Sunday shows preview: Jan. 6 hearings continue; recession fears mount

The ongoing series of public hearings being held this month by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and mounting fears of a possible recession are likely to dominate this week’s Sunday show circuit.

The House panel held two hearings this week that featured recorded and live testimony from a variety of officials, ranging from former Attorney General William Barr to former Atlanta-based U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak to two legal advisers for former Vice President Mike Pence.

During its Monday hearing, the panel showed evidence indicating that people had told former President Trump that baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election were not accurate and advised him against trying to prematurely claim victory.

“I told him that the stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public was bullshit, I mean, that the claims of fraud were bullshit,” Barr said in a clip of record testimony aired on Monday.

“My recommendation was to say that votes are still being counted. It’s too early to tell, too early to call the race,” former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a video clip of his deposition with the panel that was aired. “I don’t recall the particular words. He thought I was wrong. He told me so. And … he was going to go in a different direction.”

The committee’s second hearing of the week, held on Thursday, featured testimony from two legal advisers to Pence — his top lawyer in the White House, Greg Jacob, and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig.

The panel sought to show that Pence and his team felt pressured to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and shared evidence that even conservative lawyer John Eastman — who crafted two different plans for how Pence could refuse to certify the election results — knew himself that the Constitution did not support one of his legal arguments.

“Nowhere does [the Constitution] suggest that the President of the Senate gets to make the determination on his own,” Eastman noted in a draft memo to Trump that was shared during the hearing, refuting Eastman’s own legal argument that electoral votes could be single-handedly rejected by the vice president.

The panel also revealed that Eastman had sought a pardon following the Capitol riot.

The hearing depicted Pence as courageous for not bowing down to pressure to overturn the 2020 election results. A day after Thursday’s hearing, however, Trump slammed his former vice president.

“The election was perfect. And the Democrats are sitting back, saying ‘No way we’re going to impeach this guy.’ Nah, it’s terrible,” Trump said during an event in Nashville, Tenn.

“But Mike was afraid of whatever he was afraid of. But, as you heard a year and a half ago, Mike Pence had absolutely no choice but to be a human conveyor belt – he was a human conveyor belt – even if the votes were fraudulent. They said he had to send the votes – couldn’t do anything,” he added.

Lawmakers that sit on the panel are scheduled to appear on many of the Sunday shows. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is set to appear on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Meanwhile President Biden is arguing this week that a recession is not inevitable as the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it would raise interest rates at its fastest rate in close to three decades.

“First of all, it’s not inevitable,” Biden said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Secondly, we’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation.”

“Be confident, because I am confident we’re better positioned than any country in the world to own the second quarter of the 21st century,” Biden said during the interview. “That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact.”

On Thursday, the stock market plunged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 741 points by the day’s closing bell, the Nasdaq composite falling 4.1 percent and the S&P 500 Index seeing a loss of 3.3 percent.

The United States has been suffering from high inflation and supply chain issues impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened by the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to appear on ABC’s “This Week,” while former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is slated to be on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese will be on both CBS’s “Face the Nation” and “Fox News Sunday.” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Loretta Mester will also be on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers

CBS’s “Face the Nation” — Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Loretta Mester, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

“Fox News Sunday” — Deese, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Features” — Mike Pompeo, former United States secretary of State, Tom Hoenig, former president and CEO of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, Dan Niles, founder and portfolio manager of the Satori Fund, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), Rep.-elect Mayra Flores (R-Texas)

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