Honestly, we deserve hazard pay for watching last night. All those toxic fumes.

‘Hearing’ Just One Side

The Democrats — they say their committee is bipartisan, but it isn’t — said Thursday’s hearing would be “like an opening statement.” And it was, but only from the prosecution. In other words, this may have been billed as a hearing, but we’re “hearing” just one side. This kangaroo committee was not formed according to the rules, and their stated goal is to show a “nexus” between President Trump, his allies, and the siege of the Capitol building to violate the will of the people.

To do this, they have to lie and selectively edit. Democracy was never really at risk because of anything those unarmed protesters did. Nobody took over anything, and if they’d had proper security, the breach would’ve been prevented. Biden became President — happy now? If democracy is at risk, it’s because of the reaction to those protesters — labeling Trump supporters “domestic terrorists,” denying any problems with the election, marginalizing roughly half the country, and monitoring American citizens.

Prime Time Production

“This has all been produced down to the minute,” Bret Baier said on FOX Business News as Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi called the hearing to order. His opening remarks, right out of the gate, recalled the small Mississippi town of his birth, where people used to “justify the actions of slavery, Ku Klux Klan, and lynching.” Never mind that these evils all came courtesy of the Democrat Party — he said they’d been brought to mind by “the actions of the insurrectionists in 2021.” Ah, we were off to a good start.

Predictably, he brought up the oath that, ever since the Civil War, elected officials and government employees have taken. This was introduced to prevent Southern rebels from “holding a position of public trust.” He said, “That oath was put to test on January 6th,” likening those who breached the Capitol that day with those who’d fought against the Union in 1862. This is the strategy Democrats want to use to disqualify certain members of Congress, and (of course) President Trump, from running again.

Trump, Trump, Trump

“It was domestic enemies of the Constitution,” he said, “who stormed the Capitol, and occupied the Capitol, who sought to thwart the will of the people” (except he said “thowrt”) “to stop the transfer of power.” All presidents in our nation’s history had accepted the will of the people, he said, “except Donald Trump.”

Thompson apparently knows the 2020 election was perfectly above-board. The American people voted Trump out, he said, and “it was not because of a rigged system,” he added confidently. Then he played a clip from former Attorney General Bill Barr saying that in December 2020 he had advised that “he did not think the election was stolen.” In fact, he had called that idea BS. But that soon after the election, did Barr — or anyone — really have that much to go on? Doubtful.

“Donald Trump had his days in court to challenge the results,” Thompson said. “He lost in the courts, just as he did at the ballot box.” (Actually, that’s untrue; the courts rejected his claims without looking at evidence.) “That’s the end of the line. But for Donald Trump, that was only the beginning of what became a sprawling, multi-step conspiracy aimed at overturning the presidential election, aimed at throwing out the votes of millions of Americans — your votes — in our democracy and replacing the will of the American people with his will to remain in power after his term ended.”

Again, not true. In spite of what some (not all) advisers were telling him, Trump firmly believed the election had been stolen, and that he was trying to fulfill the people’s will.

“Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy,” Thompson lied again. “And, ultimately, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down [to] the Capitol and subvert American democracy.”

“Any legal jargon you hear about seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States [Note: be prepared for a lot of that] boils down to this: January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, ‘a brazen attempt,’ as one writer put it shortly after January 6, ‘to overthrow the government.’ The violence was no accident. It represents ‘Trump’s Last Stand,’ [his] most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power.”

An Outrageously Partisan and Extreme Interpretation of Events

So there it is. Wow, Rep. Thompson laid it on even thicker than we’d thought he would. Of course, you and I (and President Trump) know this isn’t what Trump was doing at all. Doesn’t matter; the most outrageously partisan and extreme interpretation of events is what Thompson led with. He apparently wants Trump charged with sedition.

Oh, and he hilariously denied that this is a political attack on Trump by people who don’t like him. “That’s not the case,” he lied. He said Trump’s people “didn’t want January 6 investigated at all.” On the contrary, they’d welcome neutral parties looking into numerous aspects — say, the FBI’s role, and the curious lack of security. Think we’ll get that here?

The Democrats’ Big Show

The next committee member to give a statement was “Republican” Liz Cheney. She put up a tweet Trump sent at 6:01 PM January 6 and read aloud from it, conveniently leaving out the part that said, “Go home with love & in peace.”

Cheney must have relished her role as prosecutor. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said. “Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.” She then played selected, context-free clips — again with no opportunity for more questioning.

She said that in the coming weeks, there would be testimony from officials who’d been in the West Wing that day and had “begged” Trump to do something to stop the protesters. Will there be any cross-examination of those witnesses? No.

Having no cross-examination is why the Democrats’ big show is ultimately meaningless, though it cost $8 million of taxpayers’ money. The entire committee is advocating for one side. It’s as I said yesterday: Imagine how differently the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial would have gone if there had been no cross-examination of Amber Heard.

The committee hopes their dramatic video of violence and chaos at the Capitol will tear at emotions. Yes, the violence was abhorrent, and we all recall sitting stunned on that day, watching in horror. I know of no Republican who thinks otherwise — Donald Trump included, no matter what came out of his mouth in anger as it unfolded. This had to be the worst possible turn of events for Trump himself. As we’ve said but the committee did not, Trump had offered Speaker Pelosi up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect against this very thing.

Notice that the phrase “in the coming weeks” was repeated a lot. Good grief, how much lying are we supposed to endure? Most Americans don’t blame Trump at this point and surely will see this for what it is. (And they might be able to put it into perspective now that we’ve had an attempt on the life of a Supreme Court justice, a story that The New York Times buried on page twenty-something.) There are hearings next Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I wonder if networks might pull the plug on this in-kind contribution to the Democrat Party if the ratings tank.

Legal Analysis and Expert Commentary

Anyway, let’s not waste more time on this one-sided sideshow. Let’s move on to what some legal experts and other commentators have to say.

First, here’s a strong antidote, which we know you need. Tucker Carlson said, “This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live. They are lying and we are not going to let them do it.”

“The whole thing is insulting,” he said. “In fact, it’s deranged, and we’re not playing along.”

Nancy’s committee obviously has it in for Peter Navarro, and this piece looks at why.

The Democrats say January 6 was a carefully plotted event, staged by Donald Trump himself. Really? Seemed pretty ragtag to us, especially when compared to the raging violence of BLM/Antifa. Derek Hunter at Townhall spares no words.

Jeremy Brown is a Green Beret — served his country for 20 years — and Republican candidate for Congress in Florida. He is also a Jan. 6 political prisoner. He called tonight’s hearing “a well-orchestrated and highly produced lie meant to target the minds and perceptions of the uninformed and misinformed masses with intent to demonize and dehumanize their opposition.”

Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, who was originally appointed to the committee but was pulled by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy when Pelosi refused to seat Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, said McCarthy made the right call. He was asked by Shannon Bream about something Cheney told her Republican colleagues who are, Cheney said, “defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone. But your dishonor will remain.” (Yes, she said that.)

He chose to respond more generally about the committee itself, saying, “We’re kicking minority members off of committees, we’re silencing the voices of entire constituencies, and I can tell you from 10 years of practicing law, the hardest cases are when you need your rules and your procedures to work best. They’re not when you get to change them to fix a narrative, and that’s exactly what has happened with this committee from the beginning. They’re putting pressure on DOJ, they’re getting mad at DOJ … they’re issuing subpoenas and contempt charges without any merit whatsoever.” He says the House isn’t working the way it should because rules and procedures are not being honored.

Breitbart News has a good write-up full of excellent updates and some refreshing tweets. The reviews are in, and they are bad. Also, Jason Miller, featured in a video clip during the hearing, says he was deceptively edited. It also appears they overlaid Trump’s voice onto footage of the Capitol violence. Not a good look for the committee.

At RedState, we see committee members were using teleprompters and Democrats were trying to “temper expectations,” as they really had nothing we don’t already know. More outstanding tweets here as well.

In related news, law professor Jonathan Turley criticized FBI Director Chris Wray for calling the January 6 riot “domestic terrorism,” after the DOJ finally up-charged key Proud Boys leaders on Monday with seditious conspiracy.

And here’s Jim Banks — Kevin McCarthy’s choice for the committee until Pelosi refused to seat him — with eight questions that remain unanswered about January 6. His questions will give you an idea of why she didn’t want him near that committee!

 

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.