Good morning,
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”
--Mark Twain
Andrea and I have decided to watch The Godfather Trilogy again. We paused The Godfather II Monday night, ironically after the scene when a key figure in the Corleone mafia enterprise is appearing before a Senate committee investigating organized crime. The scene showed how a witness can be manipulated enough to recant their story and go along with a narrative that protects the “godfather.”
WILL THERE EVER BE ENOUGH EVIDENCE OF CRIME FOR SUPPORTERS TO SAY “ENOUGH!”?
Not 24 hours later, we were watching the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, recount the story of what she saw and heard around the White House in connection with President Trump’s knowing perpetration of the “big lie” about election fraud (proven false in over 50 court cases), as well as his involvement in the January 6th uprising, which he apparently not only encouraged, but actively cheered on and in which he wanted to participate. The number of White House aides involved in his antics, with the intent of an organized coup of the United States government, is truly sobering. I suspect many of them will be indicted and, much like enablers of the president in the Watergate scandal, will serve time for their criminal behaviors.
THE GODFATHER
Others may look upon the revelations set out in Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony—the violent acts, the childish fits of anger, the physical attacks on Secret Service agents, the encouragement of violence and seeming delight over that violence—as most significant.
I don’t feel this was particularly new. It confirms everything most of us knew, including those of his insiders and much of the Republican leadership about the character of the man, his pettiness and his willingness to wrest the presidency away illegally. The only difference now is it is even more out in the open, with more creepy details.
The biggest revelation to me during the hearing were the statements by witnesses about creepy instructions regarding their testimony that they received from an as-yet-unidentified person in the Trump camp. Fortunately, as opposed to the witness in the Godfather, Ms. Hutchinson and others did not buckle under the pressure. Here are two excerpts from statements of two witnesses:
“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”
“What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in the good graces…”
We had a president who was (and is) the Godfather to many in his circle. These witnesses, contacted by Trump’s henchmen, were instructed that, if they behaved well and did as instructed, they would remain in Trump’s good graces. This is called witness tampering, and if the Committee is in existence long enough and/or if the Justice Department chooses to get to the bottom of it, people will be indicted and likely will go to jail for this and more.
HUTCHINSON WASN’T THE LAST
If anyone thinks for a minute that the January 6th Committee would let Ms. Hutchinson take the stand without corroboration from one or more other witnesses, you’re mistaken. The Committee’s leadership are people who are sophisticated and have meticulously been building a case for all to see.
ROB PORTMAN AND THE REPUBLICANS
Finally, we attended an event at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday at which Jeffrey Goldberg (Editor in Chief of The Atlantic) was interviewing Mitch Landrieu and Rob Portman about the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But before beginning, Goldberg asked Portman whether, in watching Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony, he would now vote to impeach President Trump. Portman was visibly shaken, “This is about infrastructure. You didn’t tell me you would ask that.” Goldberg correctly noted that it was a fair question to a public figure in light of the day’s revelations.
Rather than answering the question, Portman dissembled and talked about his record. He argued that the impeachment of an ex-President (this is untrue) was wrong and asked Goldberg whether the Republicans, when they get in power, should impeach President Obama. This is from a man who is not running for reelection, yet still was shucking and jiving about the leader of his party. Perhaps at some point there will be Republicans who will admit they were wrong about this criminal narcissist.
What a week,
Glenn
PS: I’m going to try to get off of the attempted coup and the erosion of rights under our Supreme Court after this week!
I say keep covering the Supreme Court and Jan 6 hearings! So important.
Amazing how afraid people are of Trump.