Day two of the January 6 hearings centered on Donald Trump's demonstrably false claims that he won the 2020 election, and the so-called "evidence" he and his cronies presented to the public.
The hearing proceeded more conventionally than last week's "narrative MasterClass," which at times resembled an HBO miniseries designed to captivate a distractible public. Today's hearing dug deeper into the Trump-driven conspiracy theories that proliferated in the aftermath of the election, featuring credible witnesses rebutting specific claims of voter fraud. It was also, in my opinion, more focused than the first hearing and arguably more damning: It's still pretty striking to hear Bill Barr call his boss's claims "bullshit" and to hear witness after witness describe a president growing more and more detached from reality.
I'm still deeply skeptical that the January 6 committee will provide what some commentators have called a "John Dean moment"—a revelation so shocking that Trump's allies finally decide to turn on him. Most Republicans have so far circled the wagons, deeming the (bipartisan) committee a politically motivated smear campaign. And Fox News is giving the hearings short shrift, which means that the people who most need exposure to the realities of January 6 will be the least likely to get it. (To be fair, they covered today's hearing, which wasn't in primetime.)
On the other hand, the committee does seem to be doing an effective job establishing for the record (and for historians) what actually happened after the election and erecting a compelling defense of the facts. A staggering 20 million viewers (at minimum) tuned in to the first hearing, and for ordinary people who haven't been following the twists and turns of the committee's investigation, the clear and convincing evidence on display might actually stand a chance of resonating.
Anyways, this is just a long way to say that the jury's still out. Have you been watching? Let me know what you think.
—Noah Y. Kim
