More On: Jan. 6
In a probe that started on January 6, the DOJ sent out 40 new subpoenas and seized phones
Cassidy Hutchinson worked for Trump for 9 weeks after she left the White House
The Secret Service erased texts from January 6
AOC told the heckler who yelled at her on the Capitol steps to 'deck' himself
Americans are divided by party on whether to blame Trump for the January 6 riot
They remain only 'deplorables' in the eyes of Democrats.
The 2016 election result was probably influenced by Hillary Clinton's infamous slur at Donald Trump's followers. It's worth questioning if her party has learnt anything about why Trump defeated her and why he still has such a large following six years later.
According to the hearings on January 6, the answer is a resounding nay. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her cronies had been more astute, they would have known that a kangaroo court approach to the Capitol riot would not be convincing because it would not be trusted by almost half of the country.
America loses because of her ignorance. If the members were not so biased, many of the gritty information the investigative panel gave might have a bigger impact. But because they are, the proceedings have the whiff of yet another partisan stunt—a third act of the Trump Impeachment.
For instance, testimony last week by former White House insiders detailed the principled reluctance of then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of the Electoral College results and revealed the fierce opposition among a large portion of Trump's inner circle to his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. The tremendous efforts Trump and his attorneys undertook to overturn the results in both states were demonstrated by the officials from Arizona and Georgia who appeared on Tuesday. Joe Biden stole Arizona and Georgia from the GOP column.
Trump's stance on the election was well known, but the first-hand stories showed how absurd his suggested solutions were and how little concrete evidence he had. Pelosi, however, compromised the conclusions before they were made public by refusing to seat any Republicans who did not begin with the belief that Trump should be permanently banished from public life.
Only part of the story
The absence of any sort of a cross-examination of witnesses means that viewers are only hearing the portion of the story that supports Pelosi's goal, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School and other legal experts have remarked. Even when Donald Trump is on trial, show trials are un-American.
The mental barrier to trusting the Democrats' performance rises with each appearance by Rep. Adam Schiff, despite the fact that I think Trump needs to change his tune about the 2020 election if he is to run in 2024. His expression compels one to recall the Russia, Russia, Russia farce he relentlessly pursued as well as his crazed attempt to convert a Trump 2019 phone chat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into a justification for impeachment.
In that regard, Pelosi and company are still perpetuating the core of Clinton's error. Hillary's 2016 campaign's central premise was that she only needed to fabricate "proof" to convince the media that Trump was a Russian agent in order to get the FBI to look into the matter and instantly win over votes.
Clinton called them names when they didn't, most notably during a private fund-raiser.
You might categorize half of Trump's followers into what I like to refer to as the "basket of deplorables," she remarked, using a broad generalization. "The Islamophobic, xenophobic, homophobic, racial, and sexist — you name it. And sadly, such individuals do exist. He has also raised them.
She apparently didn't know that flattering folks by labeling them ignorant and racists is a bad strategy for winning them over. The fact that the FBI spied on Trump's presidential campaign and that Clinton's allegations about Russia were untrue did not help the anti-Trump movement in the long run, either.
In the same way, Pelosi's insistence on everyone having the same opinion and her contempt for people who don't agree with her vendetta help explain why Trump is still popular.
Any other politician would have been thrown out because of the riot on January 6. There would have been no need for hearings to close the door on any possible comeback.
Still a GOP powerhouse
Pelosi keeps trying to get rid of Trump, but he is still the most powerful person in the GOP, and he is still changing the party one endorsement at a time. He is also making harsh comments and telling his version of what happened during the hearings. For example, he keeps saying that the election was stolen.
Even though it's possible that some of his supporters will leave him because of the hearings, there's no sign of that happening yet.
The Dems' ultimate goal is also still not clear. Just last week, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who is in charge of the panel, said that he did not think the Justice Department would be sent a request to prosecute Trump. He told reporters, "That's not what we do." "It is our job to look at January 6," Find out what caused it and then make suggestions. "We don't have permission."
Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican ally of Pelosi and a member of the panel, quickly pushed back, saying that no decision had been made. This made it sound like she and other members of the panel want Trump to be charged.
Attorney General Merrick Garland doesn't need a referral from Congress to bring a case, but there are other, bigger hurdles.
Most importantly, many legal experts say they haven't seen strong proof that Trump did anything wrong before the Capitol riot or when he tried to change the results of the election. They think that the Justice Department would not bring criminal charges against an ex-president for things he did as president unless there was a clear case that he meant to break the law.
On the other hand, if Dems want to make sure Trump stays a strong foe, they should tell Garland to bring any case he can as soon as possible. To people who support Trump, the charges would be unfair and more proof that Washington is a swamp that only he can clean up.
Crime still plaguing Hizzoner
When compared to last year, there is some good news about crime in the city. Stats from the NYPD show that as of Sunday, the number of murders is down 13.3%, the number of people shot is down 9.4%, and the number of shootings is down 11.5%.
Unfortunately, every other type of crime and report shows an increase, and some of these increases are very big. Robbery is up almost 40%, auto theft is up 48%, and grand theft is up 50%.
More telling is that every category has grown since 2020, and the total index of reports has grown by a whopping 37.5 percent.
The bottom line: Mayor Adams doesn’t have nearly enough laurels to rest on. The city remains a long, long way from being safe.
Tanking Joe’s ‘Vlad did it’ lie
Reader Ron Perri is a Biden skeptic, writing: “According to the president, Vladimir Putin has caused the rise in gasoline prices and there’s nothing we can do about it. Who knew tanking our economy could be so easy?
“If the old Soviet Union leaders had thought of that, they could have won the Cold War.”
Still 38%? Why?
David Shapiro brings up a point about Joe Biden that I don't understand either. He writes, "It's hard to believe that about 38% of Americans still like the job this pathetically incompetent person in the White House is doing! "What on earth are they thinking?"
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