One of the notable features of Thursday’s third public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021 was the slow, deliberate way in which retired Judge Michael Luttig delivered his testimony.
For many, Mr Luttig’s speaking style added gravitas to the proceedings, as he stated bluntly that “our democracy today is on a knife’s edge”, and described Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the election as “treacherous”.
Watching the hearing, Vanity Fair writer Joe Hagan wrote on Twitter: “I like how this guy treats every line of his testimony like he’s engraving it on a national monument. And frankly, he really *is* engraving it for history. And he seems to know it.”
Mr Hagan continued: “I also respect, despite how halting he may sound, that Luttig is not setting himself up to be a mere soundbite maker. He’s speaking to history, not TV.”
“His sobriety, his graveness, his hallowedness, is so foreign to our modern sensibilities – but that’s the point. That is the precise point.”
Judge Luttig noticed Mr Hagan’s posts and reached out on Twitter to thank him and explain why he spoke in that manner in a lengthy thread.
“Thank you so much for this thread, Mr. Hagan. You almost presciently understood precisely what I was at least attempting to do to the best of my abilities during the hearing Thursday,” Mr Luttig tweeted.
“What you could not know, and did not know, but I will tell you now, is that I believed I had an obligation to the Select Committee and to the country, first to formulate … then to measure … and then … to meter out … every … single … word … that I spoke … , carefully … exactingly … and … deliberately, so that the words I spoke were pristine clear and would be heard, and therefore understood, as such,” he explained.
“I believed Thursday that I had that high responsibility and obligation — to myself, even if to no other. Also please bear in mind that Thursday was the first time in 68 years, to my knowledge, I had ever been on national television, let alone national television like that. And though not scared, I was concerned that I do my very best and not embarrass myself, as I think anyone who found themselves in that frightening circumstance would be,” the retired judge continued.
“I decided to respond to your at once astute and understanding tweet finally this afternoon, because I have been watching the tweets all day suggesting that I am recovering from a severe stroke, and my friends, out of their concern for me and my family, have been earnestly forwarding me these tweets, asking me if I am alright. Such is social media, I understand,” he wrote.
“But I profoundly believe in social media’s foundational, in fact revolutionary, value and contribution to Free Speech in our country, and for that reason I willingly accept the occasional bad that comes from social media, in return for the much more frequent good that comes from it — at least from the vastly more responsible, respectful speech on those media,” Mr Luttig opined.
Continuing his explanation, he wrote: “That is why, 16 years after my retirement from the Bench, even then as a very skeptical, curmudgeonly old federal judge, I created a Facebook account and then a Twitter account — slowly … very slowly … one account first … and then … followed … by the other. All of this said, I am not recovering from a stroke or any other malady, I promise. Thankfully, I have never been as sick or as so debilitated as that ever in my life, and would not want that for anyone. Knock on wood, I have never even been really sick a day in my life.”
“I was more ready, prepared and intellectually focused (I had thought) during Thursday’s hearing than I have ever been for anything in my life. I gather my face appeared ‘too red’’ for some on Twitter, betraying to them serious illness. The explanation was more innocent than that. At the last minute, I had been able during the weekend preceding my testimony to help my daughter get settled into her new home, where the temperatures were in the upper 90s, and where I was appreciatively, though unwittingly, to get just a little bit of needed suntan!” Mr Luttig continued.
“What I will say, though, is this. And I think it explains it all. All my life, I have said (as to myself, and at times, by way of sarcastic prescription for others) that I never … talk … any … faster … than … my … mind … can … think. I will proudly assure everyone on Twitter that I was riveted, laser-like as never before, on that promise to myself beginning promptly at the hour of 1.00pm Thursday afternoon,” he wrote.
“What is more, as consciously as one can be aware of something subconsciously, I was, in your poetic words of which I was, and am myself, incapable even of conjuring, Mr. Hagan, supremely conscious that, if I were chiseling words in stone that day, it was imperative that I chisel the exact words that I would want to be chiseled in stone, were I chiseling words in stone for history.”
Concluding, Judge Luttig, tweeted: “So, in all sincerity, thank you, all of you on Twitter, who are genuinely concerned about me. I can assure you that on last Thursday, June 16, I had never felt, or been, better in my life. And now, two days later, I feel better, still! For better or worse, I was as compos mentis as I have ever been last Thursday, June 16, 2022. But please keep checking on me from time to time! You just never know these days! Thank you, everyone! You’re the best!”
