Rachel Maddow put the facts together from the 1/6 hearing and the connection between the illegal plot to violence is devastating.
Video of Maddow:
Maddow said:
The discussion between the witnesses today that we heard from, Greg Jacob, and Dr. John Eastman, this lawyer working for Trump are the sort of throughline of today’s entire hearing. But it revealed one very clear thing, and I’m not sure it was ever clear before today, with all of the investigations that we’ve seen, all of the public-facing reporting on it.
We finally got the connection between the illegality of their plot and the fact that there was violence. A big portion of the hearing today was about how John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer on this issue, actually knew and admitted that this plot he and the president were pursuing was illegal, violated federal law.
That has all sorts of implications, even if you don’t care much about this guy, John Eastman we’ll get to all of that over the course of this evening. But importantly, I think the main point of what this hearing show today that we did not previously have evidence of, is that it was a really quick hop for these guys. From them, pursuing a strategy they knew was illegal, to the violence that we saw in the Capitol attack, and to the violence that was threatened against Mike Pence himself.
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So, the president’s lawyer, John Eastman, acknowledges that the plot he and Trump are suggesting is against the law, if these actions supported by his legal theories, were reviewed by the Supreme Court. He acknowledges they would lose nine to nothing at the Supreme Court. Unconstitutional, illegal, and he knows that.
But the crucial point we learned today for the first time is that these guys did not necessarily see that as a problem. Because the Trump lawyer, John Eastman, said he believed didn’t matter that the court would strike it down, 9-0, if it came before them. This was never gonna come before them, or at least, they would never agree to review it.
The big connection in the hearing was that the plot to overturn the election was linked to the violence on January 6th. Republicans have spent nearly two years trying to keep the two events separate. Republicans argue that the 1/6 terrorists were tourists, or that they were Trump supporters that spontaneously got out of control, but the hearings are telling the true story.
The 1/6 terrorists got out of control because Trump incited and pushed them. Trump and Eastman needed the certification of the election to stop, and when Mike Pence would play ball with Trump, the failed former president sent a mob after him.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association