The wheels fell off the January 6th Commission’s latest “bombshell” allegation after Secret Service agents disputed the story told by Cassidy Hutchinson about Trump’s actions on January 6th of 2021. Politico has reported that the 1/6 committee never even reached out to the Secret Service for comment before Hutchinson’s testimony (almost certainly because they knew what the response would be):
The Jan. 6 committee didn’t reach out to the Secret Service in the days before it aired explosive testimony about an alleged physical altercation between Donald Trump and his security detail on the day of the riot, according to an agency spokesperson.
[…]
Anthony Guglielmi, the service’s chief of communications, told POLITICO that select committee investigators did not ask Secret Service personnel to reappear or answer questions in writing in the 10 days before asking Hutchinson about the matter at the hearing.“[W]e were not asked to reappear before the Committee in response to yesterday’s new information and we plan on formally responding on the record,” he wrote in an email. “We have and will continue to make any member of the Secret Service available.”
[…]
It’s not clear why the select panel didn’t seek further corroboration from the Secret Service as it planned Hutchinson’s hearing. Members of the select committee have said they welcome any more information about the Secret Service altercation that witnesses would provide under oath.
Axios is now reporting that this kind of thorough and responsible congressional hearing might be a good thing moving forward because of all the revelations and drama reserved for people like Rob Reiner and George Conway:
The House Jan. 6 hearings have over-delivered on revelations and drama — unspooling as a disciplined, captivating summer series that is a new template for effective congressional hearings in the modern era. https://t.co/ejmMdPiKzg
— Axios (@axios) June 29, 2022
“A new template for effective government hearings”? Oh, please.
Here's how the committee did it:
1. The committee sticks to a single storyline: Trump did it.
2. Former ABC News president James Goldston has produced each hearing as raw enough to be credible, but scripted enough to sell the story efficiently. https://t.co/KSLHZPBzts
— Axios (@axios) June 29, 2022
How they did it? A complicit media always helps.
3. The committee is limiting hearings to a couple of hours, rather than the into-the-night grind of so many flabby, high-profile hearings.
4. The committee videotaped the depositions, rather than the more common practice of relying on written transcripts. https://t.co/KSLHZPBzts
— Axios (@axios) June 29, 2022
5. The committee uses mostly Republican voices, including legit former Trump insiders.
6. The committee includes "deep teases," as TV news calls it — hinting at future testimony and leaving the audience wanting more. https://t.co/KSLHZPBzts
— Axios (@axios) June 29, 2022
The committee is also set up like a show trial so no defense is allowed to be presented, which also helps.
Journalism.
The non-adversarial Soviet style clown show trial, "a new template for effective congressional hearings in the modern era." https://t.co/r6fhPgJubS
— ┈ Reason Burger ┈ (@ReasonBurger) June 29, 2022
“New template”? No thanks.
Narrator: The January 6th committee has been a bungled mess of unconnected dots and false testimony that serves as a template for exactly how not to do congressional hearings in the modern era. https://t.co/q5oU3gGm2i
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 29, 2022
They’ve “over-delivered on revelations” as long as you consider hearsay that’s been disputed by the people who were cited to be very revealing of the truth.
Siri
Show me a textbook example
Of Inside the Bubble analysis https://t.co/dJw73bYMf1— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) June 29, 2022
Like Clay and Buck observed, a soap opera for the NPR crowd. In the rest of America the eye rolling is going turn to pretty angry soon – at the committee and any clown promoting it. https://t.co/jRPOZPRJNY
— Cindy Cooper (@CindyCoops) June 29, 2022
Libs and media (pardon the redundancy) in the Acela corridor bubble think this is all a big deal, but elsewhere people have other concerns.
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Related:
Axios does some heavy lifting to help Biden & Dems spread ‘ultra MAGA’ far and wide
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