The Jan. 6 committee’s likely final public hearing was “absolute theater” and failed to alter the outline of the story that people already knew, the Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent Byron York argued on Thursday.
During an appearance on TV after the presentation ended, York mused about how the committee went to great lengths to make its public hearings compelling and underscored how the panel held the hearing in close proximity to the midterm elections. But ultimately, he contended the committee mostly rehashed what the public already knew, with a few exceptions.
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“The basics of the story did not change today. The story being basically that this mob did attack the Capitol,” he told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum. “Most people were horrified, tried to get it to stop. But President Trump liked it. He thought they were fighting on his behalf. We saw more evidence about that today. But nothing to change the basic outline of the story.”
Unlike prior hearings, the one on Thursday did not feature any live witness testimony, instead featuring members of the committee giving statements about what they discovered throughout the course of the inquiry.
The statements were interlaced with clips of testimony from the troves of witnesses that the panel interviewed since initiating its investigative work last year. York emphasized that the panel hired talent to help gin up excitement.
“You know, the committee very famously hired a former president of ABC News to kind of craft their hearings into an exciting series. Each one had kind of a beginning, a climax, and a tease for the next episode. They all did that,” he said.
Perhaps the most newsworthy event of the hearing came at the end when the panel voted in favor of subpoenaing former President Donald Trump for testimony and documents, but York shrugged it off.
“This is — the subpoena of the president is entirely theatrical. The biggest reason being it’s 26 days before the election. It appears that Republicans are going to win control of the House, and the committee is gone. They have no authority to do anything more,” he surmised. “It’s absolute theater.”
York also noted that the panel unveiled stunning new footage of congressional leaders reacting to the riot in real time, but he again said it didn’t change the overall story much.
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Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) is reportedly expected to subpoena former President Donald Trump next week, though an exact timeline has not been set.
The committee is expected to release a final report on its findings but has not set an exact date for when the report will drop. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said he doubts the Jan. 6 committee will release its report until after the midterm elections.
