LOCAL NEWS
KIRO, KTTH radio hosts react to prime-time January 6 committee hearing
Jun 10, 2022, 3:37 PM | Updated: 4:46 pm
A video of former President Donald Trump speaking during a rally near the White House on Jan. 6th, is shown on a screen at a hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on June 09, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence related to the January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol for almost a year, will present its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. (Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images)
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack held its first prime-time hearing Thursday evening, detailing the findings of the panel’s investigation and playing new video from closed-door depositions of members of former President Donald Trump’s team and depicting the violence at the Capitol.
“It’s going to be increasingly hard for people to defend President Trump on this issue, and the only reason the issue matters is because he’s insistent on running for president again,” Michael Medved, a radio host for KTTH, said on the Gee and Ursula Show on KIRO Newsradio. “And I don’t see how anyone can claim, no matter how much you love and admire President Donald Trump, that what we saw last night, and a great many Americans saw and watched the whole thing. It was riveting. It was well produced. It was informative. And some of it was brand new and quite shocking. And none of it helps the president.”
Those that spoke at the Jan. 6 hearings included Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), and U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was the first witness to testify.
“I thought that Bennie Thompson came across with gravity and sympathy and Police Officer Carolyn Edwards, who was grievously injured, trying to defend her country and tried to defend the Capitol Building and live up to her oath,” Medved said. “And then Liz Cheney, who basically carried the evening. The only other person who came off with enhanced prestige was Mike Pence because actually, he showed some real courage on January 6. He was in real danger.”
The committee said that Edwards was the first officer injured by the rioters. She was knocked unconscious and suffered a traumatic brain injury during the attack.
“But we now know that there was somebody who was acting presidential on that day, who was calling the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who was checking out what was happening,” Medved said. “But that presidential figure wasn’t Donald Trump. It was Mike Pence.”
Bryan Suits, host of the Bryan Suits Show on KTTH, came to Trump’s defense after the first of at least six public hearings took place.
“Here’s the thing. Trump didn’t specifically say, walk down there and assault cops. I understand that we all support the blue, but today, suspend that, and attack cops, and then get in there,” Suits said. “He didn’t do that. But what he did was not exactly read the room either.”
The committee revealed testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former president did not want the U.S. Capitol attack to stop, angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters, and thought his own vice president “deserved” to be hanged.
Trump made a comment during a September 2020 debate that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.” The committee showed new testimony from Proud Boys leaders about how they viewed that as a call to arms.
“I loved Trump’s results. That’s why I voted to reelect him in 2020. No one blocked my democracy,” Suits said. “I didn’t vote for him in 2016 because he didn’t know anything. He was just a wealthy guy who made some good business decisions. But he was a better politician, which at the end of the day, you vote for the people that are better politicians. But, on January 20, at noon of 2021, a different guy was going to sit at that desk and anyone else sitting there would be a trespasser. That’s how the Constitution works. It was not a coup attempt. It was basically vandalism.”
Gee Scott, co-host of the Gee and Ursula Show on KIRO Newsradio, is currently away from the studio, but made sure to voice his thoughts on the Jan. 6 hearing on Twitter.
Buddy of mine just said to me: There needs to be a conviction after each hearing. #January6thHearings
— Gee Scott Sr. (@GeeScottSr) June 10, 2022
The same ones that scream Blue Lives Matter. 🙄 #January6thHearings
— Gee Scott Sr. (@GeeScottSr) June 10, 2022
I remember having a Republican come on my show and say that the country should move on. I also remember Republican leaders trying to block this investigation. #January6thHearings
— Gee Scott Sr. (@GeeScottSr) June 10, 2022
