It began badly. The January 6th congressional committee swore in two witnesses last Thursday. One was former Mike Pence legal counsel Greg Jacob, the other was retired federal judge and conservative constitutional expert, Michael Luttig. When Luttig was first questioned by committee chair, Bennie Thompson, his brain appeared to lock up much like James Stockdale's did decades ago. That excruciating episode occurred during what was supposed to be a vice presidential debate. In Stockdale's case it proved to be the single most awkward and embarrassing moment to ever air on national TV.
Things did not immediately improve. When Luttig was asked a second question the cameras showed him with his chin down on the knot of his tie with his eyes closed. There was a painfully long pause during which the retired judge didn't move. The initial reaction here was, My God, he has died.
Judge Luttig awoke from the momentary coma and responded with halting words, as if he was writing each one down before speaking them. From then on he looked to recover and although he chose what to say with aching deliberation sometimes, he did say it and by the end of the session his condemnation of Donald Trump and his chief legal advisor, John Eastman was brutal.
And who, might you ask is this John Eastman who figured so prominently in the proceedings? Dr. Eastman, is a law professor at the University of Chicago. He became Trump's chief of voodoo constitutional law through a simple process of elimination. Toward the end, outside of the notorious sot, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman was the only legal mind who would tell the then President what he wanted to hear--that there was still a viable path to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
There were a couple of problems though. First, that path was utterly insane and illegal--although neither of those impediments have ever worried Donald J. Trump. Second, it hinged on one man and one man alone, Vice President Mike Pence. Eastman had posited the Vice President could intervene in the certification of the election, one of two ways. He could throw out the electors of several battle ground states then replace them with alternative ones, a bunch of hand picked rabid Trump supporters. Or he could send the election results back to those states to hopefully have the outcomes reversed by local GOP controlled legislatures. In either event the vice president would have to personally nullify the will of millions of voters.
Pence consulted with Jacob, who was on his staff, Luttig, who wasn't and others about the constitutionality of such a move. They all said it was grossly illegal. The answers were unanimous right down to former VP Dan Quayle who was also asked for an opinion.
They weren't the only ones. Everyone at the White House including Eastman felt, at best, if Pence pulled such a maneuver, the Supreme Court would rule against it. When one Trump staffer was asked about it, he put it bluntly, "We thought he was nuts."
Nuts, or not, Eastman and Trump began a relentless campaign to pressure Pence into tossing out historical precedent and the constitution so El Don could hang onto power. Their hope being if Pence did so, the Supremes would consider it an election issue and not a constitutional one and so refuse to hear it. And, even if they did it would take weeks, throwing the whole process into chaos and uncharted legal waters.
Trump's pressure on Pence, both in public speeches and during phone calls culminated on the morning of January 6th. Panic and anger had set in. Pence remained determined not to budge. During the last phone call between the two men the President of the United States called his vice president a wimp, and a pussy. He told him he couldn't make tough decisions and he should have never selected him as the running mate four years before. The witnesses to these words included Ivanka Trump.
Trump's anger was such he rewrote his speech to the mob, He accused the vice president of being an accomplice to the plot against him and America itself. Later, even as the shit was hitting the fan at the capitol building, El Don was still tweeting that if wasn't for Mike Pence's lack of balls the rioters and he would get what they wanted. Video evidence presented by the committee showed the crowd's reaction to the message. The words violent and ugly are far too mild of a description.
By then the vice president's Secret Service head was trying to get him into a car so he could escape the mob. Jacob testified that while the rest of the party piled into the waiting vehicles the VP refused. Jacob told the committee he heard Pence tell his head of security, "I know you and trust you, but I don't know who is behind the wheel of the car." Hey, as they say, it ain't paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Yes, Thursday's hearing might have started out awkward and painfully slow, but it ended with the riveting picture of a man standing his ground against the most powerful and spoiled bully in the world. Not to mention his crazy ass lawyer who concocted a nonsensical excuse in order to justify an electoral coup d' etat.
6-19-22
We came dangerously close to getting the government many of us deserve.
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