The Congressional committee investigating the events of January 6th, 2021 yesterday held what seems likely to be its last public hearing, though it will continue to meet in order to wrap things up and issue its final report by the end of the year. The hearing was intended to wrap up the case that Trump knew that he had lost the election and yet lied that he had won and tried to steal it in many ways, by trying to coerce state officials to manipulate votes and, when that failed, to try to use the courts to overturn results, and when that too failed, to use a mob to prevent the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
The hearing ended with the committee holding a vote on whether to subpoena Trump to testify before it under oath and the vote was unanimous in favor of doing so. The subpoena will be issued shortly. The immediate media reaction was that there was no way that Trump would agree to appear since he has resisted all efforts in other cases to make depositions or otherwise testify.
But I was not so sure. Trump loves to be the center of attention and TV ratings are what turns him on. And you can be sure that the ratings for such testimony will go through the roof. While he still speaks before adoring fans at his rallies, Trump is a person who loves to be on TV, that is the world he values. This would be a big event and the allure to be the center of it would be tremendous.
And sure enough, reports are emerging that he is interested in testifying.
Donald Trump is considering testifying in front of the House January 6 committee, which this week concluded a dramatic hearing establishing what it says is his culpability for the deadly Capitol attack by voting to subpoena the former president.
On Friday, sources close to Trump confirmed to the Guardian that he may choose to appear before the congressional panel. Such an appearance would set up an unprecedented, high-stakes political event.
Trump, meanwhile, issued an angry and rambling public letter to Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the January 6 committee
Trump’s letter to the Thompson can be read here. It is the usual Trump stuff, with random capitalizations. I am surprised there were no mentions of toilets that don’t flush or windmills killing birds.
You can be sure that the hearing will be a circus. Trump will use the opportunity to ignore all questions and simply rant on and on, the way he does at rallies, ignoring any effort to get him to answer questions or pin him down. He will make the hearing into The Trump Show.
The big danger for him is that he will be under oath and that is something that will make his advisors and lawyers wary. Trump lacks discipline and given the opportunity to, in his mind, correct all the injustices against him, he is likely to say things that are palpably false and make him liable to a perjury prosecution in addition to all his other legal woes. He will likely try to negotiate with the committee to not have to testify under oath. But given that he is an incorrigible liar and that the hearings have revealed so many lies, it would be foolish for the committee to give him a major platform to spread unfettered further lies by granting him that request.
I’ll bet he won’t testify. Somewhere deep in the putrescent maelstrom that is Trump’s brain, I think he knows this is a no-win situation. He wouldn’t be in control. Hurling faeces from a distance is his forte.
That said, I do hope he disregards the advice of his minions not to testify.
Mike the Mad Biologist posted a few thoughts about the hearings. Like Rob Grigjanis, I too hope that he can’t resist the lure of talking about himself. Unfortunately, what we probably won’t have the fun of seeing is his lawyers freaking out because they know it’ll be a mess. 😎
The big danger for him is that he will be under oath and that is something that will make his advisors and lawyers wary. Trump lacks discipline and given the opportunity to, in his mind, correct all the injustices against him, he is likely to say things that are palpably false and make him liable to a perjury prosecution in addition to all his other legal woes.
As long as he spouts nothing but incoherent bullshit unconnected to any observable reality, he’ll be in the clear.
If forced to comply (won’t happen, not enough time) it will probably be a lot of pleading the 5th.
If he voluntarily complies, then all bets are off. Cue the biglyest circus ever. (I do think that Tompson and Cheney are quite capable Ringmasters.)
I would bet his lawyers will make him understand that he will be in a situation where somebody else controls the mic and can cut it off. The committee gets to pick questions and Trump won’t be able to give a campaign speech. He will have to plead the 5th a lot because he was aware of the various plots and helped them along even if he didn’t do anything overt on record.
There are some odd possibilities if the committee negotiates with Trump. This isn’t a regular court case and the committee can agree to a lot of terms that would be out of question in court. They might agree to give Trump some free time in front of the mic and cameras. They might agree not to ask questions about certain topics, or only ask certain questions when in closed testimony without cameras. They could agree to ask him certain questions that he wants to answer in public. In exchange Trump could agree not to delay things in court or to answer certain questions and so on. Then it becomes a matter of who is better at negotiating. Which I think Trump loses because the committee members have a good idea what they are facing at this point.
JM:
Whyever would the committee negotiate?
Either way, it wins.
If Trump refuses, he would be in contempt.
If Trump accepts, he will say Trumpish things.
Average 30 year mortgage rates are 6.92%.
Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the solar system.
@7 John Morales: The primary reason the committee might negotiate is to get Trump in front of them in some reasonable period of time. If Trump just refuses he will be held in contempt but it will be a long road to ever force him to appear. Given the way Trump thinks he could consider stalling things forever a victory even if he is held in contempt of court.
Human beings and chimpanzees are related by direct descent from a common ancestor.
See, txpiper, anyone can post a simple fact as a comment -- there’s nothing particularly clever about doing so.
If Trump reminds the voters he belongs to the same party as the Republucans, it will NOT be a benefit for them in the upcoming elections.
Let him remind them of every embarassing gaffe he did in the last six-seven years.
The Trump Show.
I can think of a small modification to the text in a Marilyn Manson song.
“We’re all stars now…”
https://youtu.be/5R682M3ZEyk
JM,
That presumes that they actually want him there.
But this is a political thing, not a legal thing.
And the Committee is exclusively constituted of political operators.
That he refuses to appear — and they’re made a slam-dunk case against him already — only strengthens their case.
Trump being given an opportunity to repeat under oath what he has claimed in public yet repudiating that opportunity sends a strong signal.
You seem to believe that the Committee would rather have Trump actually testify under the favourable terms and special accommodations he demands than to have a political win.
I don’t.
—
In passing, txpiper is trying to suggest that Trump was a better economic manager than Biden.
It’s pretty obvious where txpiper stands politically, and though the verifiable facts indicate otherwise, it’s an article of faith amongst that mob.
And, for faithists, facts matter not one whit.
So, since txpiper knows by now what happens when making explicit claims, and so has more and more resorted to oblique allusions.
“In passing, txpiper is trying to suggest that Trump was a better economic manager than Biden.”
.
Not really. The point is that the national attention is going to be on economics, not Donald Trump. In my opinion, regardless of who gets elected, the US is on an irreversible downward trend,
Fair enough, txpiper.
(You know, you could just have written that, instead of being gnomic)