As the Jan. 6 committee hearings continue, truth is emerging about former President Trump’s actions, awareness and arrogance on the fateful day that our nation was under siege. Many Republicans in office have been embarrassed by the findings of these hearings. But the one GOP leader who should feel the most shame and regret apparently feels nothing of the sort. Trump continues to speak falsely, all for his personal gain.
The U.S. House select committee’s investigation of the political insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, has featured increasingly startling and profound revelations. What’s been made patently clear is this: Donald Trump was fully aware of the illegality of his “stolen election” claims but continued anyway. Everyone told him — from his closest aides to his daughter/senior adviser Ivanka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
Barr, the senior-most government attorney in the country at the time, told Trump that his scheme of election fraud was incorrect and illegal. What did the president do? He ignored the direction so completely that Barr resigned during the “stolen election” frenzy, just days before the Capitol siege. Thanks to the dogged House investigation, we know that Barr said during his testimony: “I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit. I didn’t want to be a part of it, and that’s one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did.” Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner both have confirmed that they didn’t believe the election-fraud story and attempted to persuade Trump accordingly.
Small revelations from these hearings are resounding just as loudly as the gargantuan truths. This moment in particular won’t stop resonating in my mind: Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien referred to himself and the few others attempting to speak reasonably about the situation as “Team Normal” ! That brings the danger home in a way that major testimonies cannot. The small bits of testimony and vivid imagery tell a story that rings with the awful truth.
One particular image that most disturbs me is of Capitol security, weapons drawn, protecting the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, doors barricaded with heavy furniture. And the image of our elected officials huddled in the balcony as if they were under attack … no, wait — they were under attack. That’s the horrible fact of the matter. They were under attack by the mob that our then-president had rallied that very morning with these words: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
They sure took him at his word, didn’t they? Mere hours later, that angry mob stormed the Capitol and made history of the worst kind. Perhaps the worst image of all shows the makeshift gallows with the dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in the distance. We’ve known since that horrible day that the mob was shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” but finding out that Trump “reacted with approval” to the chants? How can this have happened in the United States of America?
Yet another mind-boggling detail uncovered by these hearings is that Trump scammed supporters out of $250 million for a fraud fund that didn’t even exist. That’s why he’s continued espousing claims that have been proven false again and again. He has 250 million reasons to keep the grift going — and that’s horrifying and unsurprising at the same time. As our country reels from the hard truths revealed by the House select committee, what has Trump said? Here’s what he said earlier this month: “January 6 was not simply a protest. It represented the greatest movement in the history of our country to make America great again.”
We must hope that logic and reason will rule the day, and there are promising signs. Trump’s once-mighty chokehold on the Republican party seems to be weakening. According to a recent report by The Hill, “Trump’s influence is waning.” It also appears that Trump’s power may have been trumped up, so to speak — that the candidates he’s so proud to say he got into office would’ve most likely won without his endorsement. Many political pundits are questioning the value of the supposed “Trump bump.”
How can the party of Abraham Lincoln continue to accept Trump’s lies and danger? Lincoln kept our country whole during the Civil War, famously saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” How can the party of Ronald Reagan tolerate the unfathomable harm that Trump brought to our country? We must hope that the horrors of Jan. 6 will be fully investigated and those responsible held accountable. Perhaps we should consider the words of President Ronald Reagan — held in the highest esteem by many of the very rioters who stormed the Capitol, ironically enough: “Peace is not absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
Bill Freeman
Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County
