Team Trump knows they have to get this month's January 6th Committee hearings off the news, and they have plans to go wall-to-wall on FOX, Newsmax, OANN, and other online right-wing noise machine outlets to make their own news and drown out coverage.
Former President Trump and his allies, in conjunction with top House GOP leadership and conservative groups, have begun pulling documents and coordinating a behind-the-scenes effort to counterprogram the Jan. 6 committee's televised hearings this month, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Republicans face a daunting challenge in the coming messaging war. The committee has been building toward this moment for months, hoping to use the blockbuster summer hearings to paint a vivid picture of how close Trump and his supporters came to subverting democracy.
Republicans are plotting to compete with wall-to-wall cable coverage by using their own platforms to argue the committee is a partisan fishing expedition that lacks legal legitimacy. That framing will be central to their hopes of defanging whatever negative revelations come to light during the hearings.
What we're hearing: Trump and his inner circle will rely heavily on members of Congress — from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — to drive counterprogramming, sources familiar with their planning tell Axios.Trump himself has not ruled out making some sort of an appearance, one of the sources says.
People close to Trump have been working closely with members of Congress, the RNC and outside groups like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to collaborate on their offensive narrative. Matt Schlapp, former Trump White House political director and chairman of CPAC, has been a leader in the effort, sources say.
A crucial component is ensuring these surrogates have the tools they need to fight back, according to Republicans.That includes digging up old documents and logs from the White House to help provide Trump surrogates with a full picture of what happened both in the lead-up to and on Jan. 6, 2021.
What to watch: These surrogates will be fanning the airwaves — especially on networks and social media platforms they feel are more favorable to their cause.That includes Fox News, Steve Bannon's "War Room," "Real America’s Voice," Facebook and Trump's own Truth Social and Save America PAC.
Members of Congress and other conservative "influencers" are also planning to write op-eds and push their own rapid responses through their personal social media. Which witnesses the committee calls to testify publicly will dictate the coordinated response, the sources say.
Details: Members of House Republican leadership and would-be GOP members of the Jan. 6 committee are planning to meet early next week to go over potential strategy, two senior congressional aides tell Axios.
Jordan and Banks, whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) barred from the Jan. 6 panel last year, will seek to hammer the message that the committee "lacks merit and legitimacy" and is hyperpartisan, one of the aides emphasized.
Another leading point Republicans plan to make is that the priorities of Democrats are "out of touch" with what Americans are most concerned about: inflation, spiking gas prices, the baby formula shortage and recent mass shootings.
They're betting voters have Jan. 6 "fatigue," a House GOP leadership aide said. "We’ve got to be rigid and responsible, but a lot of Republicans think if Dems want to just talk about Jan. 6 between now and the midterm election — good luck," the aide added.
Of course, all this leads to the following observations:
1) Trumplandia is scared stiff. They know what's coming, because they're the ones that committed insurrection against the United States. They wouldn't risk a major Streisand Effect incident by bringing more attention to January 6th among their own voters unless they knew that anything has to be better than America finding out the truth in these hearings.
2) They're setting the stage to punish the January 6th Committee Members in 2023. The screaming about the Committee itself being illegitimate is the biggest part of this. Documenting the hearings as "evidence to be used later" and as justification for, say, removing all the committee members from their other committee assignments in January (or worse) is the goal should Republican retake control of the House.
3) The pressure for media to cover the "Republican response" in order to "both sides" the hearings will be massive. Expect cable news coverage teams on the networks like CBS, NBC, and ABC to feature at least some Republicans, as they will demand "equal time" for hours of hearings. News divisions will give it to them too, because of the access game they feel will be necessary next year. This will be a deliberate choice by the media when it happens.
So yes, the Trump plan is to flood the zone with bullshit and more, and we'll see if the Committee can rise above it later this month.
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