The Political Purpose of the January 6 Hearings

Very Serious with Josh Barro

What happened on January 6 (and in the lead-up to it, with Donald Trump trying to steal the election) was very important. But I have been very bearish on the usefulness of talking to the public more about it — it happened right in front of our faces, it’s not a top priority for persuadable voters, and more time spent marinating on it can simply distract Democrats from more urgent political tasks to hold onto any part of power.
As such, I wasn’t very eager for the televised January 6 hearings. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the hearings.
The presentation is how focused it is on presenting Trump’s actions as a crime, and the committee is making a compelling case that the Department of Justice can and should charge Trump with crimes related to his effort to pressure Mike Pence to spurn his constitutional duties and refuse to count the electoral votes that gave Joe Biden the election win.
This week’s episode of the Very Serious podcast is an excerpt of the debut episode of Serious Trouble, my new weekly podcast with attorney Ken White.
Here’s a transcript of the episode.

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