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Jim Dueholm's avatar

January 6 didn't do Trump proud, but the committee's proceedings cry out for balanced presentation and analysis.

The first thing we need is a clear examination of when the capitol was breached, the extent and duration of the breach, and Trump's response. The committee focuses on the fraught confrontation between rioters and capitol police, with the implication this was occurring during the whole two plus hours that Trump allegedly twiddled his thumbs. In fact, as the full video of the incursion shows, there was a lot of non-violent mulling around inside the breached capitol, which raises the issue of how long there was violent confrontation as opposed to harmless trespass. Paul points to Trump's "peaceful" tweets, and someone representing the other side might ask whether the rioters turned barricade storming to mulling at least in part in response to Trump's tweets. With only the one-sided focus of the committee, we don't have a complete picture of what was happening during the two plus hours before the crowd disbursed.

And where was Nancy Pelosi, who was in charge of the capitol police and had apparently been authorized by Trump to use the national guard? Same with Mayor Bowser, in charge of the DC police with the same authority to use the guard. They, not Trump, were responsible for capitol security, and yet the committee explicitly declared Pelosi off limits and we haven't heard a peep of why Bowser fiddled while the capitol burned. We do know both of them expressed reluctance to use the guard on January 6, and they had both excoriated those who even thought of using the guard during the violent 2020 riots.

The 1/6 committee proceedings have been called a kangaroo court, but they're worse than that, a kangaroo court held under false pretenses. A real kangaroo court gives short shrift to an explicitly identified defendant accused of specific misconduct. The January 6 committee pretends to be conducting a broad examination of the events of January 6, but it is doing nothing of the sort. Its sole focus is to sentence Donald Trump to political death in a Stalinesque show trial that marches under the guise of congressional committee hearings.

One last point. Every member of the committee was appointed by Nancy Pelosi, and every single one voted to impeach Trump. Some were even impeachment managers. And Pelosi has the gall to suggest she blackballed Jim Jordan and Jim Banks because they might have prejudged the matter, or might be witnesses. She gives "give me a break" a good name.

Jim Dueholm

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Rascal Nick Of's avatar

He wasnt allowed defence and was convicted of a crime that isn’t a real crime for which he was indicted for an event that he wasn’t a participant in any way shape or form. It’s now illegal to be a republican in this country. But at least no mean orange tweets.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EEw1cg1D3Jw

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