The problem(s) with Trump’s pushback against the Jan. 6 probe

Last week, NBC News highlighted a specific plan crafted by congressional Republican leaders: As the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings unfolded, the GOP would focus its attention on entirely different issues and treat the investigation as an irrelevant sideshow, unworthy of ferocious pushback.

Either Donald Trump didn’t hear about the plan, or he decided not to care about it.

We saw some of this last week, when the former president publicly took issue with Ivanka Trump’s committee testimony. Yesterday, as The New York Times noted, the Republican went even further: “He continued repeating his election conspiracies after Monday’s hearing, issuing a rambling 12-page response with a simple bottom line: ‘They cheated!’ he wrote.”

So much for treating the investigation as an irrelevant sideshow.

The full document is online here (.pdf), and those hoping it might include evidence to bolster Trump’s election conspiracy theories will be disappointed. It’s largely just a rehash of discredited nonsense the Republican has tried peddling before.