According to Axios and its inside scoop, the Select Committee has hired James Goldston, former president of ABC News and a man described as a “master documentary storyteller,” who ran two of ABC’s most-watched shows, “Good Morning America” and “Nightline.” He has joined the committee as an unannounced advisor. The Trumpers didn’t see this coming. 

Goldston is busy right now producing Thursday’s evening primetime show at 8:00 p.m. EDT as if it were a ‘blockbuster investigative special.’ We have been promised that the evidence supports the goal.

This is genius because it is not an obvious move. Congress is rarely associated with creating an emotional show.

But the committee knows that Trump threw so much corruption, slop, scandal, and crime at the country throughout his time in the spotlight that he’s somehow even been able to whitewash and normalize what had been the unifying horror that was January 6th, 2021, the attempted coup. Now we know evidence exists suggesting that the entire thing, soup to nuts, was almost certainly centrally planned from the top. It threatened this nation’s existence as a republic precisely because it came so damned close to working.

But all the evidence in the world won’t do any good unless the audience is shocked senseless to the point that it feels gut-punched. Somehow, the Committee must find a way to do the near-impossible. It must generate anger across a large swath of the American public. This includes Right-Wingers, who likely have had no exposure to the “mountain of evidence” demonstrating that this was a conspiracy.

But no matter the strength of the evidence, it is not an easy task.

The Committee knows it has limited time and the public’s attention span is near non-existent. The move now seems as obvious as the need to hire prosecutors as advisers. But until the announcement, few had contemplated the power of such a hire, nor the obvious need. Given that the news is exploding now, just three days before the first installment airs, Republicans must be reeling over the thought of having to absorb a professionally produced, highly compelling news documentary.

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