Trump's Records: A Few Pay Attention to Jan. 6th Committee Probe as Bidenflation Bites, Scholars Say
10:23 GMT 25.12.2021 (Updated: 13:36 GMT 06.08.2022)
© REUTERS / ELIZABETH FRANTZ
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Former President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on 23 December to block the National Archives from handing his White House records over to the Democratic-dominated House select committee investigating the 6 January protests in DC. What's behind the panel's effort to lay their hands on the ex-president's efforts and will they succeed?
The 6 January House select committee wants to get documents related to the events surrounding the Capitol riot, including emails, social media messages, phone and visitor logs, and any videos and photos of events Donald Trump participated in. Former President Trump objected to the effort, citing executive privilege, a legal doctrine allowing the executive branch to maintain confidential communications from the legislative and judicial branches.
However, Biden's White House rejected Trump lawyers' request for withholding the records from the committee in October, claiming that in that case "an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States." In early December, the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the records should be turned over to the select committee.
6th Jan. Committee is 'Partisan & Anti-Trump'
Should the House select committee gain access to Trump’s White House records, "they will only cherry-pick documents out of context and use the information to attempt to shore up their insane ‘Insurrection Conspiracy’ theory," deems Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist.
However, "the resulting fantasy will only be trusted by leftists," according to him. While the Democrats wanted it to be a modern day Watergate Committee, the committee's probe has already been pushed off the front pages, Shannon notes. "The lack of any gun, much less a smoking gun, has meant it has little relevance and less coverage," the political commentator emphasises.
"As everyone knows, the January 6th Committee is a partisan, or more accurately an anti-Trump, exercise [that] is determined to blame all the illegality that occurred during the Capitol Riot on Donald Trump," echoes Dr. Nicholas Waddy, political analyst and associate professor of History at SUNY Alfred.
The committee's major purpose from the inception has been to provide a partisan political advantage to Democrats, according to the professor. However, the Democratic-led panel has failed to discover any "byzantine conspiracy" to overthrow the government or prove that Trump – who always counselled his supporters to remain peaceful – was complicit in fanning the protests, he notes. Moreover, the Insider's searchable database of all 727 people charged in the DC incident by 15 December indicates that none of them have been charged with "insurrection".
"There's no "there" there, as the saying goes," Waddy says. "And Democrats persist in their partisan witch hunt."
17 December 2021, 14:00 GMT
Last week the committee was caught red-handed in changing a message forwarded by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows so that it sounded as a guidance to then-VP Mike Pence to "throw out [electoral] votes that he unilaterally deem[ed] unconstitutional".
The panel admitted that it shortened the message and wrongfully attributed it to Jordan (who simply forwarded it), while it was actually written by Washington attorney and former Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph Schmitz. Prior to this, the committee made false accusations against witness Bernard Kerik, a former New York Police Commissioner. After conservative media outlet Just the News busted the lawmakers, the panel wrote to Kerik's lawyer, admitting that it had made an error.
Originally, the Democratic Party sought to establish a "6 January Commission," akin to the 9/11 panel which was set up on 27 November 2002 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the 11 September terror attacks. However, the US Senate blocked the Dems' endeavour as a "partisan stunt" that duplicated law enforcement and congressional efforts underway.
After that House Democrats announced the creation of a select committee to investigate the 6 January riots in DC. However, they barred the Republicans' picks and tapped two GOP members known as outspoken critics of Trump and his supporters. This prompted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to denounce the Democratic-led 6 January probe as a "sham process."
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Why Only A Few Pay Attention to 6th Jan. Committee's Probe
"The partisan January 6th Committee will prolong its deliberations as long as possible to maximise their political impact," Waddy expects. "They will spin innocuous statements in personal communications and White House records as 'bombshells' that prove a conspiracy to overthrow the government. They will equate peaceful protest with organised rebellion. They will denigrate all Republicans as insurrectionists and traitors for doing what they regularly do themselves: question the integrity of the electoral process."
However, none of this, however, will have a significant impact on the 2022 elections, because "the performance of the Democrats in running the country will be the only salient issue in those elections," according to Waddy.
The academic highlights that "few are paying attention to the January 6th Committee, except for journalists and diehard leftists," while conservatives and independents have tuned it out.
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25 November 2021, 19:34 GMT
Furthermore, what really concerns Americans today is that inflation is hitting hard, echoes Michael Shannon: "Increasing prices, combined with some product unavailability at any price is news at any time," he says. "When gas hits $5.00/gal. even the Prius–driving media starts to notice. Inflation is finally getting the coverage it deserves."
According to Shannon, "the meagre ‘results’ of the ‘investigation’ may appear in a few hysterical Lincoln Project commercials… but the rest of the electorate won’t notice."
"The January 6 Committee mill grinds long, but it grinds nothing," the political commentator concludes.
