Trump: The Hunted

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is really getting into high gear now.  The panel requested records from four key witnesses and demanded their testimony by the middle of October.  They are former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, former top White House strategist Steve Bannon, former Trump deputy chief of staff and director of social media Dan Scavino, and former Pentagon official and Trump loyalist Kashyap Patel.  Meadows and Bannon are wanted for their direct communications with Trump and with state and local pro-Trump officials plotting to undermine election results throughout the country to stop Joe Biden's installation in the Presidency.  Scavino is wanted for having been present "during a discussion of how to convince members of Congress not to certify the election for Joe Biden," while Patel is a person of interest regarding his participation in "discussions among senior Pentagon officials prior to and on January 6, 2021, regarding 'security at the Capitol.'" 

The select committee isn't working its way to the top in investigating the effort to stop a Biden Presidency and stage a coup; it's starting there.  Going after the four most important players in this attempted coup is the fastest way to get to the truth and the surest way to prevent Bannon, Meadows, Scavino and Patel from stalling. The sooner the mostly Democratic committee, which includes two Republicans, Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger (below) and Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, gets to the bottom of this, the better, because it could save our democracy in the absence of federal voting-rights legislation by retarding Trumpism.

And while the January 6 committee goes after Trumpism, New York State Attorney General Letitia James is going after Trump.  James has warned that Trump Organization must hand over relevant documents subpoenaed by her office in its case against Trump's company.  A judge has followed suit and demanded that the company comply by this Thursday.    
While James may have the luxury of her time in her pursuit - for now, at least - the January 6 committee in the House has an expiration date of January 3, 2023, with no chance of a renewal thanks to the all-but-inevitable Republican takeover of the House expected in the 2022 midterms, infrastructure legislation. or no infrastructure legislation.  Once Kevin McCarthy is sworn in as House Speaker, the committee will be gone, and so will Kinzinger and Cheney. 

Banks of the Jordan

So U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (below) looked over the five Republicans the House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy nominated for the select committee January 6 insurrection and accepted three of them but not those two Midwestern morons named Jim - Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana.  McCarthy demanded that Speaker Pelosi accept all five of his choices, and when she refused, he pulled them all and left the committee with only the eight members Speaker Pelosi appointed, including Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

McCarthy sought to improve his chances to help the Republicans regain the House in 2022 and make him Speaker by pulling this stunt, but Speaker Pelosi is letting the select committee go ahead, since it has a quorum and all.  McCarthy doesn't want the truth of the insurrection to get out and diminish the GOP's chances in the 2022 midterms, but the select committee will be moving forward this coming week to get the truth out, and it may have some help.  At this writing, Speaker Pelosi is considering expanding the committee and adding two Republicans - including Adam Kinzinger of Illinois - making it an even ten members and also more bipartisan than it currently is.  The House has the votes to do that. 

The hearings begin this coming week.  They could end up being more fun to watch than the Tokyo Olympics!