Georgia to likely play big role in Jan. 6 committee hearings

ATLANTA — Georgia will be front and center during the public committee hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The committee’s hearings started Thursday night.

Lawmakers want to know more about Donald Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state and about a meeting of false electors at the state capitol.

Political experts told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that they expected some fireworks because the committee wants to grab the attention of a big national audience.

A lot of what lawmakers are trying to uncover has to do with happenings at the Georgia State Capitol.

University of Georgia political science professor Dr. Charles Bullock thinks the committee will have something big planned to grab and hold their national audience.

“My guess is they’re going to pull some rabbit out of the hat and ... introduce us to some new information that we haven’t heard, and they’ll have some videos, I understand, that we haven’t seen,” Bullock said.

Much of what the committee is looking at happened right here in Georgia.

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We’ve confirmed the committee did subpoena Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others to testify in two weeks.

They’re also looking to see if the Georgia’s Republican party meeting of false electors at the state capitol was part of a larger plan to overturn the results of the presidential election.

University of North Georgia political science professor Nathan Price thinks people should watch the hearing with an open mind.

“I think that people would be well-served to just go in and try to listen to the facts that the committee reports,” Price said.

Channel 2 political analyst Bill Crane wonders if any of this will be important to undecided Georgia voters who may no longer be paying attention.

“Where this mostly will play out is as it relates to Donald Trump running again in 2024 and how much of the GOP base stays with him. Is there still an appetite, particularly among Democrats, to lock him up, to turn his own words back against him? Without question,” Crane said.

What is even more pressing legal trouble for Trump is what’s unfolding at the Fulton County courthouse, where a special grand jury is meeting to determine if they think Trump and others committed felony criminal interference in an election.

Ultimately, all the Jan. 6 committee can do is issue a report. The special grand jury can recommend a criminal indictment.

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