It is becoming obvious that the televised congressional hearings are infuriating Trump. After each session, he issues long rants about them essentially repeating the same things, that it is a partisan witch hunt aimed at him, and that he really did win the election. The problem for Trump is that he is a narcissistic TV addict and so he cannot resist watching a show in which he is the main character, however unflattering it is. So he essentially rage-watches.
It is clear that the members of the committee have noticed this and the last prime time hearing on Thursday, in addition to focusing on Trump’s culpability in inciting the riot and his deliberate and inexcusable passivity while it was going on, also took the opportunity to needle him with outtakes of the video statements Trump put out on January 6th (after doing nothing for more than three hours and instead just watching the riot unfold on the TV in his private dining room) and on the following day, both of which reveal his deep reluctance to condemn the violence of his supporters.
His White House advisors were apprehensive about Trump going on TV and ad libbing because they feared that he would say further inflammatory things and so they prepared a script for him to read. But he ignored it and ad libbed anyway and you can see the result below, where he called the rioters “very special” and that “we love you'”. Who did he mean by ‘we’ anyway?
The outtakes of that January 6 video can be seen below.
Here is the video from January 7th, in which you can hear his daughter Ivanka in the background. It is clear that by then he had begun to realize that what happened the previous day could be very damaging to him and he needed to indulge in some damage control so he was willing to go along at least partially with what his advisors wrote for him, though even here he watered it down.
It is curious how Trump says that “Yesterday is a hard word for me”. What on Earth does that mean? With someone more literate and reflective, one might think that he was using the word as a metaphor for the past and lamenting that the past is hard to deal with. But Trump has no such depths so we have to conclude that he merely stumbles over reading words on the Teleprompter, something that has been observed many times before.
The hearings also did some drive-by trolling of Missouri senator Josh Hawley who, before the riot, raised his fist like a tough guy in solidarity with the mob but was later shown running for his life when the mob invaded the Capitol building. That clip caused the audience in the room to break out in laughter.
Immediate reaction to the vid: pic.twitter.com/XAv4jc2tjr
— Dan Przygoda (@dprzygoda) July 22, 2022
Of course, you knew that this would produce a slew of memes of the video set to music (including the inevitable Yakkety Sax aka Benn Hill theme) and you can see some of them here. He has also been mocked by a paper in his home state saying that he has become a ‘laughingstock’. Hawley has apparently got a book coming out with the cringe-inducing title Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs that presumably echoes the weird right-wing obsession that the men of this country have become wimps. The paper said that the people watching the hearings “didn’t see much virile bravado as he ran from the mob”.
It’s important to remember that all these white house staffers angling for book deals, were enablers. Some of them quit (and signed contracts for their memoirs) only after it was thoroughly too late. Others watched the DOJ get corrupted, and the secret service -- etc. Maybe the White House wait staff who cleaned up the ketchup weren’t corrupted… no, wait, they have maintained the circled wagons.
Is anyone in that swamp not corrupted?
The best take I heard about Trump’s trouble with using the word ‘yesterday’, was what Sam Seder said on Friday while reviewing the outtakes in his YouTube show: The Majority Report. His idea was that most people on first hearing that “Yesterday is a hard word for me” take it to mean that he has trouble pronouncing the word. Seder’s interpretation is that in Trump’s January 7th speech, the proposed text refers to the attack on the capitol yesterday. What Trump is trying to suggest with the omission of the word ‘yesterday’ is that the “real” attack on the US wasn’t yesterday--Jan 6--but the “rigged and stolen” election itself.
My favorite was Monty Python’s Brave Sir Robin!
johnson@3-
Bravely bold Sir Robin
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die,
Oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways.
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin.
He was not in the least bit scared
To be mashed into a pulp.
Or to have his eyes gouged out,
And his elbows broken.
To have his kneecaps split
And his body burned away,
And his limbs all hacked and mangled
Brave Sir Robin.
His head smashed in
And his heart cut out
And his liver removed
And his bowls unplugged
And his nostrils raped
And his bottom burnt off
And his penis
“That’s, that’s enough music for now lads, there’s dirty work afoot.”
Brave Sir Robin ran away.
(“No!”)
Bravely ran away away.
(“I didn’t!”)
When danger reared it’s ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
(“I never!”)
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
(“You’re lying!”)
Swiftly taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!
As Marcus pointed out, these former administrators deserve no praise for simply what amounts to nothing more honorable than simply not (provably) lying to the select committee. ALL of these people were perfectly OK with all of the stuff we knew about before he won the election: pathological lying, malignant narcissism, racism, bigotry, islamophobia, p***y grabbing, grifting, deep ties with Russian despots. Nor did they do anything but enable the things which followed his inauguration: the muslim ban, the grifting, the inaugural committee’s money laundering, the codifying of racism (“build the wall!”), and the complete and utter stupidity.
So now they find religion/see the light/come to their senses, and we’re supposed to praise them? That’s like forgiving the ex-klansman his transgressions, when he only left because the grand wizard used diesel fuel to light the cross on fire, rather than gasoline. Credit where due, but the ledger is still very deeply in the red.
What an idiot. This is nothing more than a stupid uncaring buffoon who could never take the slightest responsibility for any of his actions, and when faced with the consequences of his latest media-stunt-gone-wrong, all he could do was keep on digging in and refusing to budge one millimeter more from his chosen position than he absolutely had to.
No wonder they’re screaming about “groomers” and drag-queens — hot-button distractions and scapegoating are all they have lef-- INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED SQUIRREL!!!
TGAP Dad:
Marcus at least did not equivocate; did you not notice those two claims are contradictory?
I personally don’t hesitate to credit them for what is creditable.
Josh Haulass and Donald Judas Trump . 2 of my favourite people 🙄
@2, crivitz,
I’m not saying that I’m right, but that was my take on it as well. That Trump didn’t want to use the word “Yesterday” on Jan. 7th because he was forced by his advisors to make a speech of condemnation when he really didn’t think the protesters did anything which needed condemnation. Instead, he would have preferred to condemn the election which he felt was stolen from him. I don’t think he has ever understood that an arena filled with thousands of adoring fans does not represent how many Americans feel about him.
@6, Raging Bee,
Are you talking about Trump or Boris? Or does it matter?
@9, flex: Yes.
@CRIVITZ.
Uh no! He is not a “stable genius”. And
the ENTIRE world understands Trump has an elementary school level command of the English language, with these outtakes simply adding to the collection of laugh out loud videos. Everything about him is based on lies and fraud.