The Republican National Committee is seeking distance from Donald Trump as the GOP plans its strategy for televised hearings by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol according to a planning document obtained by Vox.
Reporter Ben Jacobs says the document “reveals a rare glimpse of daylight between the aims of the party and the desires of former President Donald Trump.”
The select committee is scheduled to air public hearings beginning on June 9th.
“In a document obtained by Vox, a coordinated communications plan apparently sent from the Republican National Committee (RNC) recommends pushing back on the select committee as ‘partisan’ while also taking care not to be seen as explicitly speaking on behalf of Trump or embracing his lies about the 2020 election’s legitimacy. The RNC declined to comment on whether it created or sent the document,” Jacobs explained.
The document is separated into two sections, one on the RNC’s goals, and one on “Requests from FPOTUS” which is an abbreviation for “former President of the United States.”
The first section says the RNC wants to define “Democrats as the real election deniers.”
“Trump has remained adamant that the election in 2020 was rife with fraud based on a list of claims that have all proven false, and demanded that his political allies do the same to secure his political support in advance of the 2022 midterms,” Jacobs reported. “The document displays the challenges for the GOP as they seek to aggressively push back at the select committee and appease the former president without explicitly endorsing the ‘Big Lie’ or all of Trump’s actions in the final days of his administration.”
Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor and member of the select committee, predicted the public hearing would “blow the roof off the House.”