Carla Provost

A number of you have written in to say about the hearings, "No,  that  wasn't the big deal. This other thing was the big deal!" In almost every case I find myself agreeing with you. What it comes down to is there was just a huge amount of critical new detail in Hutchinson's testimony. And it was a challenge to evaluate the significance of it all in real time or organize it on a rank of significance. So TPM Reader  KB  notes that all the stuff about a war room at the Willard with Rudy and the top crazies starts appearing in a very, very different light if the plan was that Trump was going to go to the Capitol to in some sense lead the confrontation. It definitely seems like that wasn't just a possibility or something that was discussed but rather definitely Trump's plan and, one would imagine, what Rudy and his crew thought was going to happen. See Also:   Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies on Jan. 6 warnings, pardon requests, and Trump trying to grab ...

Earlier this month, Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, made a big show of her willingness and desire to march right up to Capitol Hill and clear her good name before the Jan. 6th investigation committee. Yesterday, her lawyer  said  the committee just turns out to be too biased. So she won't be testifying after all. See Also:   Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies on Jan. 6 warnings, pardon requests, and Trump trying to grab the wheel Two White House security officials who allegedly scuffled with the President in the presidential limousine are now denying through intermediaries what Cassidy Hutchinson said under oath in yesterday's hearing. But Ginni Thomas's switcheroo is a good reminder that talk — or rather claims through intermediaries — is cheap. People who claim they are just champing at the bit to testify usually end up refusing to testify. See Also:   CNN's Don Lemon defends questioning Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden's mental fitness: ...

Former President Trump's speech at the Ellipse was many things — low-class, loaded with conspiracy theories, reckless. See Also:   Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies on Jan. 6 warnings, pardon requests, and Trump trying to grab the wheel But to many legal elites, it fell short of incitement. See Also:   CNN's Don Lemon defends questioning Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden's mental fitness: 'It's our job' But after the Jan. 6 Committee hearings — and, specifically, after Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony on Tuesday — that view may be starting to change. See Also:   MSNBC panel wonders if Ginni Thomas should be 'perp-walked' by Jan. 6 Committee Multiple legal commentators and former DOJ officials who had publicly stated, before Tuesday, that Trump's activities did not meet the exacting legal standard for incitement have now changed their views. See Also:   Joy Behar says 'The View' changed when Trump got elected: 'We used to have...

I hope you get a chance to read Matt Shuham's  feature piece today about "constitutional sheriff" Dar Leaf . It really brings together the current rage for Trump era "voter fraud" conspiracy theories and our much longer-term interest in far-right anti-government radicalism. When I got to thinking about this a few weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that almost always when there was one of these figures it was a sheriff. In this case I'm not talking about the so-called "constitutional sheriffs," though that's a big part of it. I'm talking about Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona or Alex Villanueva in LA County, David Clarke in Milwaukee. Like I said, these guys are  always the sheriffs . See Also:   NBC Washington Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade join Andrea Mitchell to discuss key challenges facing the January 6 Committee ahead of their primetime hearings this week: getting a "distracted...

There he was, on tape if not in person: Bill Stepien, the very campaign manager of Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, explaining calmly and matter of factly that President Trump lost, he and the candidate knew he had lost and every conspiracy theory and false claim and desperate attempt to stay in power was in the words of Bill Barr, bullshit. It wasn't even begrudging nor presented as an admission. Just matter of fact. See Also:   Ana Navarro loses it during CNN gun control panel: 'Get your a--es in gear and call your Senators!' Since polls now routinely show that Republican voters treat it as an orthodoxy that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, this was quite a thing to hear. Other than the candidate himself, a campaign manager speaks with more authority and knowledge about a campaign than anyone else. Indeed, often with considerably more than the candidate. This has been one of the most notable dimensions of the Jan. 6th hearings to date. The wi...

I mentioned a few days ago that the most compelling part of the Jan 6 committee hearings so far for me has been the description of the particulars of how the breach of the Capitol complex happened. The story is usually presented as something like this. There was a big group of angry and potentially violent Trumpers. There was a much smaller group, maybe as few as a few dozens of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers with a more focused ideology, a clearer plan of the insurrection and so forth. They were both more eager to get violent and had a lot more experience getting violent. But they were in the extreme minority of the people up there. So even though they're now the ones facing serious charges including seditious conspiracy they are only a small part of what happened. See Also:   Pelosi defends not passing a bill, claims Supreme Court Justices aren't in any danger despite assassination attempt this week… The committee did a good job of explaining that that's not at all what h...

Left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday refused to endorse Joe Biden for another run at the White House, adding to growing anxiety in Democratic circles over the president's ability to run in and win the 2024 election. See Also:   Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dodges on whether she'll support Biden in 2024, focuses on midterms: 'That's not a yes' The powerful progressive New Yorker said she could not commit to supporting Biden during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union, saying she was more focused on trying to preserve Democrats' congressional majority in November's midterms. See Also:   NBC Washington Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade join Andrea Mitchell to discuss key challenges facing the January 6 Committee ahead of their primetime hearings this week: getting a "distra...