187 Minutes

of stone cold inaction

Tonight's January 6 committee hearing will be all about the timeline & Trump. 187 minutes of inaction. Trump fiddling, or in this case, watching television, while the country burned.

Much of the country has repressed the overwhelming, raw emotion it experienced on January 6. That emotion was strong enough in the moment that it led even Lindsey Graham to say, “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.” The committee’s job tonight is to jolt the country back into the moment.

We already know a lot about the 187 minutes during which Trump did absolutely nothing to quell the violence and stop the threat to our country, Congress, and his own vice president.

187 minutes is a long time. It’s over 3 hours. I can just about knit a simple hat, using an aran or bulky gauge yarn, in that amount of time. (This hearing might be a good time to knit a new pussy hat if you’ve misplaced yours.)

Tonight, we’ll likely see key facts plotted on a timeline that emphasizes Trump’s failure to act despite everything he knew and saw. It’s an extraordinary dereliction of duty. The committee faces the challenge of driving it home to voters in a way that sticks with a notoriously fickle electorate through November and beyond. The committee seems to be having some success, recent polling shows Democrats with an advantage on the generic ballot this fall—that could lead to a shocker in a midterm election year if it holds up.

It's clear the committee is also trying to reach Merrick Garland with its message of urgency, and that it’s having some success. In a speech yesterday, the Attorney General gave a nod to those who’ve expressed concern about whether DOJ is up to the task, saying, “we have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election.” More thoughts on how that translates into action near the bottom of this newsletter.

So, get your popcorn ready for the season 1 finale of the January 6 committee hearings. And if you can, invite your Uncle Dave, who’s still not convinced of Trump’s perfidy, over for a bite to eat and a spot of hearing watching tonight.

Here’s a little context to help you get set for tonight:

Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction start at 1:10 pm January 6, when he finished up his speech on the Ellipse by whipping the crowd into a frenzy, exhorting, “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol.” With that faux promise, the mob, which Cassidy Hutchinson testified Trump knew had armed elements, was launched.

Trump returned to the White House, where according to video that committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) tweeted this morning, showing snippets of testimony from witnesses including White House Counsel Pat Cippollone, General Keith Kellogg, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Trump’s executive assistant Molly Michael, Trump spent the rest of the day watching TV in the dining room.

At 2:24 Trump sent a tweet attacking Mike Pence. In earlier hearings, we’ve seen video that the crowd reacted to the tweet with chants of “hang Mike Pence.” The committee has the opportunity here to set that tweet against the backdrop of everything Trump knew about the threat level at that time and the danger he nonetheless placed Pence in. That should be enough to convince even Republicans, minus the die-hard Trump no-matter-what-crowd, that the country can’t run the risk of returning the twice impeached former president or his supporters to office—any office, at any level, anywhere in the country. 

Both of the hearing’s live witnesses, Sarah Matthews, the former deputy White House Press secretary and Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security advisor, should drive that message home. They were on duty in the White House on January 6, and both resigned that day, saying they made the decision after reading the 2:24 tweet. In addition, Matthews and Pottinger were well-placed, high-level White House employees, with proximity to the president and his chief advisors. A big question mark hanging over this hearing is whether they will be able to testify to things Trump said, a comment acknowledging his electoral loss or desire to see the mob succeed. Direct testimony might perk up some ears down the street at the Justice Department.

The 187-minute period ends with Trump’s taped message from the Rose Garden at 4:17 pm, where he tells the crowd that has overrun the Capitol that he loves them, that they’re very special, and that they should go home. Lukewarm. Weak sauce at best. Truly a wonder he didn’t continue on to tell them they were the biggest crowd to ever overrun the Capitol, bigger, even, than during the war of 1812.

What prevented Trump from ending the violence sooner? Who finally convinced him to send the mob home and how? And what about his statement the following day, where we’re told the committee may have outtakes of Trump stumbling and fumbling with the script before his handlers got an acceptable take? (Interesting note that this statement was taped on the White House lawn using an iPhone, rather than in front of the press crew that’s always on standby for the Oval Office. The latter would have captured any “warm up” efforts by the president). The questions that the committee may have found answers to about these moments could well be the most compelling parts of the hearing.

What else should we be focused on as we head into the hearing?

●     There will be more of Pat  Cipollone’s testimony, but on video. Will the White House counsel who witnesses have suggested was concerned everyone was going to jail ever explain to the country he took an oath to serve why he thought that?

●     What about the gaps in the White House call logs, which made it look like Trump wasn’t on the phone during the 187 minutes, when we know that’s not the case? We know this because Utah Senator Mike Lee said Trump accidentally called his number, looking for Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who Lee handed his phone to. Has the committee pieced together an understanding of who Trump spoke with? Will we hear from any of those people? And who decided to purge the call logs?

●     Will we ever learn more about whether there’s a nexus between (1) Trump’s deck stacking at the Department of Defense, where he named a new acting Secretary and three other high ranking officials after the election and (2) the December 18 meeting between legal luminary Sidney Powell, the Overstock guy and others, where using the Department of Defense to commandeer voting machines as a precursor to announcing martial law was under discussion until Cipollone intervened? This is one of my biggest outstanding questions. If this is the season finale, maybe this will be the cliff hanger the committee leaves us with?

●     And of course, questions about the Secret Service destruction of text messages linger. There is reporting today that the DHS IG has opened a criminal investigation. We don’t know if the committee has any light to shed at this point.

How long is 187 minutes?

Hopefully it’s long enough for people to understand how critical accountability is. That includes DOJ. Trump was desperate to hold onto power, even if it meant ignoring the votes of American citizens and overturning the election. He was willing to use corrupt pressure at every level—from state election officials and party leaders all the way to the Oval Office—to do it. There’s a clear need for accountability for everyone involved in the scheme, if we’re going to be a country with a functioning, respected, rule of law.

I’ll see you after the hearing ends on MSNBC. We’ll know more then.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

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