Seven hours, 37 minutes

or Trump's fondness for flushing bad facts

Mar 31, 2022

First and foremost, the missing 7 hours and 37 minutes of phone logs for Donald Trump are nothing like the erased 18 and a half minutes from the Nixon White House.

The Nixon tapes were erased after they existed and the issue was what was erased (presumably linchpin evidence proving Nixon’s complicity in the Watergate coverup). Trump, who does not understand that things can be proven from external sources, is relying his Cohn-esque habit of doubling down on lies rather than deal with factual reality.

It’s already been documented that Trump spoke with multiple people between 11:17 am and 6:54 p.m. on January 6, 2021, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)1. And the substance of those calls was corroborated in the hours and days following the January 6th Insurrection.

Given Trump’s penchant for destroying documents2, flushing documents3, and removing documents from the White House4, the decision to keep no records at all is particulary troublesome. Given that Trump has admitted to sexual assault, pedophilia, tax evasion, and a large number of other illegalities in his life, it is not too much of a jump to conclude that whatever Trump was doing in that 457 minutes was exponentially worse and treacherous to boot.

When this story first broke; it was surmised, given Trump’s habit of using unauthorized cell phones during his presidency, that Trump may have used a burner phone on January 6th. Trump quickly denied it and in Roy Cohn fashion denied even knowing what a burner phone was. His former National Security Advisor John Bolton quickly killed that lie with the revelation that not only did Trump know what a burner phone was but also that Trump and Bolton discussed using such phones at length5.

Idealists are appalled, Pragmatists on the Left are frustrated, and Nihilists on the Right are bored. It’s not often that Realists get to offer an avenue for action that will satiate all three and still deal with reality.

The time has come for the Select Committee Investigating the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol to invite former President Trump to testify before the Committee. Not subpoena, invitation. The committee has interviewed over 750 people thus far and largely it has been to fill in the chronology of events. Trump’s input here can be presented as mere fact-finding and be limited to just calls during that 7 hour and 37 minute time frame.

A refusal by Trump (and he will) will make him look bad and the Hillary/Benghazi hearing comparison will be the meme without end. Furthermore, it becomes problematic to refuse to testify unless subpoenaed as it would place Trump in a bind should he fight a subpoena — you can voluntarily withdraw from an invitation to testify but cannot while under subpoena.

The reconstruction of Trump’s phone records becomes self-proving when Trump’s non-cooperation is a matter of record. It does not get more pragmatic than that.

The talking heads on FoxNews, OANN, and Red radio will implode if Trump is asked not compelled to testify. Spin and right-wing parsing alone will end the nihilists’ boredom rather quickly.

Trump’s political argument has always been that he is the person most suited for the Oval Office. The 457 minute gap in phone records on January 6th coupled with a lack of having anything substantial to do on his schedule is the realist’s retort.

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