J6 Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney has been criticized by critics for participating in a one-sided series of hearings devoid of alternative or dissenting views. Some have called it a “show trial” with members reading off teleprompters in tightly scripted and controlled hearings. As if to fulfill that show trial portrayal, Cheney ended the hearing this week by calling for more officials to come forward and noting that Trump family members and former officials have now come forward with their own public “confessions.”
As with past hearings, the summation included a direct call by Cheney for voters to oppose Donald Trump in the coming election: “Can a President who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?” It is the type of pitch that is as unnecessary as it is counterproductive. Many voters tuned out the hearings weeks ago due to the absence of any balance in the presentation of evidence. To add direct political pitches only reduces the audience further. The result is that it is left telling largely Democratically aligned voters not to vote for Trump.
The alternative was to secure a larger audience by allowing more balance. It would not have altered the power of these accounts. It would have simply added greater credibility to the proceedings. It could have changed minds rather than just reaffirm preexisting views. Instead, once again, the Committee simply edited out conflicting evidence. For example, the Committee again edited out the line of Trump where he said “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
That line does not exonerate the former president. However, it is illustrative of the Committee’s refusal to hold these hearings for investigative rather than persuasive purposes.
What was particularly bizarre was Cheney’s effort to dismiss the need for any opposing views in the hearings. In one of the most counterintuitive and forced claims, Cheney said that such balance would not have made a difference:
“And for those of you who seem to think the evidence would be different if Republican Leader McCarthy had not withdrawn his nominees from this committee, let me ask you this. Do you really think Bill Barr is such a delicate flower that he would wilt under cross-examination? Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann, Jeff Rosen, Richard Donoghue?”
No one is suggesting that Barr would have changed his testimony. Rather, the argument is that there were questions not being asked for the witnesses and evidence not being presented. For example, when the two former members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers testified, members carefully avoided a host of countervailing questions, including any direct contacts with Trump or the White House.
However, it was the true confessions moment that stood out in the closing summation. Cheney said that more people will be called to come forward. She then added:
“The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies. It is instead a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials, people who worked for him for years, and his own family. They have come forward. And they have told the American people the truth.”
I seriously doubt that figures like former Attorney General Bill Barr or other Trump officials believed that they were coming forward with public confessions. They spoke about courageous and principled positions that put them at odds with the former president.
What was so striking about the Cheney’s characterization of such testimony as “confessions” is that it seemed to address a glaring disconnect for many Democratic critics. The hearing has shown that virtually all of the Trump officials in the White House took the same position against the effort to reject the certification of the election and called for immediate responses to the riot. Many of these figures, like Barr, had been unfairly attacked for years as Trump stooges or enemies of democracy.
The fact is that our system worked. The courts (including Trump appointed judges) rejected these challenges. Executive officials held firm in refusing to allow the Justice Department or other agencies from being used to further attacks on the election without evidence of widespread voting fraud. There was no flinching or hesitation for figures like Barr or Vice President Michael Pence and they have always been public about their positions. There were no confessions in these hearing beyond a couple witnesses like the members of the extremist groups.
The fact is that there was little new offered in the last two hearings. There continued to be a conspicuous absence of the long promised new evidence of criminal conduct by Trump. The two witnesses yesterday were important new voices who offered authentic and heartfelt accounts of their decisions to resign on January 6th.
The biggest news was the announcement of additional hearings. While the Democrats brought in a former ABC producer to frame the hearings, it could well have been George Lucas behind the camera. Whenever a hearing end with what sounds like a summation, the chair comes forward with a sequel line that “there is another.”
I welcome additional hearings. I believe that these accounts are important for the public to hear what occurred on that horrific day. However, the hearings at points had a feel of a political infomercial due to the heavy handed pitch. While both sides have blamed each other for the absence of any Republican-appointed members, that is not a license for the Committee to then dispense with any need to offer the public a full and fair account of the underlying evidence and claims. Even Democrats have admitted that the hearings do not appear to be changing many minds of conservative or Republican voters. The reason may be that many tuned out weeks ago when they saw the hearings as presenting a single narrative rather than pursue a comprehensive record on what occurred from a variety of perspectives.
Declaring that Trump family members and former officials have now “confessed” only played into the criticism of these hearings. By yielding to the temptation to exclude any opposing voices or views, the Committee seems intent on fulfilling the stereotype of the hearings as a show trial. It could be so much more but that requires politicians to do something that they are almost genetically resistant to: yielding time to opponents. It is the difference between creating a case for the next election as opposed to creating a record for history.
People should view the Epoch Times Documentary The Real Story of January Six it is free Today
Started watching. Excellent.
rg, I saw it. It continues to confirm the other videos I have seen and shows that Jan 6 was likely an “inside job”. Watching the Capitol Police beating people is difficult. It is no wonder that the left is refusing to release the videos in the western tunnel.
Thanks.
If I take selfies with Kamala, how much should I sell them for?
😜
Watching the grass grow would be more rewarding.
“Vice President Kamala Harris in Richmond”
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/vice-president-kamala-harris-in-richmond-july-22-2022
If I take selfies with Kamala, how much should I sell them for?”
More if you cut Kamala out of the picture, though if you put a red circle around her face you could use her as a dart board.
We have our usual gym rats breakfast meeting early tomorrow morning, and I really want to avoid running into her limousine liberal carnival. To wit:
https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/vice-president-harris-to-visit-richmond-discuss-abortion-rights-fight-with-virginia-democrats/
Garren Shipley, a spokesperson for Virginia House Republicans and Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), told 8News that, to his knowledge, no lawmakers in the caucus were invited.
Last time Barry Obama, Joe and Jill Biden, Michelle O and Kamala visited Richmond, to rally their brownshirts for Terry McAwful in the Governor’s race, Glenn Youngkin humiliated all of them. I wish they visited more often!
Meyer,
Yes, I believe that a proper examination of events would reveal that much of the violence that took place was on the west side of the capital. The western terrace was where the police launched an unprovoked attack against then peaceful protesters using flash-bang and tear-gas grenades.it got pretty ugly after that.
” much of the violence that took place was on the west side of the capital.”
The Oath Keepers were helping the police on the east side. It is documented that they helped the police settle things down at least 3 times..
This morning I seen an unseen video of Qanon Shaman telling J6 people Trump wants them to leave.
I haven’t found it again, yet. It’s out there & likely many more.
Oky, I know little about Qanon. However, you might be interested in this along with the documents.
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/trump-gave-explicit-order-about-jan-6-rally-make-sure-it-was-safe-event-dod?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
Meyer,
Unfortunately there was not a damn thing that Trump could have done. He could not have called out the National Guard if his life depended on it. Nor, of course, could he block deployment of the National Guard. These things are simply not within the powers of the President. The security of the Capital falls to the Congress and they clearly failed.
Ray, we are in agreement. Trump did all he could. He authorized the use of 20,000 troops and Nancy Pelosi blew it.
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NOTE: AFTER JULY 22ND, this documentary will cost $4.99 to purchase, so please make sure you watch it on July 22nd! ($19.99 for non-subscribers)
I tried watching the video documentary. it is not free. nonsubscriber here. not interested in paying. if they have compelling evidence, they should share it gratis and increase their market share, share of voice with this message and convert doubters like me.
I started to loathe Trump when I saw how he treated Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio. Then his crack about Mexicans came. Disgust overcame me. Still, I left the Democrat Party in late 2020 after the election because of what Democrats did to him and by extension to America. So I get it. Democrats are the true insurrectionists dating back to 2016. I walked away from the present iteration of the Democrat Party. That does not mean Trump is an honorable man nor a leader America needs.
My main argument with the Jan 6 raid likely dates back to my childhood. My father had a 3rd grade education, my mother 6th grade, from Cuba, and yet in America, “work” was in our DNA. I started working at age 14 to contribute to the household. Even today in my 50s, I wake weekdays at 3:30 am to train in the gym, and am at work by 7 am. These people who gathered in DC on January 6: do they have careers, goals, families, responsibilities, debts to pay? I have all of the aforementioned and more given my family history. When I watch the videos of the rioters, most had a BMI of >35, which tells me many things: sloth, gluttony, lack of self-respect, a burden to our health system and burden to my health insurance premiums. My father would often comment when he saw blacks in Miami standing around on street corners during the day, sauntering and being unproductive, that they had been in America for generations, had an education greater than his, knew English unlike him, and yet….doing nothing and being a stain on America. Blacks in the Caribbean were not like the blacks we saw in America. Then again blacks in Miami despised Cubans, accusing us of coming to America to take “their” welfare. As if.
I have no pity for victims of the Jan 6 riots. They should have been home working, providing for their families, working towards their goals, paying their debts, and practicing self-care. While I would not be surprised that Pelosi and the DOJ/FBI and Deep State likely fomented the riots, and Pelosi likely refused to prepare ahead when warned, none of these rioters should have been there. Unless if you’re independently wealthy and are free of any commitments to self and to others, few of us have the luxury nor the right to walk away from our families, obligations and sense of modesty and self-care, to do what these Jan 6 rioters did. It was very unAmerican. Alas, they are sadly our new normal. I just refuse to succumb to their level. I owe God, my family, my history and my integrity too much to just let it rip.
We had to memorize Rudyard Kipling’s “If” poem in high school. Americans would do well to write it on their hearts
excerpt:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
if
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Cheney is probably just auditioning for a gig on MSNBC after she loses in November.
The fact is that our system worked. The courts (including Trump appointed judges) rejected these challenges. Executive officials held firm in refusing to allow the Justice Department or other agencies from being used to further attacks on the election without evidence of widespread voting fraud. There was no flinching or hesitation for figures like Barr or Vice President Michael Pence.
This is the most intellectually dishonest statement and bold faced lie Mr Jonathan Turley has made. It is weasel worded (the courts…rejected these challenges. There was only one court hearing that examined evidence and said continue and that was overturned on appeal for a political reason not the facts…we cannot dis in franchise millions of democrat voters who legitimately cast their votes. However it was perfectly ok to dis in franchise even more Republican voters who cast legitimately their votes. The facts were ignored and justice was not and is not being served. WE THE PEOPLE will not believe anything the Courts, the Legislature, or the bureaucracy of the Executive branch says on this matter until a full FORENSIC AUDIT is preformed openly. We do not care who performs the mechanics, they can choose Obama, Clinton, Sanders, Schiff and the aggrieved Voters pick matching people and I personally would like them to be handcuffed to their Democrat auditor for the duration. Refusal or stalling to produce on demand is admission that the 2020 election was stolen. We the people demand this be fully recorded by multiple independent systems. The space shuttle used 5 individual computers says and all had to agree before launch. In my opinion.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Multiple federal courts asked Giuliani what “evidence” he had–he admitted he had none, and was trying to use the lawsuits he filed as a means to obtain such evidence. In the meantime, he wanted injunctions to stop Biden from assuming the presidency. THAT’s why these lawsuits were tossed–no evidence, per Giuliani’s own admissions. No evidence of widespread voter fraud has been unearthed, and all of these conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines, false absentee ballots and ballot stuffing have been disproven.
Every poll predicted Trump would lose. Americans turned out in record numbers to vote him out of office. No number of “forensic audits” will prove anything different from what the previous “forensic audits” have proven convincingly: Trump lost. Here are some of the reasons: he never even got a 50% approval rating in 4 years’ time; COVID was out of control, businesses, factories ahd schools had to shut down for 2 years, the national debt rose to record levels due to the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, unemployment was above 10%, hospitals were overrun with sick and dying patients, and Trump had alienated our NATO and EU allies. Our economy was in shambles. The inflation and supply chain shortages we are still suffering from are Trump’s fault.
If you still believe Trump’s Big Lie, listen to the Bannon tape referenced elsewhere in this blog: he said in October, 2020, before the election, that Trump was going to say he won even though he knew he wasn’t going to.
Natacha – “Every poll predicted Trump would lose.” Are you talking about 2020 or 2016?
The reality is that our courts refused to even hear the evidence or grant voters their day in court.
You can’t stop. People are being stripped of their right to vote. Women are being virtually classified as chattel owned by the State who will decide when and if they have to carry a fetus to term, die of sepsis or just die but you want to tell more lies to protect Trump. It really is despicable. The committee isn’t one sided. The two Republican members were are staunch Republicans. They voted for almost ever action Trump took but when he decided to try to take the government down they said no. The Republican minority leader had an opportunity to appoint Republicans he decided to choose people who weren’t interested in looking at the facts but rather were and are disrupters. The Speaker according to an agreement the Minority leader made had the right to object to them but he still could have picked others.
With all of the information presented at the hearing last night by Republicans, you want to fight about one of the words she used in here closing statement! Not surprising.
I’m waiting for your column telling us that Trump’s incitement was just fine and we should all be apologizing to him.
Stripped of our votes by the mail in voting. My vote never counted in 2020. Happened to a lot of us in New Jersey. Yes…there is a website where we could look it up. They cheated. They always cheat. And they lie. I don’t care what jibber jabber you are talking about. The Democrats are corrupt. Obama spied. Hillary paid for the Fake Russian Collusion, and The Bidens are in bed with the corrupt in Ukraine and China. Open your eyes.
Justice Holmes: I think you’re wrong on this one. No one is being “stripped of their right to vote” but there are fabricators out there saying that to trick you into supporting them. Likewise, women are not “being virtually classified as chattel owned by the state.” That’s a clever image to conjure and may freighten some people but simply untrue. Read the Constitution and some history books and you’ll understand the difference between federalism and states rights. The J6 hearing was a fraud from the beginning and probably ended a few political careers in the process. Turley’s right on this one; i.e., the public wanted answers but all they got was political advertisements. We’ll just have to wait until next year to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Do you righteous righties ever get tired of being in a delusional state?
Not very smart are you?
Where are people being stripped or their right to vote and where are women being treated as chattel?
You are totally correct. JT is doing damage control.
Cheney knows that no matter how much assistance she gets from Democrats in her home state and from outside, she will not be returning to Congress. this is her swan song
When she went Left…..she committed ritual suicide….but forgot to wear the white headband with the Kanji characters and Rising Sun emblem.
The Rainbow can never show it’s backside . . .
Accomplice in Murder of Retired Officer David Dorn Given Probation and Released on Time Served — As Jan. 6 Political Protesters Rot in Prison for Walking Inside US Capitol
By Jim Hoft
Published July 22, 2022 at 8:50am
166 Comments
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/accomplice-murder-retired-officer-david-dorn-given-probation-released-time-served-jan-6-protesters-rot-prison-walking-inside-us-capitol/
***********
Attempted Assassin David Jakubonis Who Jumped on Stage with Knife and Attempted to Murder Republican Lee Zeldin is Charged with Felony “Attempted Assault” and Immediately Released
By Jim Hoft
Published July 22, 2022 at 8:00am
1151 Comments
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/attempted-assassin-david-jakubonis-jumped-stage-knife-attempted-murder-republican-lee-elder-charged-felony-attempted-assault-immediately-released/
Progressive murderers and attempted murderers, get set free, whilst protesters taking selfies in the Capitol, where the Capitol police ushered them in, are still rotting in the DC gulag. Seems fair??? It’s the Progressive way.
You do realize you have that totally backwards right?
What was the Jan6 hearings expectations?
Undeniable proof of a conspiracy by Trump and others to stage a coup.
Yet, like the Muller investigation, no proof was found.
A lot of speculation.
Bombshell witnesses that had their accounts debunked by more than few others.
A highly edited and controlled narrative and production.
But no real proof.
“. . . a guy who lizard f#$ked the Constitution never rose to the level of committing a crime.”
Obama? Or Biden?
Liz’s Klingon Court with no jury. This tribunal has convened. Strength to the empire.
Just a note of thanks for your insightful and unbiased columns. It is greatly appreciated during these divisive times. I have been reading your articles for over two years and I have never commented. Your legal analysis and thoughtful comments are greatly appreciated by this reader.
Can Trump “ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?” (Liz Cheney)
If Cheney had a conscience, she’d be waking in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat, mumbling:
‘Out, damned spot’
Heavens Turley. Do you mean to suggest that Congressional hearings have hyperbole with politicians overplaying their hands? Why I’ve never heard of such a thing.
The parade of Republicans who can hardly be labelled as RINOS who aligned against Trump is politically damaging — for Trump I might add — certainly not the Republican Party in general.
It is likely, at this point, that Republicans will have the White House and both Houses of Congress by the end of 2024 — with a Conservative in the White House.
But despite the shape Democrats are in right now, never underestimate the ability of Republicans to blow it.
For example, you wrote earlier about the Michigan Attorney General, who ought to be an easy mark to be unseated. But the Republicans just had to run an election denier against her, so now she may very well get 2 terms.
Secession is preferable to civil war.
Bye, bye Lizzy!
Jonathan, you don’t know what a “horrific day” is until you’re standing in front of a mob dressed in black, throwing Molotov cocktails at your family business, threatening your life and the lives of your family, and destroying your entire neighborhood. And there’s not a cop in sight. Now, that’s horrific — not a 3-hour selfie fest by unarmed angry citizens at the Capitol.
Well said.
giocon1,
Bravo or brava, which ever is appropriate for this particular situation!!!!
I’ll be honest… even the word or implication that there were “confessions” scarily puts Cheney on par with some of the most fascist of leaders in world history. None of the people Cheney is referring to “confessed” that Trump planned, supported, participated in, or caused the riots.
Leadership like Cheney who is willing to conduct produced show trials and attempt to elevate them to anything close to our legal system, which provides a plethora of protections for the accused, is scary. She should be ashamed.
To paraphrase Monty Python – no one expects a Cheney inquisition.
Or did they?
I did expect that based on the horrible things she said about her own sister in 2013. Her sister Mary is a lesbian who wanted to marry her long time partner and Liz took that and make a huge public issue about how WRONG is was. The reason for Liz’ awful behavior was that she was running for that seat for the first time and thought her position would win her voters. It did not and she lost.
So she is now up for re–election and this is the same game she played against her very own really lovely sister. She will use anything that gives her the spotlight to go after people she doesn’t like or agree with. With Mary it took Liz until 2021 to admit she had finally changed her mind about her own sister’s private life that Liz had trashed thinking it would help her own career. The public had changed and she knew what she had to do and that’s the only reason for the bizarre resurrection of the harm she had already done.
Hope people who have the opportunity to vote her out this go round will finally rid us all of a twisted mind that really only focuses on her own life and uses those who are different as opportunity targets for her own so called success,
There were three stooges. Moe, Larry and Curley.
One could say: Moe, Larry, Cheese and come close.
Turkey refuses to make a judgment concerning Trump’s actions and inaction on 1/6.
I’ll make one Trump acted shamefully and in an un-Presidential manner. That does not change the fact that Liz Cheney is acting in a despicable manner by making common cause with people who have corrupted or Congressional system and used it for partisan politics.
I can live with neither ever holding public office again and I look forward to the Iraq war crimes hearings focusing on her on her father.
RDKAY
Your “Turkey” comment says a lot about you.
monument, give RDKAY a break. Calling Professor Turley Turkey is the most original thing she has come up with in her entire life. Give credit where credit is due. She is so proud of herself for such inconceivable wit. The kids on the playground will be oh so proud of her.
Just more evidence that many lefties are liars.
The hearings will reinforce the believers and show thinking Americans that politicians are not to be trusted.