(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Former Obama-era Homeland Security Secrerary Jeh Johnson on Sunday appeared to acknowledge that House Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee hearings were political theater, devoid of real substance.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Johnson told recently demoted host Chuck Todd that hearsay testimony like that of former Mark Meadows staffer Cassidy Hutchinson would be inadmissible in a real court of law, Breitbart reported.
Though the glorified campaign infomercial, slated to continue through the summer, has allowed Democrats to shift media focus away from the Biden administration’s economic and foreign policy failures, it has been something of a ratings flop for many of the networks opting to broadcast the hearings.
Johnson claimed that hearings were a “profile in courage among women” such as Hutchinson and RINO Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
He also praised the production as being “choreographed exceptionally well for the attention span of the average American in 2022,” in what would seem to be an insult to the intellectual acumen of their viewers.
But he ultimately condemned the one-sided, anti-Trump inquisition for being useless in any non-political arenas.
In particular, he cited Hutchinson’s supposedly shocking revelation that former President Donald Trump tried to steer the SUV toward the Capitol.
“I’m concerned as the former federal prosecutor in me—that gets you a lot of cred these days on television—I’m concerned that the committee may have overreached on the incident in the vehicle.”
According to Johnson, the story was “colorful, it was vivid, it was collateral to the central charge … and it was secondhand hearsay.”
And as even Johnson knows, gossip is ultimately worthless in court.
“The committee perhaps knows something that the rest of us don’t know,” Johnson said. “But before I went out with the second-hand hearsay, which is going to get a lot of attention, I’d want to know what the firsthand witness has to say.”
Several of the sources mentioned by Hutchinson—including Secret Service agent Tony Ornato, who allegedly told her the gossip—have publicly disputed her testimony.
Even the reliably leftist Todd interjected to remind Johnson that Hutchinson’s account was actually third-hand since Ornato himself did not witness it.
“I think by the time she told us the story was technically, we’re in our third version,” Todd said. “It’s a third-hand account.”
Johnson concluded by calling into question Hutchinson’s entire account, suggesting that the Secret Service simply would not share such details even if they did occur.
“And as you know, Secret Service agents don’t normally talk about what they see, what they hear from their protectees,” he said.
“I was a protectee of the Secret Service for three years,” he continued. “And they have to be in a position to hear and see all kinds of very sensitive things.”
