The Weekly Sift

I tested negative for Covid on Christmas Eve, and have recovered enough energy to do a Sift this week.

The big event this week was the release of the January 6 Committee’s final report, which I admit I have not read completely. It appears to be a fleshing out of the basic narrative they’ve been building since their first public hearings this summer: January 6 was not a one-day event, but the unsuccessful culmination of Trump’s months-long plot to hold onto power in spite of losing the 2020 election.

This week’s featured post revisits a point I focused on after the Committee’s early public hearings, which I think hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention: Trump doesn’t have a story to tell. His entire effort has been to block the Committee from assembling evidence to support its story, not to build a narrative of his own.

In the summer he claimed to have “sooo many witnesses” that would end “this Witch Hunt” “quickly” if only the Committee would talk to them. But that’s the last we heard of those witnesses. Instead, Trump’s people have defied subpoenas, claimed executive privilege, and invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions. Those who have answered questions — willingly or unwillingly — have provided evidence that supported the Committee’s narrative.

Anyway, that post will be out soon. The weekly summary has a few other important events to cover: President Zelenskyy spoke to Congress. Congress’ waning Democratic majority (with Mitch McConnell’s connivance) got the government funded through September, when the new Republican House majority will undoubtedly force some kind of crisis. Kevin McCarthy still hasn’t corralled the last few votes he needs to become speaker. And a few other things.

That will probably be out between noon and one EST.