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Trump subpoenaed as January 6 panel fails to sway voters

Sunday, 16 October 2022 12:49 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 16 October 2022 1:13 AM ]

Ramin Mazaheri

Press TV, Chicago

Less than four weeks before the United States midterm legislative elections, the committee investigating the election-related protests on January 6th, 2021, announced that they will subpoena ex-president Donald Trump to testify.

However, most analysts believe Trump will not ultimately testify, and his written response to the panel was non-committal. Trump has reportedly been telling aides he favors testifying as long as it would be done in a live public hearing, but the commission isn’t likely to agree to that.

Almost two years after the presidential election, the country appears to be as divided as ever, with Trump supporters calling the subpoena an “October surprise” meant to influence the midterms, while anti-Trump partisans say the subpoena proves that not even an ex-president is above the law.

The January 6th committee has been alternatively branded as a necessary defense of American-style democracy or as a staged show-trial.

What appears certain, however, is that it has had seemingly no effect on the American public: in poll numbers which are virtually unchanged despite nearly two years of intense mainstream media focus on the committee, 35% of America still calls the events of January 6th a “legitimate protest” while 50% of the country still calls it an “insurrection.”

Over 60% of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was illegitimate. In 2017 polls showed that over 60% of Democrats still believed the 2016 election was illegitimate.

America’s political division did not begin on January 6th, 2021, and it does not appear that the committee will fully unite the nation by voting day - on November 8.

The news of the subpoena was announced on what many say was likely the commission’s last public hearing. The final report is expected shortly after the elections.

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