Outcome of the Jan. 6 hearings is that Americans’ trust in elections is slipping
The 'Big Lie' that the 2020 presidential election was rigged has damaged the cornerstone of our democracy
The biggest issue in the 2022 election might be the fact that we haven’t moved on from the last one. We’re still living in the shadow of former President Donald Trump’s Big Lie — a baseless assertion that he and his allies refuse to let go of.
The claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” or “rigged” is demonstrably false. And, as the House’s Jan. 6 committee detailed Thursday in what was likely its final hearing, Trump knew it was false — but he wanted to “keep fighting” the results anyway. He publicly insisted he had won the election even after privately admitting he had lost, the committee’s presentation revealed.
Despite the compelling evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee in its nine public hearings, it often felt like its members were shouting into a void. The most powerful members of the Republican Party have either ignored the hearings or tried to discredit them altogether, and while the committee’s work has changed some minds, it may not have changed enough.
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