Steve Roberts ABC News - October 17, 2022 - KRDO’s Morning News

The Congressional hearings into the January 6th insurrection that ended their public phase last week were mainly about politics, not law – about the future, not the past. The panel’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump exemplifies this strategy. It’s almost certain he will never testify, but that’s not the point. He might never be indicted, let alone convicted, of crimes related to January 6th, but that’s not the point either. The summons – a supreme act of political theater – keeps him in the news, in the spotlight, as Democrats struggle to frame next month’s election as a choice between the chaos and craziness, of the Trump years and a saner, steadier presidency under Joe Biden and the Democrats. Trump, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said at the close of Thursday’s hearing “is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th.” They also want him to be the “center of the story” on Election Day. Trump’s average favorable rating is 41.3 per cent, three points below Biden. And getting voters to focus on the former president has another advantage: it shifts the subject away from inflation, which continues to bedevil Biden and the Democrats. The subpoena is a legal document but it has a political purpose: to put Trump on the ballot three weeks from now.