Sebastabear said:
BearGoggles said:
dajo9 said:
I tend to agree that Cassidy Hutchinson was overhyped and served up salacious details more than lawbreaker details (with the exception of the weapons comment which I think is highly relevant). The Committee should have never had her get into hearsay. Now we will be subjected to arguments about the non-issue of how upset Trump was in the car, as if it matters. The Committee will go into recess and the right will effectively spend this time destroying the committee's reputation over this non-issue. Huge strategic error to rush this hearing forward to talk about hearsay. Look for the poll numbers to move against the committee in the upcoming weeks as the right now has their narrative. Stupid.
This is spot on and not the first time the committee has gone for headlines rather than substance and credibility. One problem you have is that if/when a witness is thought to be unreliable (or lying), it destroys their credibility. And of course, exhibit 1 to that is Trump himself.
Funny how many people on this board (and twitter) were euphoric yesterday over the hearsay tales of Trump grabbing the wheel, etc. Complete acceptance of the hearsay as true, with no skepticism among that crowd. Then when those stories were debunked (or at least questioned), it suddenly became "so what, it was not big deal anyway. The real point was XXXXX"
I'm sorry. Here's what I said yesterday immediately after her testimony. I said that the grabbing the wheel thing was hardly even a mild surprise but the ordering armed insurgents be waved in past metal detectors was the heart of the matter and the thing that would get Trump indicted. What part of that post was unclear?
This narrative that that some of us " pivoted" to saying the wheel grabbing is no big deal, because ALLEGEDLY Engel is going to testify (again) with a different shading of the event (and yeah let's talk about that when it actually happens - the track record of Trump partisans actually coming through with their "soon to be delivered" sworn testimony is decidedly not great) is 100% false. What mattered yesterday, today and tomorrow is we have direct evidence of someone saying she directly heard Trump saying he wanted an armed mob to march to the Capitol and his security agents should facilitate that.
It's horrifying. But more importantly it's criminal.
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Again, this is an ongoing crime. He engaged in sedition and he's continuing to engage in sedition, and witness tampering and obstruction of justice, etc. I've gone from thinking it was unlikely given the political turmoil it would cause for Trump to be charged to thinking it's inevitable. I'm not sure Garland has a choice any more.
I mean the grabbing the wheel stuff is just indicative of who Trump is and seems completely in character - infantile, tempestuous and, frankly, stupid. But the screaming about how the metal detectors should be removed because the armed insurrectionists weren't targeting him personally is as close you'll ever see of smoking gun proof that he brought an armed mob to the capitol to assault his political enemies and illegitimately seize power. He has to go down.
Yesterday, this thread was a weird combination of celebration, loving the details of every claimed trump bad act, and spiking the football based on the testimony (some hearsay, some not) of one witness. Literally blindly accepting everything she said as true despite the fact that the entire hearing is a manipulation, where no contrary evidence (or even real questioning) has been allowed. Instead, everything is presented to rile people like you up. And to be clear, I don't mean that to impugn your character or motives. Lots of people viscerally hate trump - I get it.
I would say that people are being manipulated; but honestly many people with TDS are quite happy to have the dems feed them what they want to hear. It is not unique to the dems; in fact it is exactly what Trump did to his MAGA minions, both before (but especially after) the election. Tell the people what they want to hear.
We have a witness making all sorts of claims. The witness was not cross examined, the testimony of other percipient witnesses was not included (despite the fact that many have been interviewed by the committee), and this witness' prior statements to the committee have not been revealed (i.e., her prior descriptions of these same events). Yet you and others here just accept it as truth.
People were similarly blindly accepting anonymous statements of claimed witness tampering as true (the end of the hearing "cliffhanger"). You were one of them, referring to ongoing "sedition" (in your statement above) which is just absurd (legally speaking). Never stopping to ask - why hasn't the 1/6 committee previously shared its "strong evidence" of witness tampering - instead choosing to call a 2 week break? Why hasn't the committee turned that evidence over to the DOJ and, if they have, why is congress interfering in the potential DOJ investigation? Or maybe, just maybe, the evidence is not quite what they want you to think it is.
You are posting in this thread denigrating the anonymous sources contradicting Hutchinson testimony. Yet you're absolutely willing to accept the 1/6 committees anonymous claims of witness tampering which have no sourcing to this point. Why are anonymous sources fine when they support your narrative, but problematic when they don't?
Is Trump awful and unsuitable? Yes - we've know that for a long time. Were his actions after the election abhorrent and contrary to American values (if not laws)? Yes.
Is Hutchinson's version of events accurate? Maybe. Are Trump or his people witness tampering? Maybe. Do we have a fair view of the evidence as to these issues? Not even close.
And in terms of you and others who are claiming a smoking gun or the end of Trump (or more specifically, citing people making those claims), prepare to be disappointed. Even if Hutchinson's testimony is true, making a criminal case against Trump is very difficult.