Over the course of the January 6 committee hearings earlier this summer, Donald Trump defenders churned through a number of defenses, each less plausible than the last. The committee then sliced through them all. They dispelled not just the sillier claims, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., blaming the Capitol insurrection on "antifa" or Fox News host Tucker Carlson blaming imaginary FBI instigators, but they also dismantled some of the more robust, though still unlikely, defenses. Trump, his defenders argued, somehow didn't know what the rioters were going to do and the siege was organized without his knowledge, etc. Eventually, Trump defenders landed on the "too stupid to know better" defense, arguing that Trump just really believes the Big Lie.
Yes, they were defending him by arguing he's delusional. The idea is that they could claim Trump's innocence by framing him as befuddled enough to sincerely believe he was defending, instead of trying to overthrow, democracy. Setting aside the question of whether it's wise to support the presidential aspirations of someone so deluded, the members of the January 6 committee rejected the "too stupid to know better" defense. On July 12, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., dismissed this defense in her opening statement: "President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child." She reiterated that there was overwhelming evidence that advisors repeatedly told Trump he had lost the 2020 election and there is no way he can reasonably be believed to be confused.
