Not exactly a full House

Having promised “significant new information” that was “explosive,” I think the Jan. 6 Select House Committee failed as badly as the Robert Mueller report that was expected or was hoped to handcuff President Donald J. Trump to Russia.

It failed to do that and allowed Trump to falsely claim that he had been exonerated from obstruction.

Testimony pretty much proved that the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers arrived ready for trouble, and maybe even the invasion of the Capitol.

But we also learned the Proud Boys headed for the Capitol before the president spoke and had began plotting days earlier.

If that is true, how can Trump be accused of  initiating the violence, especially when his actual words talked about peaceful protest?

I am not here to defend Trump. Far from it. 

I am here to see if there is evidence that links him to the violence, and I didn’t see that Thursday. Maybe that will come later.

What the hearing did prove was that Trump lost the 2020 election and a number of people around him, including his attorney general and his daughter, told him so.

Yet he persisted in lying, which is nothing new for him.

The most compelling testimony came from Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was seriously injured in fighting the mob.

But nothing she said had anything to do with Trump.

There was video testimony from rioters who said they were there because they were invited by the president.

Yes, he invited them to a protest rally, not to launch an insurrection. His “invitation” did not suggest violence. Nor do his remarks about “fighting” for your beliefs, which is standard political hyperbole.  

Some are making a big deal of Trump said the protest “will be wild,” as if “wild” means violence.

For a man of Trump’s age, “wild” means exciting, and he is given to wild exaggeration.

On Jan. 6, once the riot began, Trump did nothing to stop it. That is on him. Also his stupid, off-hand remark that maybe Vice President Mike Pence deserved to be hanged. If we almost never believe anything Trump says, we can’t start believing him with that remark.

The committee made reference to a seven point plan to overturn the election, but that was narrative, and not evidence.

The committee will have several more hearings to make its case.

I know Trump haters will delude themselves into believing the hearing was a slam dunk. To a fair-minded “juror,” it was not.