I just finished watching the mini series “Gaslit.” It’s about Watergate and centers on two of the major players… Attorney General John Mitchell and his outspoken wife Martha. An unrecognizable Sean Penn and a very recognizable Julia Roberts are the stars. It’s very, very good.
It brought back to me the era of Watergate in this country. That political scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
I was a kid when Watergate happened. It started in 1972 with the break in of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Next, came the investigation and the televised hearings. Gavel-to-gavel coverage, the networks called it. Back then, there wasn’t much else to watch.
I was in junior high school during all this. (We didn’t call it middle school back then.) I would rush home from school to watch Match Game. Many days, Match Game was not on. It was Walter Cronkite and CBS News covering the Watergate hearings.
I think that’s where the TV News bug bit me. I have Richard Nixon to thank for my journalism career. Hahaha!
We haven’t seen anything in this country like the Watergate hearings until now. I’m referring to the January 6 investigation.
I’ve watched them with great interest. Yesterday’s testimony was something. Am I really seeing this?
Former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before January 6 Select Committee. Some of the things she said paint a devastating picture of President Trump.
Here’s the timeline. After President Trump finished addressing his supporters on January 6, he left the stage. Hutchinson told the committee that instead of going back to the White House, President Trump demanded to follow the crowd to the Capital.
She says he even had an altercation with with the head of his Secret Service detail Bobby Engel: “The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel.”
A stunning assertion. But almost immediately a source told Fox News that this wasn’t true. And… Bobby Engel and another Secret Service agent would testify under oath that it did not happen.
President Trump took to social media to say that Hutchinson “lost all credibility when she got caught in a ridiculous lie.”
Hutchinson also told the story of President Trump throwing a plate of food against the wall after learning that Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press that there was no widespread evidence of voter fraud. “Ketchup,” she testified, “was dripping down the wall.”
President Trump denies it happened.
Where does all this go from here? Legal experts believe the January 6 Committee is building a case for possible criminal charges.
Whatever happens, yesterday’s testimony was something. Just like when I was in junior high and watching the Watergate hearings, I asked myself, am I really seeing this?