Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA10) was on the PBS NewsHour last night, talking about the 1/6/21 committee hearings, and had a few interesting things to say. See below for highlights and video:
- How significant was the Steve Bannon conviction? “Very significant. As you know, Judy, before I was in Congress, I was a Congressional council and this is for the rights of Congress asserting their right to investigate. So I think it’s very significant that now Congress can play its role in asserting its right to investigate. Because the gutless Steve Bannon, who was so critical in this insurrection, we know Steve Bannon was calling the president all during Christmas time saying, get in there and, you know, be running this insurrection, which we know Steve Bannon was very much involved in. I think Steve Bannon is going to have more liability in this because he was telling Donald Trump to come back and to be, you know, involved in this January 6th thing. Remember the night before Steve Bannon was saying, it’s not going to be what you think it is, you know all hell going to break loose. And we now know in October, Steve Bannon as on tape saying, you know, even if Donald Trump loses, he’s going to say he’s going to win. So there’s all kinds of documents and records, bank records that we need to get from Steve Bannon. And now Congress can assert its authority. And Steve Bannon is going to have a whole lot more trouble. So you know, he said he was gonna go medieval, and I think I certainly hope that Congress is going to go medieval in terms of getting these records on this guy who I think is very much an insurrectionist, and was very key and involved in this in this whole plot to of overthrow an election.”
- How effective has the committee been? “Well what’s been so critical in this investigation, it’s been Donald Trump’s own presidential staff, his campaign stuff and his Justice Department staff unequivocally and consistently condemning him under oath and factually. This has never happened before. They’ve made the case through contemporaneous documents, texts, saying we told him he lost, he continually refused to accept it. His campaign manager said he lost. His attorney general said he lost. His own White House counsel again and again said he lost. They told him not to go to the Capitol. They told him not to say the things that he said, and then those 187 minutes when he said, when he refused to do anything. And then time and time again, his own vice president said he lost. So it is again and again his own people – his own daughter, his own son, saying, you’ve got to say more. So it’s his own people saying you know you lost. So you’re seeing this sore loser again and again being told by his own people, So I think you have a very strong case of criminal liability, So I certainly hope that Justice Department will take this up.”
- “I would agree with Doug [Jones] that [the committee] has been successful, whether or not there’s an indictment…I also think that the Justice Department I do expect that they will probably have more information also. So I agree that it’s successful regardless, because the American people have have seen what a sore loser…profile in cowardice that Donald Trump is while we’ve also seen Liz Cheney being I think a profile in courage. And many of our Capitol police how courageous they were. While you’re seeing somebody like Josh Hawley running away and letting our poor Capitol police have to be beaten for hours while Donald Trump was just sitting there watching this violence go on. So I think, yes, they’ve been very successful on that front. But I also expect there will be lots more evidence coming forward. We’ve seen these courageous young women like that, we’ve seen that Donald Trump continues to attack and they get death threats. But I do think there are more people daily coming forward who are going to continue to fill out this record, and I do think that the Justice Department will be able to fill in those gaps. And I expect will be able to have more indictments and continue to have convictions like we had today with Steve Bannon.”
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