Will GOP jettison a damaged Donald Trump?

Day 6 of the hearings yesterday by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol consisted of one bombshell after another. The Committee’s witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, the top aide to former Donald Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, came to the hearing with stunning revelations to share. Among Hutchinson’s revelations:

–When Trump learned in December 2020 that the Department of Justice had not found evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election that would nullify Joe Biden‘s victory (i.e., Trump’s “Big Lie”), Trump became so angry that he threw his porcelain plate full of lunch at the White House dining room wall, leaving ketchup dripping down the wall. On other occasions, an angry Trump either threw dishes or “flipp[ed] the table cloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere.”

–Trump and other top administration officials knew about the risk of violence on January 6 days beforehand, but did nothing to stop it.

–Indeed, on January 6, Trump was upset that the Ellipse in front of the White House, where he was to speak, was not full enough for a flattering photo op. Trump was told the reason was that many of the rioters were armed with AR-15 rifles and other weapons and did not want to go through the metal detectors and have such weapons confiscated, instead choosing to march directly to the Capitol with their weapons. Upon hearing this, Trump wanted to have the metal detectors taken away and to let the armed insurrectionists onto the Ellipse, saying “they’re not here to hurt me.”

–When told that the rioters were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and that Trump should take action to try to quell the violence (such as telling the protesters to leave the Capitol), Trump refused, saying “Mike deserves it” (for not stopping the Congressional count of Electoral Votes as Trump wished) and that the rioters were “not doing anything wrong.”

–Trump attacked his own Secret Service detail leader and tried to grab the steering wheel of the Presidential limousine when told he would not be taken to the Capitol after speaking on January 6.

When Tuesday’s hearing ended, this was the reaction by the panel at Fox “News”:

The time for Donald Trump to hurt the world is quickly coming to an end

Donald Trump has been a media figure since the 1970s. Those who grew up in the New York metropolitan area during that time, or the 1980s, may remember widespread tabloid coverage of Trump and his marriages and business deals, for example, in the New York Post and the Daily News. Trump is a master media manipulator and seems to thrive on such attention.

Unfortunately, however, the mainstream media’s fascination with covering Donald Trump in a superficial, tabloid fashion have continued through all four years of Trump in the White House. Even worse, now that Trump has decisively lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, the media insist on continuing to cover Trump’s every utterance, tweet, golf round and tantrum. It’s enough already. Trump is a lame duck with just 51 days left in office, his power is waning every minute, and it’s time for the media to do what most Americans are already doing: move on from Donald Trump.