The reality in the face: “Donald Trump was at the center of the conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He “harangued a host of enemies of the Constitution” to incite them to storm the Capitol, in order to “overthrow the democratic process” of the United States.
In a frank and direct manner, the chairman of the American commission responsible for shedding light on the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Democrat Bennie Thompson, opened the first public hearing of this parliamentary committee on Thursday evening in Washington by holding the ex-US president responsible for the attack on America’s Democracy Dome that day and calling the grim event nothing less than “the culmination of an attempted coup”.
“There is no room for debate,” continued Republican Liz Cheney, a rare member of this party to sit on this commission. Those who invaded our Capitol and fought law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump told them, that the election was stolen and he was the rightful President. »
At prime time, the commission’s first public hearing thus began its process of releasing the results of nearly a year of investigation by beginning to draw the lines between the presidential ballot smear campaign orchestrated by Donald Trump and its allies in the months leading up to the vote and the attempt to prevent Congressional certification of the vote led by populist loyalists, on January 6, 2021.
A past tragedy, which Bennie Thompson sought from the outset to combine with the future by launching a call for mobilization against those who “thirst for power, but have neither love nor respect” for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law.
“Tonight, and over the next few weeks, we will remind you of the events that unfolded that day. But our work must do more than look back. Because our democracy remains in danger. The plot to thwart the will of the people is not over. »
For nearly two hours, the Commission traced the thread of events, but also exposed testimony, held behind closed doors, showing that Donald Trump’s entourage repeatedly tried to convince him that he had no did not win the election and that these claims of fraud were unfounded.
Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump reiterated his support for the rioters by claiming that “January 6 was not just a demonstration”. The attack on Capitol Hill remains for him “the greatest movement in the history of our country to make America great again”, he wrote on his social platform Truth, while seeking to undermine the legitimacy of the elected members of this commission of inquiry.
For political scientist William Delehanty, a professor at Missouri Southern State University, these hearings remain an important exercise which should in the coming days draw “public attention to the dangers and threats to democracy, with particular emphasis on the peaceful transition of power,” he said in an interview with To have to. “Of course, it’s to be expected, in a deeply divided country, these hearings may not reach the audience they need. But exercise is no less important. »
In this climate, the effects of the dissemination of the work of this commission remain uncertain.
“What the American public thinks of the events of January 6, 2021 largely follows partisan lines,” says political scientist Steven Webster, a voter behavior specialist at Indiana University. Democrats see them as a seditious act, an insurrection, while Republicans see them as nothing more than a legitimate form of protest. As a result, Democrats and Republicans risk evaluating the work of the committee in ways consistent with their political identity. »
Sign of rupture: the start of these public hearings was broadcast by all of the major American television networks, with the exception of the most watched station in the country, Fox News, which decided to ignore the media-political event. The ultra-conservative network, which in the past has contributed to the rise of Trumpism, preferred to maintain its usual programming, with its incendiary commentators, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
In the aftermath of the attack, the trio regularly attempted to downplay the nature and impact of this insurgency, reduced in their words to a mere “footnote” in the ledger of United States history. United.
Mr. Carlson averages three million viewers on his daily 8 p.m. rant on the day’s news. He recently signed a documentary in which the attempt to overturn the election to keep Donald Trump in power was presented as a “set up” by the Democrats to bring down the populist.
This re-reading of history tends to bear fruit in the United States, where now barely 45% of Americans hold President Donald Trump responsible for this insurrection, according to an NBC poll published last week. In January 2021, the day after the attack, 52% believe that the populist was the only or the main responsible for the riots.
“Will the start of these public hearings and the evidence that will be presented there convince Americans to reject Republican politicians, even at a time when Democrats are grappling with significant economic and social concerns in the United States? This is, in my opinion, the real question, summed up in an interview with To have to Christopher Childers, chair of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. And it will especially be interesting to see how more moderate voters will watch and interpret these hearings. »
After an opening with great fanfare on Thursday evening, the public works of the committee must continue next Monday at 10 a.m. Among other things, elected officials are expected to shed light on how Donald Trump tried to replace the country’s Justice Department with a candidate loyal to his cause to overturn the results of the presidential vote and on the pressure campaign exerted on Vice President Mike Pence to prevent Congress from certifying this vote, January 6, 2021.