 Today was another session, public session, of the January 6th committee hearings. They met today, focused primarily on, you know, Trump trying to induce Pence to desertify, to refuse to certify the votes that were coming in, the constitutionalality of that, who influenced Trump to do that, the response of Pence, all of that was kind of discussed today. And, you know, again, I don't think there was much new other than the extent to which this was corrupt, the extent to which the people advising Trump knew that what they were advising him was probably illegal. And here you primarily, what's his name? Eastman. I mean, he was so convinced of what was advising Trump was illegal that he actually asked that Trump pardon him before he'd ever been accused of a crime, pardon him in advance for the advice he gave him, because he was afraid that one day he would have to be in court trying to defend something that he knew was illegal. Now, I know John Eastman. I've met John Eastman, I've had conversations with John Eastman. I think John Eastman, yeah, maybe introduced me before a talk that I gave. He was, he was the Dean of the Law School at Chapman University for a few years. So I met John Eastman. I was very shocked that John Eastman was involved in what, with Trump, involved with Trump in the way that he was, that he gave Trump the kind of advice that he gave him, that he supported Trump's attempt to steal the election, that all of that happened, very disappointed in Eastman. I thought he was a better guy than that. But it turns out that he was giving this advice. He knew it was wrong. He kind of, you know, Trump's going to be Trump and I'm going to tell him what he wants to hear. I know it's illegal. I want to get pardoned. Please pardon me. Please, please pardon me. So I don't have to ever face the music for what I just did. It's going to be interesting to see what happens because when he was actually asked questions by the committee about issues relating to January 6 and about his advice to Trump and about what everything else was going on, he played the fifth to everything. He basically played the fifth, I think, 100 times. So he gave no answers. So it's going to be interesting if ever there's a case brought against him what it actually does. But look, Trump tried to illegally, illegally in null and election and take over the American government. I mean, he basically tried for coup. He didn't get away with it because Pence didn't go along, because the military probably wouldn't have gone along, because he probably couldn't have gone away with it. But he did what he could to try to get away with it. This is the guy so many of you admire. He wanted to basically wipe out a legal election. And everybody in his administration was telling him, other than Giuliani and a few other kooks, everybody in his administration was telling him, and this is what we've seen time and time again, is you lost. You just did. You lost. There's no basis for overturning this election. None, zero, null. None, nada. Be a man. Recognize this. And not only did Trump continue with the lie, try to put pressure on his vice president, and was conceiving all kinds of ways to use the National Guard to seize ballot boxes and machines and do a whole variety of illegal things. From the perspective of the Republican Party, he got away with it. The Republican Party has basically said, yeah, we're fine with that. We have no problem with it. Trump's a good guy. We're all behind Trump. Even though the guy's the first guy in American history, as far as I know, that actually tried to illegally overturn an election, seize control illegally of the US government. I don't think that's ever been tried. And the Republican Party is like, cool. We're with you. It doesn't matter. You're still the best guy possible. Now, that is insane. Now, just take the fact that during, you know, people are writing at the Capitol, they're breaking windows, they're using violence, they're rampaging through people's offices. Pence and certain congressmen are calling Trump and saying, we feel like we're in danger. This is a real danger. Something really bad here was happening. And Trump does nothing. He doesn't call the National Guard. I mean, he's the commander in chief. There's an insurrection, and he does nothing. He just sits there, watches television. And it's only Pence who calls up the National Guard, which is in and of itself illegal. It's just mind boggling. And everybody goes, eh, okay, so what? We'll vote for him again. How? How is that possible? How is that possible? He is so, he is the most corrupt president we've ever had. He makes Richard Nixon look like, like the most honest guy ever. I mean, he is a thousand times worse than Richard Nixon. And I was glad to see Michael Lidwig, no, not Lidwig, Lutig, Michael Lutig, L-U-T-T-I-G. He's a former pellet judge, a staunch Republican, a staunch conservative. I'd probably disagree with him about issues all over the place because he's such a conservative. On the short list of denominations of Supreme Court a number of times, including I think on Trump's short list, he came out with a statement lambasting Trump today, lambasting Trump today. But more importantly, lambasting the Republican Party. I mean, he says, I mean, he's, it's a long statement. I'm not going to read it to you, but you know, those who think that because America's a republic, theft and corruption of our national elections and a electoral process are not theft and corruption of our democracy are solely mistaken. America's both a republican and representative democracy and therefore a sustained attack on our national elections is an attack on our democracy, our political theory, otherwise notwithstanding. Accordingly, if and when one of our national elections is actually stolen from us, our democracy will have been stolen from us. To steal an election in the United States of America is to steal her democracy. And in a sense that he means democracy, I agree with him completely. Whoops, what did I do there? It is breathtaking that these arguments, the arguments about, you know, overturning the elections, that these arguments were even conceived, let alone entertained by the president of the United States at that perilous moment in our history. Had the vice president of the United States obeyed the president of the United States, America would immediately have been plunged into what have been, what would have been tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis. The former president's accountability under the law for the riot in the United States Capitol on January 6 is incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people and thereby steal America's democracy from America herself. This set willful ignorance of the law and the fact is neither excuse nor defense in law willful ignorance less as neither political nor legal excuse or defense available to the president of the United States as allies and his supporters. On January 6, 2021, revolutionaries, not patriots assaulted America. The walls of all three of our institutions of democracy were scaled and breached on that appalling date. And almost two years hence, one of America's two political parties, he's a Republican member, one of America's two political parties cannot even agree whether that day was good or bad, right or wrong, worse. It cannot agree over whether January 6 was indeed or not needed or not. Pause for a moment and reflect on that. The former president and his party cannot decide whether the revolt at the United States Capitol to disrupt and prevent the constitutional counting of votes for the presidency was needed. And therefore, whether another vote might be needed at a future date to accomplish that which the previous revolt failed to accomplish. The former president's party cynically and embarrassingly rationalizes January 6 as having means something between hallowed, legitimate public discourse and a visitor's tour of the Capitol that got out of hand. January 6, of course, was neither and the former president and his party know that it was not legitimate public discourse by any definition, nor was it a civics tour of the Capitol building. Though that day proved to be an eye-opening civics lesson for all Americans, I wish, I wish. January 6 was rather a defining and a redefining day in American history. Defining and redefining of America itself. On that day, America finally came face to face with a raging war that it had been waging against itself for years. So bloodshilling was that day for our democracy that America could not believe her eyes and she turned them away in both fear and shame. Even so, many have already forgotten and many more have chosen to forget. Some who rioted and occupied the Capitol that day had already decided how this war for our democracy must end. While others of the account compatriots upon sober reflection afterwards decided that no, this war must end now before there's further bloodshed. And he goes on, it's a pretty long statement. But he says, America is a perilous crossroads. Who is it that we have become and what is it that America has become? Is this who we want to be and what we want America to be? And if not, just who is it that Americans want to be and just what it is that America wants to be? Not always well-written. Let's see if there's some. Now what he really is afraid of, what he points out here, is that Trump and his supporters are basically set up to 2024 elections for them to steal. No matter whether, if he loses 2024, he's now got people in position in various parts of administrations at the state level who can not certify the elections, reverse them, send different people to the Constitution Convention, constitutional convention to the Electoral College, sorry, to Electoral College. And he is terrified that in 2024, Trump will steal an election. He tried to steal the previous election, failed. And now he's going to try to steal this election. And he's right to be terrified. If you watch and you see the kind of people being elected by Republicans or some of these primaries, it is truly scary. It is truly scary. So it's going to be interesting. There are going to be more revelations that make a big deal now of the role of Judge Thomas' wife in the proceedings. I've met her too. I've heard her speak. I've met her. She is not. I don't like her at all, never have. I like Thomas. I like many of his rulings. I do not like his wife. She was a horrible, populist, Republican way back. But it is interesting to see what her role will be in this. Hopefully Thomas had no involvement and it was not kind of guiding things in the background or whatever because I'd hate for him to leave the court. But yeah, I don't like the wife. I don't like Judge Thomas' wife. So it's going to be interesting. I think this is crucially important that the Republican party, not the American people, the Republican party comes to terms with January 6th. And I don't think they are. And I think as long as they don't, it's basically a disgrace. It's basically a disgrace. Ian says Ted Cruz cloaked for Lutig. That's interesting. That's interesting. Maybe Lutig can give Ted Cruz a call and give him a chewing out over this issue because Ted Cruz is one of the bad guys here. The Republican party better wake up before they are responsible for the end of freedom, political freedom in this country. Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see The Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content. And of course, subscribe, press that little bell button right down there on YouTube, so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.