“Season finale” Jan. 6 hearing seen by millions
The Hollywood Reporter has numbers:
According to Nielsen, 17.67 million people watched the primetime hearing across 10 broadcast and cable outlets. That’s down from the 20 million who watched the first televised hearing (across 11 channels) on June 9, but significantly more people than watched any of the six daytime hearings in between the two primetime sessions.
Fox News ran its regular nightime programming and shunted the hearing to its “ lesser-watched channel Fox Business.”
The hearings are taking a toll on Donald Trump’s support even if Ross Douthat thinks “the stench of failure … from his well-worn grievances, his whine of disappointment and complaint” are more to blame. Even if Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan believes most Republicans “are not watching and not paying attention, and it’s not going to impact them.”
Polls show no major shifts among voters in the share of Republicans who view the Jan. 6 riot as protected speech, although independents have moved nine points since December in seeing of the Jan. 6 riot as an insurrection.
Nonetheless, Republicans are beginning to view Trump less favorably as a 2024 candidate capable of winning. Perhaps it is that stench of failure (Washington Post):
Two Florida lobbyists who have fundraised for DeSantis, a potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said the hearings could intensify “Trump fatigue,” as one put it. “I think a lot of people want normalcy. Policies without the craziness.” The other said the committee lacks credibility among Republicans but could still create discomfort about “Trump’s drama.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Pence aide and White House communications director who has spoken out against Trump, said attitudes are more malleable “for those who are on the margins and are not ultra MAGA.”
“I think it’s weakened him in a massive way,” she said. “It reminds people of the drama and the four years of having to explain why they supported him.”
A looming GOP primary, Griffin said, means “it’s not a binary moment. It’s not him versus Biden. Do they really want to go back through that whole fiasco? They’re also reminded of the noise and the drama and the division. We can support someone else. There are other good candidates.”
Even if Trump fades, Trumpism is still going strong.
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