (they likely have video to augment):
Panel 1
•William Stepien, Former Trump Campaign Manager
•Chris Stirewalt, Former Fox Political Editor
Panel 2
•Benjamin Ginsberg, Election Attorney
•BJay Pak, Former US Attorney Northern District of GA
•Al Schmidt, Former Philadelphia City Commr
The committee is working to make a very meticulous legal argument for prosecution of Trump and others. On day one, they told us they had the evidence that Trump oversaw and coordinated the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Monday’s hearing will make the case that Trump embraced the Big Lie knowing it was false, without which there would have been no attack. This lie is ongoing, as is the resulting threat. Republican leaders won’t even say that Trump lost the election. They will only concede under pressure that Joe Biden is currently the president, which is not the same thing and is a cowardly dodge meant to embolden their base who believe that this election was stolen from Trump.
The ongoing problem with the attempted coup is if the people who instigated it are not brought to justice, it will happen again. Our nation remains under constant threat from a party that refuses to accept elections it loses.
Watch the hearing here.
Ms. Jones is the co-founder/ editor-in-chief of PoliticusUSA and a member of the White House press pool.
Sarah hosts Politicus News and co-hosts Politicus Radio. Her analysis has been featured on several national radio, television news programs and talk shows, and print outlets including Stateside with David Shuster, as well as The Washington Post, The Atlantic Wire, CNN, MSNBC, The Week, The Hollywood Reporter, and more.
Sarah is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
