FACING THE EASTMAN MEMO. A lot of Republicans are ignoring the hearings being produced by the House Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee. Maybe “ignoring” is too strong a word. They’re just not paying attention — it’s not on their radar screen. They know Democrats and many in the media are very excited about the hearings, but they also know — and they’re right about this — that the hearings are a fundamentally political exercise. In the short run, Democrats hope the hearings will help revive their troubled political fortunes for this November’s midterm elections. In the long run, Democrats hope the hearings will somehow disqualify former President Donald Trump from running again in 2024.

Most of what is being presented is already known, a fact that supports the idea that the hearings are basically political. People who have followed the Jan. 6 story know the material. But, of course, most people don’t follow the story, and what the committee is trying to do is turn it into a television show that can attract millions of watchers, shake voter apathy about Jan. 6, and rally support for House Democrats. So some in the media are characterizing the hearings as producing bombshell revelations, when in fact they are producing new details about a story that is already known.