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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and life.

My name is Freddie Gray. I'm the deputy editor of the spectator. I am thrilled

today to be joined by John Daniel Davidson, who is a senior editor at the Federalist, and the

hardy perennial of the Spectator Americano podcast, Jacob Harbrun, who is editor of the national interest.

We're going to be talking about the January 6th committee. The hearings are happening this week.

And I think it's fair to say it's had wall-to-wall coverage on most major channels in America.

Jacob, let's start with the obvious question. What is the precise

purpose of this committee? And is it going about achieving it in the right way? Well, the committee

itself has apparently been divided on its ambitions. One was to make the case that Trump was the active conspirator,

a spider at the center of the web, designed to perpetuate his presidency illegally and create an

insurrection. And then second half, which is more of the Democrats, I think, is how do you strengthen

the American electoral system and so forth?

They went for number one last night.

I was surprised by the extent to which they pounded home the theme in the beginning, middle,

and end that Trump and Trump alone was fueling this

process and that he had created a circle of enablers and that he, together with these militia

groups, had created this active conspiracy. And now they've promised a lot of

information coming down the road. Actually, the most interesting thing I saw came after the committee

hearing itself, which was when Benny Thompson was interviewed by Jake Tapper and declared or alleged, depending on your viewpoint, that the committee possesses

direct information linking Trump's inner circle to the proud boys who did not stay at the speech,

...