Ever since Donald Trump first declared his intention to run for president, the Democrats have been working hard to undermine him. Even though they knew it was a hoax, they spent years trying to prove that he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. The farce carried on with two phony impeachments, and it now continues with the J6 Committee. After all this time, Democrats remain driven by their animosity toward Trump and will not give up.
Few people believe that the J6 Committee is really after justice. Various text messages that the committee released have actually exonerated Trump. The evidence against him has been so weak that the committee even doctored text messages to make them look incriminating when they weren’t. They’ve also been rather unambiguous about the committee’s political objectives. In addition to seeking ways to change election laws, the committee also has the expansion of surveillance powers as its goal. And, of course, preventing Trump from becoming president again.
Soon-to-be-former-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) admitted this was the entire point of the committee earlier this year.
“I’m very focused right now on my re-election and on the work of the select committee,” Cheney said. “I can tell you that the single most important thing, though, is to ensure that Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee and that he certainly is not anywhere close to the Oval Office ever again.”
This was obvious from the start, and Democrats were too blinded by their hatred of Trump to do anything to ensure that the J6 Committee would be taken seriously. While committees are typically balanced by party, the J6 Committee broke with precedent by allowing Nancy Pelosi to completely handpick its members. Right out of the gate, Pelosi’s hubris undermined the committee’s legitimacy.
Since then, it’s been kind of a disaster. Few people are really interested in the hearings, despite the Democrats’ best efforts to maximize media coverage. As we get closer to the midterm elections, it’s clear that the messaging of the committee hasn’t resonated with the public. The committee hasn’t succeeded in tarnishing Republicans as insurrectionists, and the GOP is still expected to make large gains in the House and possibly win back the Senate.
This week, however, the J6 Committee put forth what is perhaps its final stunt. On Thursday, the committee voted unanimously to subpoena President Trump for testimony. In a move I suspect the committee didn’t anticipate, Trump expressed his willingness to do so.
“Despite very poor television ratings, the Unselect Committee has perpetuated a show trial the likes of which this country has never seen before. There is no due process, no cross-examination, no ‘real’ Republican members, and no legitimacy since you do not talk about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops,” Trump wrote in a letter to the committee. “It is a witch hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years. You have not gone after the people that created the fraud, but rather great American Patriots who questioned it, as is their Constitutional right. These people have had their lives ruined as your Committee sits back and basks in the glow. The people of this Country will not stand for unequal justice under the law, or Liberty and Justice for some. Election Day is coming. We demand answers on the Crime of the Century.”
But the real question is, why did Democrats wait so long to subpoena Trump?
“If the committee truly wanted to compel Trump’s testimony, it should have subpoenaed him in 2021,” notes constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley. “Yet liberals celebrated the committee’s belated move as a ‘bombshell ending’ instead of asking why it had not been a bombshell beginning.”
Perhaps the reason is that they don’t actually want him to testify. What other explanation is there for them to do this now, weeks before the midterm elections when Republicans are expected to win the House majority and ultimately disband the blatantly partisan J6 Committee? Turley described it as a Hail Mary pass to an empty end zone, and I can’t think of a more apt metaphor.
