Trump Furiously Issues Long, Tedious, Whiny Response To 1/6 Hearing

Donald Trump put out an exhausting and whiny statement in response to the Congressional hearings. It is especially hard to take, given the revelations already made.

But it’s infuriating at a far deeper level, too.

The Democrats were so keen to have Republicans join them in an investigation of January 6th that the Democrats agreed to all six Republican demands, only to have the GOP pull out anyway. Kevin McCarthy demanded an investigation on January 11th, 2021, then led a vote against a fully bipartisan investigation. When Pelosi announced she was forming a committee anyway and asked McCarthy to nominate members, he included two representatives that most Democrats believe are material witnesses.  McCarthy even announced the GOP would form its own committee. It has not.

And the Republicans made all those difficult maneuvers precisely because they wanted to give Trump the opportunity to write, as he did yesterday:

The January 6th Unselect Committee is disgracing everything we hold sacred about our Constitution. If they had any real evidence, they’d hold real hearings with equal representation. They don’t, so they use the illegally-constituted committee to put on a smoke and mirrors show for the American people, in a pitiful last-ditch effort to deceive the American public…again.

Our Constitution protects the right to confront accusers, honors the right to fair trials, and holds the right to legal representation as paramount in our justice system. Equal representation and the opportunity to offer rebuttal evidence is fundamental in our legal process.

All of the above is true with respect to a criminal trial. Ideally, Trump will have all those rights during a criminal trial soon enough.

The Committee has obliterated those rights and is making a mockery of justice. They have refused to allow their political opponents to participate in this process, and have excluded all exculpatory witnesses, and anyone who so easily points out the flaws in their story.

The Democrats begged the Republicans to join the process. They refused to join precisely because they wanted Trump to be able to write that sentence so that all Trumpers can feel the inner victimhood course through their veins.

Trump then unleashed over ten pages of bullsh*t (as characterized by Bill Barr), incidents Trump alleges happened, many of them taken from the unintentional comedy 2000 Mules. It is deeply offensive because he seems to believe that if all this is true (and he knows it’s not, per the evidence yesterday), then it justifies the attack on democracy. Al Gore knew that you do not attack democracy even when the SCOTUS orders Florida to stop counting votes.

Perhaps most interestingly, Trump strongly hinted that he is going to run again. I wrote yesterday that the GOP is paralyzed with abject fear that Trump will announce that he’s running in 2024 prior to the 2022 mid-terms as a means of getting a leg up on DeSantis (the stated theory). The GOP is terrified that such a move makes the entirety of the 2022 mid-term another referendum on Trump, another election about Trump, and that he’s worn out his welcome even among many Republicans. The statement pours grease all over these firey concerns:

This is merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency. The reason I am leading in the polls is because Democrats have caused record inflation, sky high gas prices, energy dependence on our adversaries, the education system is in crisis, illegal aliens are invading our border, the supply chain has crippled our way of life, parents can’t get baby formula, mandates have crippled businesses, and our way of life has been crushed by government regulations. The United States is being destroyed.

The Democrats know that I would correct all of this, and they are doing
everything in their power to stop me – but we can’t be stopped. We have to Save America.

Despite the laudatory work the Committee has done and continues to do, many of us have spent well over a year criticizing the same Democrats for unforgivably dragging their feet on this. Yes, the Democrats needed to put their programs in place, Build Back Better, infrastructure, COVID, all of it. But it should have been done right alongside investigating January 6th, they did gun reform while presenting the findings. The investigation could have begun in a bipartisan manner starting on February 1st, 2021.  The Democrats took far too long, shamefully too long, to put this together, precisely because it allows Trump to make the argument he is making above; that the Democrats are trying to stop his comeback. Many will listen to Trump and believe he has a point. Democrats could have hammered him as he slinked away in 2021.

Indeed, while many political operatives, including those in the GOP, believe that Trump will announce his 2024 candidacy prior to the mid-terms in order to put DeSantis in his rearview mirror, I’m of the opinion that Trump will do it as part of a defense to any criminal charge that may soon come about, whether it is out of Fulton Co. Georgia, the classified documents, the wire fraud as proven yesterday, or seditious conspiracy. If Trump is to be charged, he wants to be charged as a candidate running for president, the charge becomes “proof” that the Democrats are afraid to let him run.

This is not genius insight, and I’ve been writing about it for a year.

Trump’s statement sets out his four-pronged attack in defense: One, the country is in terrible shape, and thus, January 6th doesn’t matter. Two, all investigations are political, and he has had no chance to rebut any of them thus the investigation doesn’t matter. Three, anything that did happen on January 6th is justifiable because he won. Four, he’s running again, and all of this is nothing more than an attempt to stop him.

It is insanity and should have no impact. Perhaps it won’t. Yet it’s far more powerful than it should be and part of that is on the very same Democrats doing such good work. OH, and Merrick Garland is “watching.”

Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.