Allies of former President Donald Trump are planning a flurry of TV appearances to counter the glare of next week’s House Jan. 6th Committee hearings, which will begin in prime time.
After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks, Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana, Trump’s allies aren’t on the committee. On January 6, both of them voted against counting electoral votes certified by states.
They are, however, plotting ways to participate in the conversation. As counter-programming, former President Trump could make a TV or other appearance.
According to Axios, Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Conservative Union, is helping to plan the activities.
He was discovered in messages sent to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, which were disclosed after Meadows gave the committee some of his papers.
‘Pls get 4 or 5 killers in remaining counts. Need outsiders who will torch the place,’ he wrote after the November elections, as Trump allies were fighting vote tallies in state courts. ‘Local folks won’t do it. Lawyers and operators. Get us in these states,’ he wrote Nov. 4.
‘I may need to get you and mercy (sic) to go to PA,’ Meadows wrote back, in reference to his wife Mercedes, a former White House aide under Trump.
Republicans in the House are likely to play a crucial role, including GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (NY), who took over when Republicans voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from her position after she joined the panel on January 6th.
Part of the strategy will be to portray the committee as untrustworthy and ‘out of touch’ with American voters’ concerns about inflation, which will let the committee to be attacked without directly endorsing Trump’s election overturn attempt.