Good God, could we get some actual competence in our opponents for once?
The January 6th show trial and ritual castigation just slid headlong into absurdity, with that silly bint Cassidy Hutchinson blathering about how Trump attacked his Secret Service detail and tried to take the wheel of the vehicle he was in.
Except the Secret Service is saying, 'Uh, no, that never happened and we'll testify under oath it didn't'.
There were so many logical errors in this story, it's like they sat around and cooked up the dumbest thing they could throw at the mean ol' Orange Man, and then ran with it.
Even before every person who was there agreed to testify under oath it didn't happen, even before the person who supposedly told her the story agreed to testify under oath he didn't tell her that, even before someone looked up video footage from the day and realized it showed Trump in a completely different vehicle, it was still hearsay.
Why did every "news" organization run with it, as if it were an established fact and the Doom that Came to Trumpnath?
I think you're right and part of the problem is that the nature of political hearings is not as properly codified nor as genuinely valid as say a real court hearing according to our nation's laws and there-encoded values. Hearsay would not have made it into court to that degree. Not to say that our justice system's procedure is perfect, but still.
I also think that while they didn't want to legitimize it moreso than they did by appointing members of their own party to the committee and having them all be accepted, the Republicans could have made it a bipartisan inquiry and cross-examined, say, this witness and the validity of hearsay testimony. Or called for the Secret Service to be contacted and interviewed, though I will admit to some degree that they might have a conflict of interest.
I was still pretty impressed up until this point that while the hearings were a political circus in nature (what do you expect, it's Congress), it arguably didn't slide fully into absurdity until around that point. I was actually surprised by a lot of things, and I now have to question whether a lot of people who asked for pardons on the hill were genuinely convinced the election was stolen. I even am starting to doubt Trump didn't understand things like the alternate elector plans and Pence changing the vote count were to some degree illegal and invalid given the legal advice and pardon requests he received. Which in turn could make me question whether the election fraud alleged to have so widely taken place by him was a lie. Which would make me very angry. On which note, we have many accounts of him having no statistical inference to point to during calls with folks on the hill we have dialogue on, and which more than 20 judicial reviews including the supreme court, especially given that many were ones he appointed, claimed he had no legitimate evidence. While some claims that were made against corporate products said corporations were able to find evidence of slander for potentially, and did not get their lawsuits just thrown out.
I know it's not a popular opinion, but while this was a shit throwing circus act, with no real legal bearing because it's not a real court of law... I dunno, I'm glad it was shown most everywhere (yes, liberals, even Fox apart from day 1), even though I think media commentary was biased as ever. Because it gave me information and insight I didn't have, including much I feel can help inform the American public one way or another. Apart from relevant things I said I learned earlier, I think it showed there's not enough evidence to go to court, for one thing, either on the election being stolen or Trump trying to "incite insurrection". Both seem like political lies meant to divide America and sow mistrust in our democracy. Kinda like how maybe the Russians did help Trump a little in his first election with targeted email timing releases doing critical things to approval ratings, some blue voters *maybe* being kicked off digital voting waitlists in swing states, and troll farms and social media being brought into play... But that sure as hell doesn't make the win illegitimate. We pull that crap all the time, and in the end the voters decided by vote. And the electoral college exists for a reason, part of which is to protect state rights. I hate how both sides seem to love to smear not only each other but the democratic process our founders designed and so many damned people actively strive to monitor and protect to such a degree. I think we need stuff like Voter ID reform now, regardless of real impact on voter fraud, if only just to restore faith in the system on the right, where it's arguably most damaged in the moment. I also think the left needs to man up, comprehend, and deal with the good parts of the electoral college, states rights, the Constitution, and many other things. But that probably won't happen, because politicians in the establishment benefit from continuing to fling shit. Especially, I feel, on the left, because most of their platform these days is indeed "orange man bad".
That said the media also loves to stir up drama when it serves them, and is constantly pretending that this next thing is really what's going to sink political enemy whoever, because that's what viewers are willing and wanting to watch and hear. Sad that there's not as big an audience for relatively honest and unbiased news sources, but I guess consumers do admittedly have confirmation bias, this is a polarized time, and if folks really want some of the bigger picture they can at least try to shop around. Not to say it excuses some of the stuff that is pulled, admittedly on both sides.
Edit: Not changing my post, but it has misinformation in it, as noted in following posts, so be forewarned.