RCP Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon commented on the latest re-litigation of the events of Jan. 6, 2021, that took place on Capitol Hill yesterday, where former special counsel Jack Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the investigations into President Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election. Cannon argued on Thursday’s edition of the RealClearPolitics podcast that the Biden Justice Department and the media advanced two incompatible narratives about Jan. 6, blaming Donald Trump alone while also prosecuting thousands of rioters, which he says ultimately weakened both cases. He said President Biden missed an opportunity to clarify the situation by pardoning everyone involved — except President Trump. But he added that even then, the question of what specific crime Trump could be charged with is still up for debate.

CARL CANNON: Joe Biden’s Justice Department and the media and the Washington establishment had two conflicting storylines and liked them both, and so could never decide. The first storyline was Jack Smith’s, that Donald Trump did this-he’s culpable, he’s to blame. The second storyline is that you had a destructive, lethal riot with thousands of people who needed to be prosecuted. And they went with both storylines, and I think they interfered with one another and generated sympathy both for Trump and for the rioters. If this was the story, if this was what Jack Smith believed-and I think he’s sincere, even if I don’t agree with him necessarily-then Trump should have been the only one charged. These other people-Donald Trump was the sitting United States president. He said the election was stolen. He told people to go to the Capitol. If you believed Donald Trump, you should have gone to the Capitol. So this idea that you’re going to prosecute these people and they’re horrible and their lives have been ruined-well, which one was it? And I think this is the central problem and has been in this country for five years. And I think President Biden- and I said this at the time-he should have given every one of those people, except Donald Trump, he should have pardoned them all. Biden should have done it-not Trump. He should have done it. And then we’d say: OK, this is the guy to blame, not those people-this guy. And then you would have had a cleaner debate. And there would be people who still disagreed, like Tom says he’s the sitting president and he said what he believed, that is not a criminal matter. But then, you could have had a debate over it that would have been clearer. And to one point about what Tom said-I want to comment because I think Tom’s absolutely right, and we should be willing to say this: I don’t think Donald Trump won the 2020 election. I’m convinced that he did not. But Trump believes it. And for Jack Smith to do that indictment, where he lined up all these people in the government who told Trump, “You didn’t win the election,” but he didn’t mention any of the people who were telling Trump, “You did win the election.” In fact, he tried to indict those people. So Donald Trump still thinks he won that election. He’s wrong. He’s delusional. If he used insanity as a defense, I wouldn’t scoff at that. But that doesn’t mean he was lying. And if he’s not lying, where’s the indictment? TOM BEVAN: It’s the old Costanza. It’s not a lie if you believe it.

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