This past week the Jan.6th Committee announced that they were weighing holding prime time televised hearings sometime early in the year. In the past few weeks information about what the committee has already uncovered began leaking to the public. According to Yahoo News Rep. Jamie Raskin told a group of progressives that public hearings will reveal information that “will blow the roof off the House”. Other members of the Committee have intimated that they have evidence that implicates members of the House and even the Senate in the planning and organization of the insurrection.

More and more information regarding Mark Meadows’ and Kevin McCarthy’s involvement have come to light, as well as information supplied to the Committee some of Trump’s closest associates in the White House. What we do know about Trump’s involvement appears to be quite damning, but what we don’t know could be very devastating to Trump and senior Republican leaders of Congress and the Republican National Committee. The latest revelation of forged Electoral College documents from 5 swing states that Trump won’t the election could turn out to be a bombshell if they lead to Trump’s or McCarthy’s involvement.

I am old enough to remember watching the Watergate Hearings on live television every day after school. I can remember my parents, as well as the rest of the country, riveted to the TV as damning testimony about Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate breaking and subsequent coverup. These televised hearings nailed Nixon’s fate and led to his resignation. What happened on January 6th is far worse than a botched burglary and coverup. January 6th was an attempted coup to install Trump as president for life.

Will these televised hearings be different? They probably will be. At the time of Watergate, the country was not as deeply divided as it is now. Many, if not most Republicans, wanted to get to the truth of what Nixon did and what he was hiding. They wanted to enforce the Constitution and swore loyalty to the Constitution instead of to Nixon or to their party.

Nixon had his faults, but he did have a measure of integrity and he did love his country. He did what was best for the country. In the present situation, Trump has always done what’s best for him. He has managed, with the help of the media, to cultivate a cult following. Trump, the ultimate narcissist, cannot admit defeat, cannot admit wrongdoing, cannot accept responsibility. He can only lie and cheat and seek revenge upon those who dare disagree with him or those who he imagines have wronged him.

His followers, not only in the general public, but in Congress, the military, the courts, and the media have accepted his “Big Lie” and are determined to destroy our democracy and crown Trump king. As those followers of Jim Jones went to their deaths, instead of accepting the truth, Trump’s cult members cannot or will not be persuaded by common sense, facts, or the truth before their eyes.

I’m afraid the revelations coming from prime time hearings conducted by the Jan. 6th Committee, shocking as they may be, will only serve to strengthen the beliefs of those of us who already believe that Trump was responsible for the insurrection. What other type of behavior can be expected from a pathological narcissist? Unfortunately, I don’t think televised hearings will make a difference, but the American people must be presented with the facts.

You may want to read “Time is Running Out on Our Democracy“