up in his place instead and almost sort of like a tv network. the committee behind the scenes was scrambling to fill his place, and that involved basically using all of the pre-recorded private deposition that they had gotten steppian to say and was well aware of what he would testify. one of the keys to being more persuasive here is hearing these arguments in republicans own words in the own words of trump advisers rather than them telling that story, but i do think again, it was a key test for the committee that they passed with flying colors. it was a little bit of a delay, but not much other than that, and i think also highlighted the multimedia approach that the committee is taking here in comparison to past and more traditional hearings that congress usually puts on.
i want to be conducting interviews before anything that a congressional committee is going to do, which may or may not impact what i m trying to do in a criminal sense. and so, to that end, i would hope that there are not surprises coming out of these hearings. to the extent there are surprises, it might be the actual witnesses on the day of the hearing saying something that may add to information that s available or conflict with information, but my strong hope is that everything coming out through these hearings is already pretty well known by the attorney general, by his prosecutors, to the extent that it matters for criminal prosecution. so, again, my hope is the attorney general was saying that in an effort to convey that, we see this as an important exercise by the committee. we see the value in these hearings. but just there s a little bit about him saying that that gives me a little bit of unease at the bottom of my stomach. i mean, miles, i think we know from some investig
caucus in 16. whenever he was questioned about it in 2020. he said he wasn t going to do it. he wouldn t commit to it and the secretaries of defense had to write letters about it so bill stepien and jason miller knew what they were going to sign up for. so when donald trump went out and said a fraud was perpetrated on the american people it was their job at that time to come public and say this is false. that is the that was their job then. it was their job between then and january 6th and it was their job during the impeachment trial and they didn t do it. they step back from the crazy in private, that doesn t impress me. that doesn t impress me one bit. that just means they were going along with the coup and not saying anything about it. they were on the backseat of team coup rather than the front seat. all of trump s people knew that it was false except maybe rudy who was drinking and that they all at varying degrees went along with it because donald trump was committed to
i think it s obviously preferable to have a lot of these witnesses come in person and reiterate what they were going to saying and for these big players who was never going to show up to the committee and look like he was cooperating and it was a pretty good stand-in. that s why we re seeing ivanka trump, jared kushner, jason miller, alex cannon, rich donoghue and jeff rosen, the gamut, the most influential people in trump s inner circle inside the administration and outside of the administration appear and all basically say the same thing, that trump knowingly spread these election lies. he knew that he lost, but i do think the way that the committee is telling the story did require a bit of forethought even, for example, as we thought about
transcripts, they haven t turned it over. i think we also know, i think, the five of us watched four years of when trump was and was not under criminal investigation. we know a little bit of what it looks like and sounds like. it s a whole lot of, you know, rudy pocket dials. i mean, what s your take on this? well, let s first talk about the line and then talk about the implications. i mean, who on this earth does not yet believe that lying is this man s lodestar? it s how he operates. it s how he gets things done. if the truth isn t what he wants it to be, trump reshapes the truth to be whatever he wants it to be, i mean, we all remember the old fable of the emperor who had no clothes. the january 6th select committee is not only showing us that the emperor had no clothes, he knew he had no clothes, and he went running down the street naked anyway and now millions of people are running down the street naked with him. look what a sight, miles. thank you for that. sorry to put t