Jan. 6 committee: Bob Woodward and Carol Leonnig share what they expect to see in public hearings
Journalists Bob Woodward and Carol Leonnig, along with conservative attorney George Conway, join Yahoo News' "Skullduggery" podcast for a special live recording. During the discussion, Woodward and Leonnig share their hopes and predictions for the public hearing this summer and the final report due in the fall. "I'm expecting what Bob Mueller didn't do," says Leonnig. "It's going to be like must-watch TV."
Video Transcript
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: On the question of the January 6 committee, they're now saying public hearings in June, report in the fall. What are we expecting?
CAROL LEONNIG: I'm expecting what Bob Mueller didn't do, which is carefully, concisely, dramatically have a series of people who were at Donald Trump's shoulder and people who were in danger on the day of January 6 narrating their first-person experience of what they heard the president and his team say and plot, and then what actually happened on the day. I think it's going to be, like, must-watch TV.
BOB WOODWARD: It's so painfully true in cases like this-- it all depends on the outcome. I think they can make a spectacular case. There's no question about that. But what's the outcome going to be? And the outcome may be Justice Department just says, we can't do this. The politics.
I mean, if we had Joe Biden here and Sodium Pentothol-- the truth serum-- and you know, what do you really-- oh, I just-- he's got to wish that Trump would go away, because--
- Mitch McConnell wants that, too.
BOB WOODWARD: Yes, right. Well, lots of Republicans do. I'm not sure the outcome is going to be-- because you have great hearings. The gold standard of hearings was the Senate Watergate committee. The outcome was they found Alexander Butterfield, who disclosed the secret taping system. No taping system-- Nixon never, never would have been forced to resign.
CAROL LEONNIG: I have so many things that I'm thinking about as you guys talk. One is, we don't need tapes. It all is in front of us. It all happened literally in front of us. We don't need tapes.
BOB WOODWARD: That's true.
CAROL LEONNIG: But the second thing, to go back to what Bob said about, well, Biden would like this guy to go away. Merrick Garland said on the anniversary of January 6, politics will not determine what we do. We will start with the small cases. We will build and build and build. We will not let politics influence how we prosecute this case. And yet I think we're all seeing the politics, and political sphincter tightening is actually very much influencing what's going on.