This week, we looked at the 8th Jan. 6 committee hearing, electoral count reform and election denial canvassing. Plus, Biden tests positive for COVID-19.
The Big Picture: A political case against Trump
House Select Committee via AP
After eight Jan. 6 committee hearings, it’s becoming clearer that the committee is less focused on making a legal case against former President Donald Trump as it is making a focused political one.
"Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?" asked committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at Thursday night's hearing.
Jan. 6, 2021, was the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since British soldiers burned it in 1814. But this was an attack that didn't come from outside; it came from within, from a mob of supporters of the defeated former president who pulled the wool over their eyes and convinced them — with lies — that it had all been stolen.
The committee, across these eight hearings, has built a case — more political than legal — that Trump, who continues to lie about the election and teases that he will run again in 2024, is not fit to hold the office. Even many of those charged with crimes from that day are pointing the finger at Trump, saying they did it for him.
The committee has tried to make the case that Trump knew what was going on, could have taken action, but chose not to – for hours.
And there appears to be at least some movement among independents after these hearings. A majority of them say they are at least paying some attention. Back in December, before the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, 48% of independents blamed Trump mostly for what happened that day. Now, it’s up to 57%. Back in December, 43% described Jan. 6 as an insurrection and threat to democracy. That’s jumped to 52%.
In a country stretched by partisanship, independents make up a good deal of the shrinking share of swing voters. And if they are moving away from Trump and hamper a potential run for the White House in 2024, the committee’s members will feel like they did their job in ringing the alarm to what a threat Trump still is to democracy.
Bannon found guilty: Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Bannon put on no defense in the case, which featured testimony from just two government witnesses.
Electoral count reform: A bipartisan group of senators this week unveiled two proposals to reform the Electoral Count Act, the widely criticized law that governs the casting and counting of Electoral College votes. The proposals would raise the threshold of votes needed to challenge any state’s slate of electors and would reaffirm that the "constitutional role of the Vice President, as the presiding officer of the joint meeting of Congress, is solely ministerial." Election experts have expressed their support for the proposals.
Biden on climate, detainees: The president announced new incremental climate initiatives, including providing new funding to communities to tackle extreme heat. Biden also signed an executive order that aims to improve efforts to free American hostages and detainees held abroad.
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Attorney Roy Cohn was already a legend when Trump met him in 1973 at a high-fashion Manhattan bar, NPR's Ron Elving writes, and soon he was relying on him for advice -- legal and otherwise.
Cohn had been in the news for decades by then. In the early 1950s, Cohn served as lead counsel for Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy when the first-term Republican was looking for communists in government. and later, represented high-profile clients Cardinal Francis Spellman, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the New York crime bosses Carmine Galante and John Gotti.
Cohn was known for telling clients to fight all charges, to counter-sue when sued and to never concede defeat. Trump has followed that formula for half a century and that has come to matter a great deal to the nation.
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