Get the popcorn and Red Vines (Twizzlers in the case of the East Coast), put on your dancing shoes, and get ready for the first of the hearings on January 6, 2021, on primetime, which will be broadcast live on Thursday night at 8 P.M. Eastern on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. Fox News is choosing to keep its usual programming, which is logical since the evening programs typically draw more than three million viewers every week. There is no word yet on whether there will be a halftime performance or whether Beyonce has agreed to take part in the show.
Don't plan on a screening of “Top Gun: Maverick,” as this hearing is much more entertaining. You won't get bored. Reportedly, the committee is relying on the expertise of the former ABC News president, James Goldston, to conduct the hearing as “a blockbuster investigative special” that will be “raw enough so that skeptical journalists will find the material fresh and chew over the disclosures in future coverage.”
Who's set to be in this spectacular of Hollywood style? The committee has kept a tight lid regarding its witnesses, but rumors have it that videotaped evidence from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump will be presented. It's also likely that they'll show long, unreleased videos of the happenings in and around the Capitol.
The question is, do they have any new evidence, and will it implicate Donald Trump? Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated the possibility that “a great deal” of new evidence will be provided. The congressman has failed to keep the promises he made in the past, so it's difficult to trust him.
Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig is definitely thrilled. “I think, Nicolle, you are going to see some bombshells that day,” Leonnig told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. “I appreciate the people who are reporting the curtain-raiser to be held for the upcoming hearings. The one that is focused and directed at Donald Trump, I understand that it will contain lots of Donald Trump's words reported by witnesses, or told through Donald Trump himself, people who were on his shoulders. So you'll see kind of split-screen. What was going on in the Capitol simultaneously with what was going on inside the White House with Donald Trump.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is making big promises, claiming that these hearings are going to “blow the roof off the House.” This is an impressive (and scary) claim. We'll test his claims to see if they're true.
Another concern is: why are they holding this hearing? (They're holding additional hearings in the near future, perhaps as many as eight; however, they will not be broadcast in primetime. “Be still, my beating heart.”) It appears the hearings are not much more than an attempt by Democrats to score some points in the political arena before they receive the criticism that will be coming in the midterm elections.
That's about how you sum the whole thing up. MSNBC isn't so sure and has asked its own rhetorical question: “How necessary is all of this?” The most profound response: “By some measures, little matters more.” Say that to moms who are trying to find baby formula.
In spite of the breathless news headlines and enthusiastic anchors, these hearings appear as nothing more than an exercise in political theater designed and staged to increase the temperature of the nation again as well as to “get” Donald Trump. It's difficult to imagine any massive amounts of new information being released due to the fact that a) if such evidence was available then it's likely to have been leaked, and b) we've already seen numerous pieces of footage and evidence from the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The major difference is that, unlike the impeachment trial, there won't be any Republican opposition, as the Trump-hater Liz Cheney (“R”-WY) and the adolescent Adam Kinzinger (“R”-IL) are the only Republican members on the committee.
We can’t condone the actions of a few that took place on January 6, and those who harmed police need to take responsibility. But how this over-hyped committee hearing will benefit the nation when we have many other things to think about, such as inflation, war, and soaring crime, is a mystery. Not many people wake up and immediately begin to worry about January 6, 2021.
The Democrats and their media allies are putting a great deal of money on the line to achieve this, and if the program doesn't offer blockbuster news and impressive ratings, it'll be viewed as an utter failure. There's a good chance that they'll end up with eggs all over their faces.
