Speaker 1: Welcome back to the David Pakman show. I am Ferron Cousins from Ring of Fire sitting in
for David today and tomorrow. And let's talk a little bit more about the January six hearings,
but let's go a different approach, right? We've talked about the hearings. We've talked about
what's been uncovered. But one thing we need to talk about, too, is the Republican response.
I mean, obviously, we have had some pretty massive revelations from these committee hearings.
So massive, in fact, that even some of the folks on Fox News,
even Fox News hosts have come out and said this looks really bad for Trump.
They have had paid Fox News analysts on the air this week that have said,
I believe you could hit Trump with criminal charges, obstruction of Congress to be specific.
So even the folks at Fox News, not all of them. Not even a majority.
But a couple of them starting to see those cracks form looking at what's happening and saying, oh.
This is pretty bad. So if even Fox News is saying that, you got to assume the Republicans in
Congress, not the ones implicated in the schemes, but the other ones, you know, the regular ones,
certainly. They've been moved by what we've seen. Right. Well, no. Or at least they're pretending.
That they're not moved by anything that we have seen. In fact, a recent report
from The Hill this week kind of highlighted a bunch of different Republican responses
to what we've seen so far from the committee. So let me read you some of these responses
that these Republican senators, these are all senators. This is what they told
reporters from the Hill. First up, we have Senate Minority Leader Whip John Thune, not minority
leader sorry, Senate Minority Whip John Thune. To the degree that there are any people who haven't
made up their minds or don't have an opinion one way or the other, maybe something comes out of
this that changes that. But it just seems like right now it's mostly rehashing ground. Hmm.
Okay. Remember that phrase, by the way? Senator Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia says,
yeah, there's significant, but I'm not sure it's going to change anyone's mind. Okay. Then we have
Senator Kevin Cramer from North Dakota who says no one's ever said anything to me about it back home.
I don't know that I know anybody that's watched it. No one has ever brought it up as an issue.
Riddle me this. Senator Cramer movies last time you're back in North Dakota,
we actually spoke to constituents. Like not lectured them, not gave a speech,
but actually, you know, maybe you walked into a diner, maybe you did a town hall.
But but I would love to see evidence of you actually talking to people in them saying,
we haven't watched any of it. Because I'm willing to bet that hasn't actually happened, has it?
Yeah, that just seems like something you probably didn't actually do.
Republican Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota says he watched the first day of the hearings
and parts of the second day. And then he said, I think they did a very nice production. They
spent their time efficiently, but they didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know.
So we're back to that theme, right? Like, Oh, this is all old news. Everybody knows all these
things that happened. Come on, hit me with the good stuff, they say. Lisa murkowski, Alaska,
said that the panel is, quote, basically saying this is a rehash of everything out there.
A rehash. It's the second time we've heard that word from a
Republican senator offering a response to what we've learned
from these January six committee hearings. It's a rehash. It's old news. They're all telling
us the same things. We've heard all this before. Play some new material. Well, okay.
I first have to say, it almost seems as if all of these responses are somehow coordinated. Right.
Yeah. I'm fully willing to bet Republicans probably sent out a memo that eventually will make
its way public, telling Republican senators how to respond to all of this. Downplayed, downplayed,
downplay. Say that, oh, this is nothing we didn't already know. But here's the thing. There is a lot
of stuff we didn't already know. There's been a lot of new material. I mean, sure, I've watched
these hearings and a lot of it I do say like, yes, okay. I knew that. I knew that. But here's
the thing. And this is what these Republican senators have to understand as well. And they
do understand let's be clear, they understand it. They're pretending they don't understand it.
These hearings are not for me. In fact, honestly, these hearings probably aren't for you either.
If you're watching this, you're a daily consumer, pretty much of political news. You're up on
the issues. You understand things. You know these things. These hearings aren't for you.
These hearings aren't for the Republicans in the Senate. These hearings are for the millions upon
millions upon millions of Americans who haven't paid attention to any of this. And again, you as
a Daily News consumer probably think that that's weird, right? Are there really people like that,
folks? The majority of America doesn't consume any political news on a daily basis.
Let me tell the story this way. The very first hearing.
My wife was sitting right next to me on the couch as we're watching this.
She she had no interest in it. And she's a teacher. So the day of the Capitol riot,
she wasn't glued to the TV. She's teaching her class. She didn't get to see any of the footage.
She wanted to actually leave saying, I don't care about this. I don't want to see it. But she ended
up glued to the TV that night. In shock. Because she had never seen it. I'd seen the footage.
I had read stories about the testimony that they were playing. But she hadn't. And she was shocked,
just absolutely floored. That all of this took place. Shocked at the beatings that we were seeing
these rioters do against police officers. That is who these hearings are for. Those people. The
people who. Yeah, they understand. Yeah. January six. I know. Something happened. It was bad.
But they didn't quite understand it because they're not daily political news consumers.
And again and I know that sounds weird, folks, that yes, there are people out there.
Most people do not do this on a daily basis. Even Fox News right on a good night. They're breaking
what 3 million viewers in primetime seems like a lot, right? Less than 1% of the population. You
add in the people who watch political news on YouTube, MSNBC, CNN, and add all that together.
Maybe. Maybe you got 5% of the U.S. population. Maybe. Consuming daily political news either from
conservative, liberal or neutral sources doesn't matter. 90 to 95% of the country out there isn't
doing that. They may tune in to the local news in the evenings. You know, find out what's happening
in their community. You know, local sports, get the weather for tomorrow and that's it.
They wake up, they shower, they go to work, they come home, they get the kids, they make dinner,
they watch a sitcom, they, you know, binge some TV shows and they go to bed and they do
it all again the next day. Those are the people that these hearings are for. And
as far as we can tell, those are the people that these hearings are reaching.
So for these Republicans to act like, oh, it's no big deal, there's nothing new.
It may not be new to you, but there are millions of Americans who've never seen this and never
heard this. And it is having a major impact on how they feel about American politics. Just remains to
be seen, of course, how big that impact is going to be. Next time, folks, head to the ballot box