WASHINGTON — In a larger-than-life video shown during the first minutes of the second hearing of the House Jan. 6 select committee, former Attorney General William Barr called claims of election fraud from his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, “bullshit.”
The expletive’s punch — and its appearance in news headlines — put a spotlight on how clips from videotaped depositions with Barr and other allies of the former president would become one of the committee’s most effective tools to make the public case against Trump.
Congressional experts expect that will change the dynamics of congressional committees this year and beyond. Lawmakers will come around to those technological advancements that grab public attention and allow them to better shape their arguments, and witnesses will recalculate how their answers might later be used at hearings.
