For several weeks the outcome of the House Probe into the January 6 insurrection has telegraphed the probable outcome of the hearings: the criminal referral for ex-president
Trump for his multiple roles in organizing events culminating in an assault on the nation’s Capitol building.
Monday’s final committee hearing will make clear what it believes is warranted. Without the power to indict, Congress makes a referral to the Department of Justice, which has its own probe into the insurrection. Trump can and will brag he is the only president to have accomplished this as a badge of honor from the “deep state” that only exists in his mind.
Multiple expectations are apparent. Those who believe that Trump is, was, has always been either a crook or conman or both, will feel a moment of vindication that their sense of right and wrong is intact.
Those who have steadfastly believed Trump’s claims of a stolen election will be outraged, yet encouraged as media sources that have embraced the Big Lie remain supportive and committed to disbelieving anything negative about the 45th president. Their anger will be directed at Democrats and at any media that has stopped providing automatic support for Trump’s behavior.
We are talking about you: Fox News!
Hosts on Fox talk shows and on other right-wing-oriented media are going to have a difficult time, especially at those organizations whose owners have already made clear they no longer support Trump.
We are talking about you: Fox News!
The right-wing will turn its venom onto Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republicans on the panel who put their oath of office and sense of decency ahead of party loyalty. Can’t say as much for most of the other 267 Republicans in Congress.
The recent midterm election suggests that moderation is more popular than outlandish conspiracy theories. But not by that much.
After the public hearing on Monday comes a great deal of noise about what it means. The public report will be released Wednesday and is likely to be a best seller.
In the two years after losing the presidential election, Trump has not moderated his position, but then moderation is not in his emotional repertoire. MAGA voters continue to believe the election was stolen. The just concluded midterm election suggests that America has adopted a clearer view of his behavior and fitness for office.
This coming week will be dominated by an analysis of what the House report says, what it verifies, and how it might even contradict current public knowledge. While multiple media outlets have touched on many aspects of who, how, and why regarding Trump, new and shocking information will be revealed.
Lawyers on both sides will parse all of the House documents finding that some of the electronic messages exchanged between the White House, politicians, and plotters are explicit in their intent based on fuzzy conspiracies hatched solely in the desire to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
With the Committee’s work added to what DOJ already has means, Trump continues to complain about the recent appointment of Jack Smith as a special prosecutor. His reputation is as a no-nonsense lawyer who has prosecuted war criminals. Top echelons of the DOJ are acquainted with the Mueller probe which shadow-boxed with Trump and his allies in 2017.
If November 2022 was a bad month for Trump, December 2022 is descending into farce as little has gone his way in courts or Congress. His campaign sends as many as five emails a day asking for donations, offering matches that exceed 1,000 Percent. Just before the House Committee’s scheduled final public hearing, Trump then did what he does best—-create a flamboyant distraction.
This time it was the launch of electronic trading cards featuring cartoon images of himself, including one as Superman. They were designed to look like cricket sports player trading cards but with a big difference. Each costs $99 and is NFT, (non-fungible tokens) to be traded on an exchange like crypto coins. The company running this has Trump’s endorsement, for which they have doubtless paid handsomely. Claims are that all 44,000 NFTs were sold. Of course to whom is totally opaque.
The trading cards gambit shocked many Republicans at all levels, many calling it childish, demeaning, and indicative of how far from reality Trump has fallen. Recent polling shows he trails Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the possible GOP choice for the presidential nomination in 2024.
Republicans have been in disarray since national elections didn’t produce a MAGA success. On the contrary, 14 candidates picked and promoted by Trump lost an election, while only two won. Republicans gained only a four-vote margin to control the larger House of Representatives, while President Biden’s Democratic party retained control of the Senate and made progress in governorships and legislative races across the nation. Rarely does a first-term president’s party do well in midterm elections?
Trump’s legal problems have increased since then in multiple courts. Concurrently another House committee has finally gotten Trump’s federal tax returns for a six-year period and is likely to make them public before Democrats lose control there.
Democrats in the House introduced a bill designed to clear up any ambiguity in the restrictions imposed by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, written in 1868 after pardons let the rebellious Confederates back into public office. It reads,” No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath….to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
A Trump conviction makes him ineligible to hold any government office.
Adding to his woes, Trump will find out Tuesday if his federal tax returns will be made public. The Supreme Court refused him a delay to stop the House Ways and Means Committee from getting them as provided by law. Since 2018 Trump had refused. Republicans will control the committee in the new Congress, making it imperative that Democrats release them now or it will not happen.
Trump’s political career choices are narrowing. The man who loves Gold is tarnished by events in which he participated. He can plead in emails that “THIS IS A WITCH HUNT,” and “We are living in a VERY CORRUPT COUNTRY.” Asking his Core supporters, ‘Are you ready to SAVE AMERICA with Donald J. Trump in 2024 won’t be enough to restore his luster.
By Kenneth Tiven
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