Ari Melber started with some new January 6th evidence last night.
"Trump committee lawyer Eric Herschmann, he's MAGA, you may have seen his name pop up in the hearings, but this is new tonight, talking about his discussions with the lawyer at the center of the plotting, John Eastman. One day after, January 7th, Eastman was still talking about trying the get some way to overthrow then president-elect Biden's incoming administration, preserving information out of Georgia. This is the new testimony," Melber said.
Eastman -- I don't remember why he called me, or he texted me or called me, wanted to talk with me, and he said he couldn't reach others. and he started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia, preserving something potentially for appeal. And I said to him, are you out of your eff'ing mind? I said, 'I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on -- orderly transition.' I said, 'I don't want to hear any other eff'ing words come out of your mouth other than orderly transition. Repeat your words to me.'
What did he say?
Eventually he said orderly transition. I said, good, John. Now I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. Get a great f***ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it. And then I hung up on him.
"'Then he hung up.' That's new testimony. when a lawyer tells another lawyer to get an eff'ing criminal defense lawyer, that is never a good sign. Now, we have this brand-new -- just came out late in the day, because Liz Cheney shared that. The committee of course has revealed some of the evidentiary and testimonial fruits, so we're seeing them in a new way. That was released by the committee and put out online as a video. in this era, people can watch that themselves. All this coming amidst revelations about Trump lawyer Giuliani. Consider just some of the testimony against him from Trump's top allies and loyalists. in this hearing, he was described under oath at inebriated, buffoonish, erratic, and -- and now we're seeing Giuliani speaking out. he's denying he was intoxicated on election night, joining forces to push back," Melber said.
it was the same cast of characters -- Bennie Thompson and shifty Schiff. The completely hysterical Mary Cheney, who's gone off her deep end.
"That's new. He's referencing vice chair Cheney by the name of her sister. And basically Bannon is awaiting trial for defying this committee. He faces up to two years in prison after last night's bombshell deposition from attorney general Bill Barr. All this is coming into view why some may not want to cooperate and others are. Bannon saying he'll go after in some way Bill Barr."
I told him it was crazy stuff.
Bill Barr, we're coming for you, bro. You're sitting there lying about this.
Detached from reality. Completely bogus and silly. Based on complete misinformation.
We're not just going sit here anymore. The days of MAGA sitting here and our betters telling us what it is.
They were idiotic claims, complete nonsense. Shuttling out to the public was [ bleep ].
We're going to deconstruct this and we're going to rub your nose in it and then we're going to come after you legally.
As Melber noted, these reaction show that the committee's message is getting through.
"The committee has Giuliani responding, the committee has Bannon making threats. There's a larger context for all this. if you watch this program and the way we try to cover the news and facts, we go to the sources, we talk the people who are willing to describe what they were doing inside the Trump administration. We did that when they were in government, we've done it after. Some of them have arguments to make. Some have factual defenses. But some don't want to discuss the facts, which is the purpose of this set of hearings.
"Some of them want to just openly warn that if they get back in power, if Republicans win elections, they will -- and many of them were in power before -- they expect to get into power to work with a Republican white house and to abuse power. That's one of the very things under investigation here about this ex-president Trump. This is not normal. This is a revenge play book that involves, sometimes avows, to abuse future power to turn this into a Putin, Russian-style state where people imprison their enemies. We've seen some of this, and that's part of the response Giuliani and Bannon seem to be -- I'll say seem to be -- warning about in their response today, that power, if gained, will be abused," he said.
Well, of course it will. Which is why I get so frustrated with people who seem to be coming up with reasons not to vote -- and seem determined to spread that attitude widely.
