With its focus on Trump’s refusal to call off the mob, the final summer episode of the January 6th hearing was billed as 187 Minutes. But they could’ve added 76 years to that number. Trump was hammering away at the legitimacy of elections throughout his presidency and he never really hid who he was or what he was up to. In some ways last night was like a confirmation hearing. Yes, there were some new details, but mostly these hearings confirmed what we already know because we saw it with our own eyes. I covered the build up to Jan 6 in near realtime in my book, Please Scream Inside Your Heart. A year and a half later, I don’t need to change a single word. The question at the conclusion of this summer’s hearings is the same one we’ve had since the insurrection: What are we going to do about it? The fact that Trump was allowed to occupy the White House for the two weeks after January 6 is already a stain on America and democracy. Are we really going to let him run again? That’s his plan. And it’s a much more elaborate plan than what Trump attempted before. Axios: A radical plan for Trump’s second term. And from CNN: Takeaways from the January 6 hearings day 8. And WaPo: 5 things we learned in the Jan. 6 committee’s stunning hearing.

+ “I don’t want to say the election is over. I want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election is over, OK?” The outtakes of Trump’s Jan 6 video address could be used in post-grad psychology course to illustrate what it looks like when a malignant narcissist begins to decompensate into psychosis as his defensive delusions of grandeur collapse. (I suppose that’s a little wordy for a Trump 2024 lawn sign.)

+ Of course the most discussed video of the evening was the one that showed the fisting Josh Hawley fleeing from Senate when the crowd he supposedly adored came too close for comfort. When the committee played the video of Josh Hawley his ass out of there, those in the hearing chamber burst into laughter.

+ There’s no doubt these hearings are damaging the former president. But not everyone is watching. Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one.

+ Meanwhile, one of the subtexts of these hearings is that Pence acted presidential on January 6 while his boss acted homicidal, which sets up Pence as the supposed hero of democracy as he moves to distance himself from Trump for a 2024 run. It’s worth remembering that the unctuous, smarmy, oleaginous, genuflecting, religious extremist fanned the flames of the The Big Lie right up until the last minute and had his head fully up Trump’s ass for four years of lies and corruption—and still doesn’t have the decency to testify. But credit where credit is due. He didn’t follow Trump’s orders to overthrow American democracy.