Connecting The Dots
The penultimate episode.
For those of us who watch the occasional television drama, we all know the importance of just such a program. After a season-long buildup, the second-to-last episode of any decent television drama will be the one where all the pieces fall into place. The culmination of the big trial occurs. The crime family makes a critical decision that will set new wheels into motion. The relationship that has been slowly crumbling finally falls apart. This storytelling device is no accident and is rooted in the idea that after a big, climatic moment viewers then need time to wind down with a much less intense episode that feels more like a resolution. No matter what the genre, something big always happens and inevitably the season finale feels like a let down because of the sheer intensity of the previous episode. But it is that penultimate episode that keeps people talking throughout the summer.
The January 6th Committee has been telling an excellent story. And like any good television drama, they have set themselves up to have a critical second-to-last episode of the season. Because Democrats, believe it or not, know how to tell a story and they know their audience. From the very first moments of the very first hearing, Chairman Bennie Thompson made clear that the committee would go through, piece-by-piece, the actions of Donald Trump and would show him to be the clear instigator of the January 6th insurrection. Each hearing so far has been building to this point starting with footage of the day in question. Since that first hearing, the message has been how Donald Trump knew he lost and knew he had no path moving forward. We know that those who participated on January 6th did so for Trump. But we still don't know the exact relationship between those that assaulted the Capitol and Donald Trump himself.
That all changes today.
Today, we learn about the exact relationship between Trump and his mob. We learn about who was on the inside with the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. We learn how folks like Roger Stone, and Steve Bannon, and Michael Flynn connected with these groups and what they asked them to do for Donald Trump. We learn how and why these groups stormed with Capitol with a clear political agenda. Who's orders were they acting on? Why did they target Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence? And why did they call off the assault exactly when Trump told them to do so?
These questions are all critical because they provide us with the missing piece of the puzzle: intent. What did Donald Trump intend for his minions to do? Who did he speak to in the run up to January 6th that convinced him that it would be such a historic day? Why was he so excited to go to the Capitol and so angered when it couldn't happen that he allegedly assaulted a Secret Service agent? Why did he wait so long that it was Mike Pence and not himself that called in the National Guard? And why was he never whisked away to a secure location when the insurrection was occurring?
Today's hearing might not answer all of the questions. But it will answer a lot. And it will set the stage for the final scheduled hearing where it will all come together. What's revealed today will likely be massive bombshell after massive bombshell that will unquestionably show Donald Trump's intent to instigate an insurrection on January 6th, 2021. It will be unlike anything we've witnessed before: a United States president actively working with violent White nationalists to overturn a free and fair election. In short, it's a real-life, real-time television episode that none of us will ever forget.
This is your seventh January 6th Committee hearing open thread, penultimate episode edition.