Former members of Trump's inner circle warned they have become 'Trump’s targets' after Cassidy Hutchison testimony
In her column for the Bulwark, former Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) advisor and political commenter Amanda Carpenter commended Cassidy Hutchison -- the former senior aide to ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows -- for her compelling testimony on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating Donald Trump's complicity in the Jan 6th riots.
As the conservative political analyst explained, Hutchinson's revelations about the former president's temper tantrums behind the scenes, as well as his lack of concern about his armed supporters, exposed the former president's propensity for violence or, as she put it, "Trump’s capacity for violence and willingness to break the law on display."
Noting that Hutchinson's testimony has put her life in danger -- which was evidenced by increased security in the building before she spoke on national TV -- Carpenter suggested that the names of Trump's inner circle mentioned by the former Meadow's aide when discussing their opposition as to what Trump was allowing to happen on Jan 6th has likely put them on the former president's enemies list.
After praising Hutchinson's courage, the conservative scolded both former vice president Mike Pence and Mark Meadows for not coming forward.
"Where is her former boss, Mark Meadows? Is he still praying for a pardon?" she wrote. "Where is Mike Pence? He’s happy to tell everyone about how well he performed his patriotic duty on Jan. 6th. Except for the actual Jan. 6th Committee. Instead, he sent his loyal underling Marc Short to testify in his place," she wrote
Having disposed of them, she turned her focus on former Trump cabinet members that Hutchinson noted discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to strip the now-former president of his powers while the Capitol riot raged.
As she notes, it is only a matter of time before Trump goes after them as he has on Hutchinson.
"What about the other cabinet members—the ones who privately talked about invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove Trump because they knew how unhinged the president was? Shouldn’t they put their experiences on the record? Why do they think protecting their own parochial interests and precious Republican identities is more important than protecting people like Hutchinson and more broadly, the country?" she wrote before adding, "Even out of their own self-interest, don’t they realize that they are no longer Trump’s chief enablers and that they have become Trump’s targets? The mob didn’t chant 'F*** Joe Biden' on Jan. 6th. They chanted 'Hang Mike Pence.'"
She concluded, "Donald Trump rose to power by waging war against Republicans ... Right now Cassidy Hutchinson is the target. But simply by offering her testimony, she has exposed Meadows and all the rest as being potential dangers. Trump surely sees this, too."
You can read more here: https://www.thebulwark.com/hutchinson-puts-trumps-violence-on-display/Conservative publication labels Trump 'unfit for power again' in scathing editorial
In an op-ed this Wednesday, the Editorial Board for the Washington Examiner declared that the testimony Tuesday from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson "ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump’s political career."
"In short, Hutchinson was a conservative Trumpist true believer and a tremendously credible one at that," the Board writes. "She did not overstate things, did not seem to be seeking attention, and was very precise about how and why she knew what she related and about which testimony was firsthand and which was secondhand but able to be corroborated."
As the Board points out, Hutchinson gave compelling accounts about how certain figures in the Trump White House likely knew violence would take place at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and how Trump was uncaring, and even supportive of, rioters chanting for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence.
"She also told, in detail, that Trump repeatedly insisted that he himself should join his supporters at the Capitol — even after being informed the crowd contained armed elements and that it was breaching the perimeter against an undermanned U.S. Capitol Police force."
In light of everything, the Board concluded that "Trump is a disgrace" and Republicans have far better options in 2024.
Read the full op-ed over at The Washington Examiner:https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trump-proven-unfit-for-power-againFox News flips on Donald Trump during Jan. 6 hearings
After spending more than a year promoting Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, Fox News appears to be changing its tune as the January 6 committee presents increasingly damning evidence of the former president's complicity in the Capitol riot.
As the committee probe has gone public, at least four Fox News hosts and one analyst have casted doubt over Trump's grandiose claims of fraud, for which there continues to be no evidence to speak of. Some have also questioned the former president's mental fitness, suggesting that Trump cannot be trusted to steer the country in 2024 after spreading such spurious conspiracy theories about 2020.
One such instance played out just last month, when Fox News guest host Sandra Smith, an apparent skeptic of Trump's claims from the start, engaged in a fiery exchange with Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., over the former president's legal failure to prove that he won in any states he lost.
"The courts are not the final arbiter of who wins federal election contests," Brooks told Smith, citing the film "2000 Mules," which bandies unsubstantiated claims that unnamed Democratic-aligned nonprofits engaged in a coordinated attempt to subvert the election.
"And that [film] has been looked at and fact-checked by multiple outlets, including Reuters, who have [reported] there isn't any proof that there was widespread voter fraud," Smith rebutted.
Roughly a week later, Fox News host Martha MacCallum, who at one point called the Capitol riot "a huge victory," echoed Smith's rhetoric, arguing that there was a "stunning" lack of evidence to support allegations of widespread fraud.
"The lack of evidence is the huge stunning clear moment here where these people are saying, 'Look I supported you, please give me something to work with,' and it simply doesn't materialize," MacCallum said, speaking of the select committee's fourth public hearing.
This week, Fox News host Brett Baier, one of the network's noted critics of Trump, also joined the chorus, arguing with a pro-Trump gubernatorial candidate that no evidence of fraud has emerged.
"I understand what you are saying," Baier told the MAGA-backed Kari Lake, who is running to unseat Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. "But there have been, as you know, more than 70 court cases where there was not evidence and there was not any state legislature or governor that failed to certify an election, including your own Republican Doug Ducey."
Meanwhile, other Fox News personalities have expressed concerns about Trump's mental facilities.
"Fox and Friends" host Brian Kilmeade, who reportedly had a direct line to the former president during the Capitol riot, said this week that Trump was "unhinged" in the aftermath of the election.
"The president was unhinged during that period," Kilmeade said in a "Media Buzz" segment. "I interviewed him at West Point, and he was kind enough to give me a few minutes. I've never seen him so angry. That was in between the election and Jan. 6."
Kilmeade also called it "the worst moment of Donald Trump's political career," adding: "I think how you lose in life defines who you are … A lot of times things don't work out, and are so-called unfair. Your team couldn't prove [the election was rigged], move on."
During last week's hearings, Fox News analyst Andy McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney, likewise suggested that Trump was not stable enough to lead to the country, saying, "the evidence pretty clearly shows his unfitness."
It wouldn't be the first time that Fox News had abruptly pivoted its messaging based on change in the political winds. During the 2020 election, shortly after Trump bashed the network for calling Arizona in President Biden's favor, the network reportedly issued a memo to its anchors to refrain from calling Biden the "president-elect," according to CNN.
AFP
