I have never liked Ben Ginsberg. You know his type: really smart, glib, articulate, highly educated and totally informed. And worst of all, he uses these talents on behalf of his clients, usually the Republican Party. Ginsberg has spent a long career in Washington, D.C. representing all manner of Republican candidates, the national party and political campaigns. Most notably, Ginsberg represented former President George W. Bush in the famous Bush v. Gore presidential contest. 

It was in 2000 that Bush beat Gore in a contested election that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The case halted a recount of votes in Florida, handing the election to Bush and changing the direction of the country. Despite disagreeing with that decision, Gore took to national TV and declared he would stop contesting the election for the good of America. It was a more civilized time.

Ginsberg, however, is no flunky. On Monday, he joined a host of other election experts, prosecutors and Trump advisors to testify before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Together, these men and women, who I have spent most of my life disagreeing with, all spoke the truth: they stated categorically that there was little to no election fraud in the 2020 election and that Donald Trump was the legitimate loser.

“The 2020 election was not close,’’ Ginsberg said, adding that Trump failed to prove any of his false allegations of election fraud, even when judges gave him multiple chances to do so. 

The singular exception was, of course, Trump lawyer Rudy Guiliani, who came to the White House drunk on election night and for several weeks claimed voter fraud and a stolen election. 

But Guiliani notwithstanding, this hearing is notable for the parade of experts who told Trump he lost and are now telling the American people the same thing. That list includes the former election expert for Fox News, Chris Stirewalt, who called the election for Biden before any other TV network and Trump’s own campaign manager. 

This infuriated Fox News personalities and the brass, who fired him. 

If you have been paying attention, you generally know all of this. Trump lost. His advisors told him he lost. But unlike Gore before him, Trump refused to concede. He didn’t call to congratulate Biden. He didn’t hang around to welcome the new president to the White House, instead he flew to his estate in Florida in violation of every normal tradition in American governance. 

We have grown used to shaking off any falsehoods coming from Trump and his people. We have baked it into the national discourse. His lies are part of daily life, like any cheap marketing claim from pay-day lenders or breakfast cereals that claim to be heart-healthy.

But people like Ginsberg and committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney have proven through testimony that they care more about democracy and the country than the Trumps. Liberals may only see red when they recall Ginsberg’s 40 year career as a journalist and high powered lawyer but in this case, at this time, Ginsberg showed us where the last guardrail stands. 

For years, we liberals expressed horror at Trump’s words and actions. His fans told us to move on, they admitted he may be crazy but at least he spoke the truth. 

We now know that he didn’t speak the truth - ever. It was all about the grift and a refusal to admit defeat or mistakes at any level. That quality in Trump and the willingness of those around him to throw away their careers and credibility brought this government very close to being overturned by the enraged citizens who mistakenly believed in him.

These people were egged on by Trump, assembled in Washington by Trump, exhorted to march on the Capitol by Trump, rioted for Trump, and injured hundreds and killed others, including one Capitol Police Officer, all in the name of Donald Trump. 

That’s the Truth.  

And sometimes all the lies run out and the truth comes to light. The truth that, ironically, has been uttered by people like Ben Ginsberg and Liz Cheney. 

Many are wondering about the purpose of these hearings. Will they lead to prosecutions? Will anything change? Can Trump be stopped from running for president again?

Those questions miss the most important purpose of the hearings. The committee is getting the entire sordid affair on the record. That is what matters. While we may have read about all this in the NYTimes or the Washington Post or somewhere online, there is something about our own government putting it all together that matters. The committee is showing the American public, through video clips and sworn testimony from Trump’s own people, what an attempted coup looks like. 

Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr told the committee the president was “detached from reality.”

Al Schmidt, a Republican member of the Philadelphia Board of Elections Commissioners, testified that his family and life were threatened by Trump supporters after he said the election was fair and fraud-free.

We are conditioned by the Internet and the speed of modern society to jump ahead to the result. We want the answer before we ask the question. The Jan. 6 committee is asking the questions and getting the answers, in public, on the record, from Trump’s own people. 

That remains a powerful tool for democracy. And increasingly we have Republicans like Ben Ginsberg to thank.