The editorial board of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal is very conservative. So it is noteworthy that after yesterday’s House Jan. 6 Select Committee hearing, the WSJ published an editorial that said they had seen enough and Donald Trump should be held to account for his attack on democracy.
The Wall Street Journal is behind a paywall. Excerpts of the editorial were published on the website Raw Story.
The opinion piece, headlined “What the Jan. 6 Hearings Accomplished,” opened by noting the committee’s unanimous vote to subpoena Trump to testify, but said the clock is ticking.
“ If Republicans take the House, they’ll shut down the inquiry posthaste in early January. If he wants to avoid the hot seat, Mr. Trump only needs to find a way to resist the subpoena until then.”
But the opinion piece went on to say that Trump’s testimony isn’t really needed. The editorial board wrote that more than enough has been revealed by the committee to hold Trump accountable.
"What the committee has accomplished, however, is to cement the facts surrounding Mr. Trump’s recklessness after Nov. 3 and his dereliction of duty on Jan. 6. The Justice Department and Mr. Trump’s own campaign repeatedly told him that his fraud claims were without basis. Whether it was willful blindness or an intentional strategy, he kept repeating them," they wrote.
"That day he riled up the crowd and urged it to march on the Capitol," the editors continued. "Committee members said Thursday they will write a report summarizing their findings. Transcripts of the testimony ought to be released at the same time."
"The Jan. 6 committee probably won’t get Mr. Trump under oath, but the evidence of his bad behavior is now so convincing that political accountability hardly requires it," they concluded.
So this raises all kinds of questions. Is Murdoch signaling to the Republican business elite that it’s time to cut losses and dump Trump in favor of a candidate in 2024 who can enact Trump’s political agenda — particularly tax cuts and judicial appointments -- but has less baggage.
And then there is the matter of whether anything will change at Fox News. It’s one thing to acknowledge the revelations of the Jan. 6 committee to the wealthy readers of the Wall Street Journal.
But Fox News profits from spreading disinformation to the MAGA masses. And Fox helps the GOP by keeping its viewers misinformed and stoking their anger and hatred.
And as MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace pointed out last week, any condemnation of Trump by the Wall Street Journal rings hollow.
Another Wall Street Journal editorial denounced Trump ‘s suggestion on his Truth Social platform that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a “DEATH WISH”for supporting “Democrat sponsored Bills.” Trump also insulted McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao by referring to her as “his China loving wife, COCO Chow.”
In the Oct. 3 broadcast of her MSNBC show Deadline: White House, Wallace, who was the White House communications director for former President George W. Bush, said:
The Wall Street Journal did “more laundering and legitimizing of Donald Trump’s presidency than perhaps any other outlet.”
“They’re as culpable as any news organization in this country for his presidency and his ongoing viability as a political figure,” she added.