We’ve never seen anything like this
Because it was such a nation altering bombshell, most major political scandals since Watergate have been popularly placed within the context of Watergate. Each new scandal is the “biggest scandal since Watergate” or “this could be even bigger than Watergate!”
As these January 6th public hearings begin to play out it’s entirely possible that, rather than Donald Trump’s election plot being compared to Watergate, future political scandals will instead be compared to Trump’s election plot.
Last night’s hearing alone set the bar incredibly high, with Trump’s own Attorney General Bill Barr testifying that Trump knew all along that he’d legitimately lost the election, Trump’s own daughter Ivanka Trump testifying that Barr was correct, and Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner testifying like a clown.
There were major revelations such as House Republican Scott Perry and unnamed colleagues having sought pardons from Trump for their attempts at overthrowing the election – a clear indication to the average viewer that everyone involved in the election overthrow plot knew it was a criminal plot.
After all, these public hearings are aimed squarely at the average nonpartisan American in the middle, who came into these hearings with only minimal knowledge of Trump’s role in January 6th, and only ended up watching because they were curious about the hype or because they were flipping channels and happened to find the hearings on every network TV channel.
It was also abundantly clear why Fox News didn’t want to air these hearings; their star host Sean Hannity was exposed as having tried and failed to convince Donald Trump to tell the Capitol invaders to stand down. This was already publicly available knowledge, but the key is that this primetime public hearing is pushing the information out to the general public.
The average American is going to come away from these hearings with the clear understanding that these Capitol attackers weren’t merely “tourists” or protesters who got carried away. They were led by far right domestic terrorist groups including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The whole thing was plotted out in advance. This was a Trump-led coup attempt against the United States. These public hearings are largely about public perception, and the public perception is going to be that these people committed treason – and Trump told them to do it.
