January 6 committee so far: Trump watched Fox News while riot raged, Hawley ran away

If nothing else, after eight public hearings by the Jan. 6 committee, America has learned the Venn diagram of Donald Trump’s ego and his disregard for democracy is a perfect circle.

Thursday night’s primetime hearing, the last we’ll see of the committee until September, effectively vaporized any notion the former president’s body contains even a drop of patriotism. (It’s largely Diet Coke.)

“I don’t want to say the election is over,” he whined at the camera on Jan. 7 as family members and aides coaxed him through a video aimed at calming the country post-insurrection.

That’s what happens when entitled rich kids grow up and live their lives without ever facing consequences. They become dangerous man-babies who think whacking American democracy is fine as long as they get what they want.

While the hearings are on hold, let’s take a quick look back on what we’ve learned from the Jan. 6 committee thus far, and keep praying consequences might yet come:

Maybe not presidential material

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s distinctly possible Trump was a bad president. I mean, it’s tough to look at the hours of sworn testimony from people in his administration — not squishy liberals but full-on Trump people — and not see how disgusted they were with him.

Referencing a tweet Trump sent Jan. 6 that effectively egged on the rioters, Sarah Matthews, former White House deputy press secretary, told the committee Thursday: “It was essentially him giving the green light to these people, telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the Capitol and entering the Capitol was OK, that they were justified in their anger. And he shouldn’t have been doing that.”

Nor should he have been president.

Trump picks Fox News over America

This latest hearing detailed, through sworn testimony and evidence, how Trump riled up a howling, cultish pack of his followers, sicked them on the U.S. Capitol building and on former Vice President Mike Pence in particular and then sat his keister down in the White House dining room to do what he does best: Watch Fox News.

In Trump's defense, while he was in office, most of his supporters sat on their butts watching Fox News while the country fell apart, so it was reasonably on-brand. But still, would it have been too much to ask him to tear himself away from his Fox friends and tend to the insurrection he sparked?

Meadows and Hawley unburdened by courage

One highlight from Thursday night was a now infamous photo of Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri raising a fist in support of the insurrectionists on his way into the Capitol building, followed by never-before-scene security camera video of Hawley inside the Capitol building after the attack started running for safety like a gazelle on speed.

The hearing also showed, again, that Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has the courage of a Tennessee fainting goat. At one point, the screen in the hearing room displayed the barrage of text messages Meadows got from Republican members of Congress pleading for help.

Meadows heroically let the president keep watching TV.

Let's re-think the word 'brave'

The witnesses at Thursday night’s hearing, like all who have testified before the committee, were lauded for their bravery in stepping up to tell the truth about Trump and his coup-ish ways.

But are we really sure stepping up to tell the truth a year and a half AFTER a guy came frighteningly close to a hostile takeover of America is “brave”? Particularly when it took subpoenas to trigger said bravery?

It seems real bravery would have been seeing this bungling nightmare start to unfold and immediately stepping in front of the nearest camera to yell: “SOMEBODY REALLY NEEDS TO STOP THIS DUDE, HE’S COME UNHINGED!”

Speaking of not brave

Perhaps the most shocking part of the committee’s revelations is how utterly non-shocking they are when you sit back and think about the fact that Trump was the president. Anyone who has ever paid attention to Trump should respond to news he behaved with immeasurably callous egotism by saying: “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

So we’re left to wonder why the first question to each committee witness who served in the Trump administration wasn’t: “Can you detail for the committee the exact moment your soul left your body?”

One person in Florida is smiling

As Trump has watched the hearings from within the ketchup-stained walls of his Mar-a-Lago Fortress of Broken Dreams, miserable and likely hurling plates across the room in fits of rage, one denizen of Florida has to be delighted.

That would be Gov. Ron DeSantis, the most likely Republican figure to challenge Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. For him, the hearings have been like eight Christmases in a row.

With more to come.

More by Rex Huppke

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: January 6 hearing shows Trump watched Fox News while riots raged