They did it. They pulled it off. Anyone who feared that the January 6 committee’s season finale would turn into an anti-climax – more Game of Thrones than M*A*S*H – need not have worried. There were shocks, horrors and even laughs.
The eight “episodes” have exceeded all expectations with their crisp narrative and sharp editing, a far cry from the usual dry proceedings on Capitol Hill. Each has recapped what came before, teased what is to come and compellingly joined the dots against Donald Trump.
Much of the credit must go to James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, who was brought in to help produce the hearings like a true crime series. Give that man an Emmy (if only to infuriate Trump, a TV obsessive).
Some viewers might have been disappointed on Thursday by the absence of chairman Bennie Thompson due to coronavirus (though he did join to open and close the hearing via video link). Yet with Liz Cheney in the chair and Goldston in the editing suite, a Grand Guignol was guaranteed.
There were chilling details of a US vice-president’s staff calling their families because they feared death as the rioters closed in, having breached the Capitol that January 6 afternoon; there were damning stories about Trump watching an insurrection for hours on live TV and resisting pressure from senior staff to intervene; there were comical glimpses of a rightwing senator fleeing the mob he had emboldened.
And from outtakes on 7 January there was the defining image of Trump struggling to read a teleprompter, stumbling over simple words such as “yesterday”, and especially those that acknowledged he was a loser, and banging the presidential lectern like a frustrated child. “This election is now over. Congress has certified the results – I don’t want to say the election’s over.”
To be in the Cannon Caucus Room as it all unfolded was to feel electricity in the air. It buzzed with the anticipation of reporters, photographers, TV camera operators, police officers, congressional aides and spectators. Once proceedings were under way beneath two giant chandeliers and the high, ornately-carved ceiling, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal – who had been trapped in the House balcony on January 6 – could be seen fighting back tears as the scenes of carnage were replayed on a big screen.
Whereas the first seven hearings set out unforgivingly what Trump had done, this one told a gripping story about what he did not do, for 187 minutes on 6 January 2021. As his enraged supporters stormed the US Capitol, the president did not call them off or contact senior law enforcement or military officials who could have curbed the violence as the US Capitol Police and city police were vastly outnumbered.
What he did do was watch TV in his dining room next to the Oval Office, phone senators in a bid to make them delay the certification of his election defeat byJoe Biden, and call his unhinged lawyer and fellow coup-plotter Rudy Giuliani. It was not so much Nero fiddling while Rome burns as Nero dancing maniacally in the flames.
The details were set out with the committee’s now customary slick and pacy presentation, cutting seamlessly from video deposition to 3D graphic, from archive footage to document excerpt, from Trump tweet to live witness.
Thompson and Cheney delivered pithy statements about Trump’s dereliction of duty. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the panel, summed up: “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”
Congresswoman Elaine Luria noted that Trump was told that the Capitol was under attack within 15 minutes of leaving the stage at the Ellipse near the White House. He had just held a rally, demanding that heavily-armed supporters, who later marched to the Capitol, be allowed in. A photo of Trump in the Oval Office had the caption: “Minute 11.”
Luria said: “At 1.25pm President Trump went to the private dining room off the Oval Office. From 1.25 until 4:00 the president stayed in his dining room ... There was no official record of what President Trump did while in the dining room.”
The dining room TV, she added, “was tuned to Fox News all afternoon” in perhaps the least surprising revelation of the hearings so far.
Indeed, 3D computer graphics showed the Oval Office and dining room, which had a TV above its fireplace, showing Fox News as it was on January 6 – a neat touch. Then there was a display of call logs and the presidential diary from that afternoon, both blank. And the presidential photographer was told “no photographs”.
Then came another pivot to video of a deposition by Pat Cipollone, the former White House counsel. He was asked if he was aware of Trump calling the defence secretary, or the homeland security secretary, or the attorney general. He was not.
The drama continued to build. There was more footage from the riot at the Capitol, which never diminishes in power, and a reminder of how the mob was just feet away from Mike Pence. A member of the crowd said: ““Mike Pence has screwed us!”
There was video testimony from an unnamed and unseen White House security official whose voice, borrowing more TV grammar, had been distorted to protect his identity: “The members of the VP [Secret Service] detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives... There were calls to say goodbye to family members... For whatever reason on the ground the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.”
Did Trump call his devoutly righthand man to check if he was OK? He did not. At 2.24pm, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election in his favour. Everyone agreed it was appalling timing.
Could Trump have addressed the nation? Again, the hearing was a model of clarity. A graphic showed how close he was to the White House briefing room. Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, testified in person: “It would take probably less than 60 seconds to get from the Oval Office dining room to the press briefing room. There’s a camera that is on in there at all times. If the president wanted to address people, he could have done so.”
Then, something extraordinary happened. A burst of laughter echoing in the cavernous caucus room. How could it be? The answer was Republican Senator Josh Hawley. The big screen showed a photo of him with fist raised in support of the insurrectionists earlier on January 6 – haughty, preening, self-satisfied – and cut to a video of Hawley running for his life from the rioters as if auditioning for Chariots of Fire. Priceless.
Cheney remained po-faced on the dais, maintaining gravitas on this solemn occasion. Was she roaring with laughter inside? We shall never know. But it was another brilliant piece of choreography, guaranteed to provide fodder to late-night TV hosts and go viral on social media.
Kinzinger and Luria, both military veterans, formed an effective double act. Kinzinger delivered a barnstorming ending. “Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonour to all those who have sacrificed and died in the service of our democracy.”
Luria concluded: “President Trump did not then and does not now have the character or courage to say to the American people what his own people know to be true. He is responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6.”
And yet the door was left open for more. Thompson and Cheney announced that more evidence is being gathered and hearings will resume in September. Will this be a sequel that lives up to expectations, like The Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2 or Top Gun: Maverick? Or will it be Jaws 2? One way to settle the matter would be get Pence here to testify.
American politics has been a gruelling horror show for at least seven years now. The House committee hearings have shone an unforgiving light into every crevice with some master storytelling. The substance always matters but, for the power of persuasion, they have shown that style matters too.
