Dem
47
GOP
53
Former special counsel Jack Smith testified in a public hearing yesterday, and got yet another chance to lay out his case against Donald Trump and make clear that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump was guilty of the crimes with which he was charged.
Ah, House Judiciary Committee Republicans, you fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is this—never go in against a veteran prosecutor when playing political chicken! Once again, the GOP members' taunts and misstatements were largely ignored as Smith waited patiently for some kind of question at the end of each diatribe. As with the private hearing, which we wrote about last week, he exhibited the same calm, professional demeanor. He focused solely on the content of the question, if there was one, and not on the tone with which it was delivered.
There was nothing new here: Republicans brought up old grievances about phone records and the 1960 election, when Hawaii had prepared an alternate slate of electors. Once again, Smith had to remind the committee that the phone records were lawfully subpoenaed as part of the investigation and that if Trump hadn't tried to enlist members' help in overturning the election, those records would not have been relevant. He also reminded Republicans that the fake electors were submitted after Trump's legal remedies had been exhausted, in contrast to what happened with Hawaii.
What was also interesting is Democrats used the opportunity to highlight not only Republicans' hypocrisy in criticizing Smith at the same time that Trump has co-opted the DoJ to go after his adversaries, but also their own statements condemning the violence of January 6 in its immediate aftermath. Multiple Republican members who now claim ignorance of the events of Jan. 6 were quoted as the biggest critics of Trump and his behavior on that day.
And once again, Smith reminded the committee that his best evidence came from public officials who had supported Trump, but who were frank in telling him that he lost the election and that there was no evidence of fraud. Smith also reiterated his pride in his team's work and the injustice that good public servants were being fired and harassed just for doing their jobs. He reminded everyone, "I will not be intimidated." His team developed "proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump committed serious crimes. I'm not going to pretend that didn't happen because he's threatening me." When asked if he believes that the current AG will indict him, Smith responded, "I believe they will do everything in their power to do that because they've been ordered to by the President." Despite how shocking that statement is, not one Republican attempted to refute it. In fact, without a trace of irony, some were openly calling for his prosecution, despite not identifying any laws that he's supposedly broken.
In the end, none of the Republicans on the Committee, try as they might, could outlast Smith. They could barely contain their glee at the chance to generate some content for their tens of followers, but then folded long before he ever broke a sweat. The bloviating and the grandstanding stood in sharp contrast to Smith's measured and thoughtful responses. It was an embarrassing display for these elected officials and another failed attempt to rewrite history.
There were, we should note, a couple of interesting nuggets. We were reminded that the cases against Trump were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the DoJ could revive them if normal order is restored. We also learned that Trump's DoJ secretly obtained the phone records of Democrats, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA), for unknown reasons. But, of course, the Republicans were not up in arms about that.
Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) long ago ceded the title of "Most Insane Elected Official" to Trump, and can no longer generate the same kind of headlines as he did during Obama's presidency, or even during Trump's multiple impeachments. It would seem that most of the media has concluded that Jordan is just crying wolf, and that there's no there, there. To the extent anyone was even paying attention to this hearing, given all the Trump-manufactured crises that are gobbling up bandwidth, our guess is that those who are hearing Smith for the first time will see his gravitas and allow, if they haven't already, that the offenses Trump was charged with are serious and could not go unpunished. On the other hand, it's possible that views on this have become so entrenched that nothing changes at all. Given the dearth of headlines about Smith's appearance, it may already be old news.
It's also ironic that Republican members of Congress are complaining about Smith lawfully obtaining their phone records through a judicial subpoena when we now know that DHS is explicitly instructing their agents to violate the constitution by breaking into people's homes without a judicial warrant (see above). Consistency is clearly not a word that appears in the MAGA dictionary.
Trump, incidentally, is furious about the whole thing. During the testimony, he fired off this message:
Deranged Jack Smith is being DECIMATED before Congress. It was over when they discussed his past failures and unfair prosecutions. He destroyed many lives under the guise of legitimacy. Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn't be allowed to practice Law. If he were a Republican, his license would be taken away from him, and far worse! Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he's done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM—A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!
Keeping in mind that Trump is at his angriest and most unhinged when he's losing, this might be the best evidence of all that the Smith hearing did not go the Republicans' way. Meanwhile, do you know how many messages we had to scroll past to get to this one, sent just 14 hours before we started searching? Well over 100. That's more than 7 messages EVERY HOUR. Perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. (L & Z)