January 6 Hearings Live

[Jarhyn]

I'm sorry but everyone here is discussing this as if there are reasons for Trump's behavior that are excusable and we should look for these reasons, be good people, be compassionate, try to help.

There were never enough people on Orange's side to ever win him any office. He won not because he was popular but because there are a lot of people around with the same demagogic, sociopathic tendencies. It's somewhat refreshing to know that he never won the popular vote, that america rejected him, that he only won because we've had to historically compromise with the same type of people. That's basically it.

Not buying it.
Trump may be insane, but he knew goddam well that he lost. He scrounged around for someone - anyone - who would go along with his denial, and found them in the dingy corners of the dark web’s conspiracy theorists. That was sufficient to launch a fleecing campaign that fraudulently gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. Cheato’s eyes were, and remain, wide open.

This is all it is. Orange is a liar and a cheater that tells other liars and cheaters what they want to hear. And those people will use him depending on how far their conscience will let them, same as he does them. Otherwise Orange would be screaming at people from a sidewalk with his message because he truly is mentally ill. He's a conniving, emotional person who connects with same, but sure isn't mentally ill. He's obviously intellectually challenged but he isn't mentally ill.

I agree with most of it but I don't agree that he is not mentally ill. I would rather think his narcissism is a major illness, an aspect of himself that sees how to connive and does that completely outside the awareness of the idiot that just spews Garbage, both objects and aspects of the same general bag of meat but in their own way distinct.

It is clearly an illness, but more exotic and dangerous because the idiocy is real idiocy, but used as a mask for something evil.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Then there is always the idiom, 'follow the money'.

Wick noted that much of the money went to the Save America PAC, which was created on Nov. 9, two days after the election was called for Biden. That PAC then routed $1 million to two separate organizations tied to Trump staffers, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection and $5 million for the company that organized the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the violence at the Capitol, according to Wick.

A portion of this could have been simply about money. The GOP sold their withering souls for the right to choose judges, and then this cash cow arrived. Their bullshit donation website regarding defending the election was outed as being almost exclusively for the GOP and not the election. And Trump supporters kept throwing away their money to a cause that wasn't even their cause... gleefully. The GOP was starting to openly fleece them, and their victims are so lost at this point, they would seemingly lit their own money on fire if the GOP told them to... and with a smile because it'd pwn the libs.

A February 2021 analysis from ABC News found that in the three months that followed the election when Trump and his allies were peddling the conspiracy theory that the race was stolen, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised $280 million. Only $13 million of that was spent on legal expenses, with more than $100 million going toward “various fundraising expenses and advertising efforts aimed at raising even more money.”

The trouble here, is that hundreds of millions could have been squandered, but the government isn't looking into that, and the GOP will gladly dismiss the ABC report as MSM BS.

It truly is impossible to get into the mind of Trump. His image has always been his most important asset and he has taken paths to defend it at all costs. He was selling electoral fraud ahead of the 2016 election. What we do know is that the mental status of Trump supporters for politics is about as polluted and hopeless as it really gets.

 

[ZiprHead]

Why it matters that Trump’s ‘Election Defense Fund’ didn’t exist

After his defeat, Donald Trump urged his supporters to contribute to an Election Defense Fund. The trouble is, there was no actual Election Defense Fund.

www.msnbc.com

Among Donald Trump’s worst qualities is the frequency with which the former president has tried to rip off those who’ve put their trust in him. Indeed, the Republican developed some expertise in this area, running both a fraudulent charitable foundation and a fraudulent “university” that was designed to rip off its “students.”

All of this came to mind this morning, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack held its second hearing, which covered a lot of ground, including a review of how Trump and his team used their election lies to separate the then-president’s followers from their money. NBC News reported:

Committee investigators also traced the money Trump and his allies raised from small donors by stoking election fraud fears, which they said totaled more than $250 million. And while the money was billed as going to “The Official Election Defense Fund,” two Trump campaign staffers testified that the fund did not actually exist and was just a “marketing” tactic.

As one former Trump campaign staffer told the bipartisan congressional committee, “I don’t believe there is actually a fund called the 'Election Defense Fund.'"

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

It truly is impossible to get into the mind of Trump. His image has always been his most important asset and he has taken paths to defend it at all costs. He was selling electoral fraud ahead of the 2016 election. What we do know is that the mental status of Trump supporters for politics is about as polluted and hopeless as it really gets.

It isn't impossible to get into the mind of Trump. Quit casting words that will be taken as possible superlatives by the dumbfucks that voted for him. He has the same mind as Hitler or Stalin or Putin or name any person who cares little about the next human life and is only interested in riches and power. If it's impossible to get into the mind of Trump it's because it's so small as to be nonexistent.

The poor idiots who vote for him do it out of selfish and emotional reasons, they're not people who want to defend democracy, they're just persons in love with a personality. And that quirk of human nature of being in love with a personality and expressing fealty certainly has it's examples throughout history. The people who vote for him are just like him. They are narcissistic. They see themselves as him. They're not people who follow laws, they're people who corrupt laws and want the laws to work only for themselves.

We have a few people around to thank that our country didn't experience a more grave crisis. We need to remember those people, even though some of those people were willing to empower the little monster either with their loyalty, their naivete or their ignorance.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Are the hearings exciting? What is best YouTube channel to watch?

I've seen youtube carrying a few condensed and selected segments along with the live hearings. I'd shoot for the selected excerpts and analyses that use Jan 6 testimony. Liz Cheney's opening statement is one I would not miss.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Are the hearings exciting? What is best YouTube channel to watch?

Today I ended up with the Wasington Post live feed. Last time it was NPR. My brother liked MSNBC for their excellent post- hearing commentary.

 

[ZiprHead]

Analysis: The 14 most compelling lines from today's January 6 committee hearing

For the second time in the last five days, the January 6 committee met publicly to make its case that former President Donald Trump knew he was lying about fraud in the 2020 election -- and did it anyway.

www.cnn.com

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Trump kept milking his supporters for money. He thought he was in a no lose situation in that even if he lost he's was still gonna make a ton of money from all those donors. Hence the lies and the fraud. He knew he lost. There was never any doubt about that, particularly after Fox called Arizona.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

How Trump almost managed to get the Justice Department to side with him.

Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department could not “flip a switch and change the election,” according to notes of the conversation cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I don’t expect you to do that,” Trump responded, according to the notes. “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” The president urged Rosen to “just have a press conference.”

Rosen refused. “We don’t see that,” he told Trump. “We’re not going to have a press conference.”

But because this lie helps with raising bucks, the GOP isn't going to fully and completely sever ties with Trump.

Trump repeatedly went after Rosen and Donoghue, saying they hadn’t pursued voter fraud allegations.
“You two,” Trump said, pointing to the two top Justice Department officials. “You two haven’t done anything. You two don’t care. You haven’t taken appropriate actions. Everyone tells me I should fire you.”
Trump continually circled back to the idea of replacing Rosen with Clark.
“What do I have to lose?” the president asked, according to Donoghue.
“Mr. President, you have a great deal to lose,” Donoghue said he responded. “Is this really how you want your administration to end? You’re going to hurt the country, you’re going to hurt the department, you’re going to hurt yourself, with people grasping at straws on these desperate theories about election fraud, and is this really in anyone’s best interest?”
Donoghue warned Trump that putting Clark in charge would be likely to lead to mass resignations at the Justice Department.
“Well, suppose I do this,” Trump said to Donoghue. “Suppose I replace [Rosen] with [Clark], what would you do?”
“Sir, I would resign immediately,” Donoghue said he responded. “There’s no way I’m serving under this guy [Clark].”
Trump then turned to Steve Engel, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, whom Trump reportedly had considered for a seat on the Supreme Court.
“Steve, you wouldn’t resign, would you?” Trump asked.
“Absolutely I would, Mr. President. You’d leave me no choice,” Engel responded, according to Donoghue’s account. Engel declined to comment.
“And we’re not the only ones,” Donoghue said he told Trump. “You should understand that your entire department leadership will resign. Every [assistant attorney general] will resign. ... Mr. President, these aren’t bureaucratic leftovers from another administration. You picked them. This is your leadership team. You sent every one of them to the Senate; you got them confirmed. What is that going to say about you, when we all walk out at the same time?”
Donoghue then told Trump that Clark had no qualification to be attorney general: “He’s never been a criminal attorney. He’s never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. He’s never been in front of a grand jury, much less a trial jury.”
Clark objected.
“Well, I’ve done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that,” Clark said, according to Donoghue’s deposition.
“That’s right,” Donoghue said he responded. “You’re an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill.”

 

[Ford]

When oh when will the indictments come?

Hopefully late October/early November.

That would actually be very bad timing. Proof that it was all a "partisan witch hunt."

Indictments need to come in August at the earliest, and September at the latest. Dropping the hammer a week or two before people head to the polls will only energize the Trump base and play into the narrative that the whole thing is about stopping Fragilego Mussolini from returning in triumph.

And honestly...why the ever-loving fuck did we have to wait for Congress to find out all this stuff? If the Department of Justice were doing their job, then instead of them sticking a misdemeanor trespassing charge on Jedidiah Redneck for taking a selfie in Pelosi's office they'd be bringing the heat on folks in the White House who were plotting the actual coup.

 

[Elixir]

why the ever-loving fuck did we have to wait for Congress to find out all this stuff? If the Department of Justice were doing their job, then instead of them sticking a misdemeanor trespassing charge on Jedidiah Redneck for taking a selfie in Pelosi's office they'd be bringing the heat on folks in the White House who were plotting the actual coup.

And the very hue and cry you anticipate would be happening now. By October they’d be carrying battle flags.
DOJ is probably more than willing to sacrifice the 2022 elections on the altar of impeccable “fairness” in the hope of setting the record straight by 2024. The 1/6 committee can be disbanded by a newly seated Republican Congress, but the DOJ cannot.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Despite McConnell backing the election results, the GOP has done a real effective job of making this look like a political witch hunt, at least to the middle of the roaders. Indictments (which are needed) will likely have no impact on the election, as only convictions would really mean anything.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Does the DoJ not have all the information they need already? It's not like they're sitting watching these hearings and waiting to make a decision based on what they see over the next couple weeks. I would think the DoJ will do its job when they are ready to do their job, period. But indicting a former president would be unprecedented to say the least. My only guess is they are allowing the public to have all the info made available to them before indicting Trump. And this will come soon if at all.

As far as upcoming elections go, I would defer to James Carville. Unless prices are coming down by the end of summer, particularly gas, nothing else matters. And we're almost guaranteed to go into a recession in the next 6-36 months, so sayeth the treasury yield curve.
So Dems will be fucked in the 2022's due to ongoing inflation. And fucked again in 2024 as we will be in a recession. By then, we'll have a whole host of creeps running the show because people can't see beyond their wallets.

 

[Gun Nut]

A majority now think he had no real role in the [Jan 6] events.

That is not what the article said. It says that 55% of Americans polled think the President either had no role, or only a partial role.
Of course there would be very few people that think Trump single-handedly, with no advice, suggestions, help, or knowledge from any other person at all, orchestrated to the letter every single action of every single person. We factually know that many others were involved. I imagine that nearly 100% of that 55% chose, "Partially responsible".
Add to that the people that think he is a highly competent evil mastermind that had no help in plotting and executing the insurrection, and maybe closer to 2/3 of America believes that Trump is guilty of Treason.

 

[Gospel]

Trump is the new OJ. The only difference is the glove actually fits and he'll still get away with it.

 

[Patooka]

Trump is the new OJ. The only difference is the glove actually fits and he'll still get away with it.

That is a depressingly accurate analogy.

 

[AdamWho]

If you want to watch the full hearings without a bunch of useless commentary search YouTube for

January 6th hearings live

 

[SLD]

A majority now think he had no real role in the [Jan 6] events.

That is not what the article said. It says that 55% of Americans polled think the President either had no role, or only a partial role.
Of course there would be very few people that think Trump single-handedly, with no advice, suggestions, help, or knowledge from any other person at all, orchestrated to the letter every single action of every single person. We factually know that many others were involved. I imagine that nearly 100% of that 55% chose, "Partially responsible".
Add to that the people that think he is a highly competent evil mastermind that had no help in plotting and executing the insurrection, and maybe closer to 2/3 of America believes that Trump is guilty of Treason.

I hope you’re right.

 

[Swammerdami]

Add to that the people that think he is a highly competent evil mastermind that had no help in plotting and executing the insurrection, and maybe closer to 2/3 of America believes that Trump is guilty of Treason.

I hope you’re right.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This is the stuff that is incredible.

Donnie Jr's girlfriend was paid $60,000 to introduce her beau at a stop the steal election event... in DC... right before the riot.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraiser for former president Donald Trump and the fiancee of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke for less than three minutes at the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol riot.

For her appearance, she was compensated $60,000 by Turning Point Action, a conservative nonprofit led by Charlie Kirk, according to two people with knowledge of her compensation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Meanwhile...

Eight days before the Jan. 6 rally, Fancelli wired $650,000 to several organizations that helped stage and promote the event. The Washington Post previously reported that these groups included Women for America First, a nonprofit that helped organize the rally, and $150,000 to the nonprofit arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which paid for a robocall touting a march to “call on Congress to stop the steal.”

So, they were raising hundreds of millions for the Stop the Steal... and they needed someone to pay for their rally in DC on January 6th?

What makes this become 'odd', is that it presents its own dichotomy. It implies that the likes of Donnie Jr know this is a fraud... while at the same time, Donald Trump has convinced himself of his birthright. Granted, he never really called to beg the SoS of GA or the GOP House Legislature leaders to look at the votes... he asked them to effectively make it up.