[ Trump} Will He Testify?

The cheering that you heard last week came from those who want to see ex-president Donald Trump face a congressional committee where he will have to swear an oath to tell the truth. Speaking of telling the truth, Trump being a former television reality show host, would have been an outstanding contestant on that old time classic show, “To Tell the Truth”. On that show, many Dispatch readers around my age (past 70) would remember that the show’s panel had to guess which of three contestants was telling the truth. They would answer questions from the panel about their profession to guess who was really telling the truth. The answers given by the contestants would “mirror” the truth, but not a clear answer was given. Sometimes the panel got it right and sometimes they didn’t. If Trump had been one of the contestants who was there to give answers that weren’t the truth, he might have been on recurring shows. Imagine, having fun by not telling the truth. Now that the Jan. 6 House Committee has voted to send a subpoena to Trump compelling him to testify before them over what happened on Jan. 6, the question now is, whether he will show up. If you haven’t noticed by now, some of those “law and order” Republicans (Lindsay Graham, Mark Meadows) have been fighting like mad to not honor legally issued subpoenas from those agencies (Georgia’s DA) from testifying where Trump was involved. Trump has given dispositions under oath before, but the stakes have never been this high. What Trump is facing is just as severe as the allegations of him “stealing” government documents and keeping them at his Florida residence, despite saying that he had “returned” all of them that eventually resulting in government agents having to come and confiscate those documents.

When a subpoena is issued to an individual, they are “required” by law to answer it. Something that millions of Americans have done over a hundred years or so. Now we are seeing the “elite” of the Republicans ignore subpoenas or try to delay getting them because they can go and hire lawyers that they can afford. Isn’t that what elite people do? Only when they are talking about liberals who want to “ruin” America into socialism. When it is conservatives, they say that they are “being attacked” or it’s a witch hunt and blame everything that they are accused of doing, on the media. Trump has not said yet if he will comply with a subpoena, but a recent media report said that he “might” if he gets to testify on a live broadcast. Ever the showman. That is something that the committee would have to consider. How long Trump will take to respond to the subpoena, is anyone’s guess. One can be sure that being an elite individual, he will turn to one of his high-priced lawyers who will seek out a judge, who hopefully will give Trump some wiggle room to delay him actually having to sit in a chair and answer questions. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do a live broadcast. If that happens, that would be the 2024 gift for Democrats no matter if Trump runs or not. That is because Trump may assert the 5th a record number of times that may never be broken, which in turn can be played in an endless media blitz asking Americans if they want a president who pleads when he has nothing to hide, or if they want one who will be just like Trump was in the White House. If Trump doesn’t run in 2024, whoever the nominee is, knows that he/she will have to sound just as if Trump was running. His supporters will take nothing less.

This will be Trump’s opportunity to show what he meant when he campaigned, saying, “If you have nothing to hide, why take the Fifth?” One can be certain that the Jan. 6, 2021 committee is looking at their options should Trump decline to honor the subpoena. He can’t run to his Florida judge for refuge, nor can he expect the Supreme Court to bail him out. The court has serious image issues before the public with the leaked Roe v. Wade decision and the fact that Judge Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas may have faceed the Jan. 6 committee. Back to the tv show “To Tell the Truth”, can one imagine that if Trump was one of the contestants along with a real certified genius, can you imagine the answers to questions from the panel? The answers may go something like this, that he along “can fix it”, that need “one more” vote than Biden and he does things in a “BIGLY” way. After all, he did call himself a genius. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.