Around 1 p.m. ET Tuesday in the Caucus Room of the Cannon House office building near the U.S. Capitol, whispers among about 70 spectators and 100 reporters subsided when a former aide of Donald Trump’s former chief of staff came in through the back doors. and sat at the witness table, where the floating photographers escaped.
Journalists were dumped at the 10 tables gathered for the abruptly convened hearing by the House panel investigating the January 6 riots. Last week it was announced that there would be no more hearings until July. But on Monday, the court unexpectedly said it was convening a hearing to present “recently obtained evidence and receive witnesses.”
This witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, who made a number of startling claims, including that on January 6, the then president was informed that people meeting nearby that morning had guns, but told officials that “‘let my people in’ ‘and march to the Capitol.
Still, despite his headline testimony and other audience revelations, so far it doesn’t seem clear what part of this is resonating with the American public or changing their minds.
“Evidence of the impact on audiences so far is hard to come by,” said William A. Galston, president and senior member of government studies at the Brookings Institution.
On the first night of the hearings, the panel set out the beginnings of his case against Trump: that his lies about the 2020 election and his pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to overturn them led directly to violence on the 6th. January 2021.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Tuesday. (Jacquelyn Martin / The Associated Press)
Those audiences were televised in prime time and attracted an audience of about 20 million people, equivalent, as The New York Times pointed out, to television events like a big Sunday Night Football game.
But at the second hearing, aired in the afternoon, the audience had dropped by almost half to 11 million. That followed nine million on the third day.
The committee has heard several former Trump aides, and Republicans after Republicans, who have said they told Trump they did not believe his allegations of election fraud.
The testimony of former Attorney General Bill Barr, presented through a video recording, was revealed, which revealed that he had told Trump that there was no evidence of electoral fraud, that he did not agree with the idea to say the election was stolen, but to Trump, Barr said, “there was never an indication of interest in what the real facts were.”
A plan by Conservative lawyer John Eastman, presented to Trump and intended to reverse Joe Biden’s election victory, was also unveiled at hearings.
In addition, at hearings it was heard that Trump was prosecuting the U.S. Department of Justice for continuing his false allegations of election fraud, contacting the agency leader “virtually every day” and striving in vain. to recruit top law enforcement officials in a desperate attempt to stay in power.
Between eight and ten journalists were dumped at the 10 tables gathered for Tuesday’s suddenly convened hearing. (Mark Gollom / CBC)
But an ABC News / Ipsos poll found that only 34 percent of Americans follow audiences a little or very closely, and only nine percent follow them very closely.
The poll also revealed that of those who follow closely, 43% are Democrats and 22% are Republicans.
“I think it also shows that the Jan. 6 committee isn’t really making an impact among Republicans,” said Chris Jackson, an Ipsos researcher.
A Quinnipiac University poll found that most Americans say they follow the news about the committee very closely (26%) or a little closely (32%). About 41% said not so close (17%) or nothing (24%).
Meanwhile, a Politico / Morning Consult poll found that 40 percent of Americans say the Jan. 6 attacks had a significant impact on their prospects, compared to 66 percent of the U.S. attacks. Sept. 11, 62 percent for the pandemic and 52 percent. percent for the recent wave of mass shootings.
Galston says that given these and other polls, he concludes that most people who see the audiences are Democrats and that relatively few independents and Republicans follow them.
MIRAR | Trump wanted armed people at the rally, says the former aide:
Trump wanted people with guns at the Jan. 6 rally: former aide
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson says Donald Trump knew people on Jan. 6 had guns, but he wanted them allowed to enter his rally because he wanted a large crowd.
But while Republicans may not be watching the hearings, they are listening to them, he says.
“And what they’re hearing isn’t good.”
Hearings have also been filled with moments of emotional testimony, including that of Arizona Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Rusty Bowers, who spoke about the threats he and his family have had to endure to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the state.
Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia election worker, said she and her mother suffered such severe public harassment by Trump’s allies that they felt unable to live a normal life.
But Brian Gaines, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois, says there may not be as much impact as, say, the 1973 Watergate hearings, which took place when Richard Nixon was still president.
“The biggest difference of all is that Trump is not the incumbent president,” Gaines said.
MIRAR | Highlights of Barr’s testimony:
Highlights from Bill Barr’s testimony before the Jan. 6 committee
Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol that he considered the first allegations of fraud in the November 2020 election to be “false and silly “.
Then the question “How much did the president know?” it was “really what he did [the Watergate scandal] take off, “he said.
“What the former president knew is just a different question.”
However, Galston says he believes some Republicans are beginning to worry that audiences will have an effect on the perception of the Trump people and whether he is the person they want to represent the party in 2024.
“The fact that almost all the witnesses are Republicans, I’m sure, has not escaped them,” he said.
Trump himself has beaten Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy for his decision not to have more Republicans participate in the hearings.
“Trump is clearly concerned that this will have an effect, if not on the Republican Party, on him personally,” Galston said.
Jackson, of Ipsos, says his polls show that most Americans believe Trump has at least much of the responsibility for the attack on the U.S. Capitol. However, he says audiences can only have a small impact on those beliefs.
“Republicans who think Trump is innocent, Democrats who think Trump is guilty, don’t move.”
Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss, a former Georgia election worker, testifies on June 21st. (Michael Reynolds / Pool Photo via The Associated Press)