Jan. 6 hearings - a tale of two parties

June 30, 2022

Inside today’s edition of Swing State Georgia:

• Both parties shrug off new polling on the Georgia Senate race.

• Herschel Walker wonders about post-primary GOP unity.

• Some Georgia Republicans try to avoid testifying in Trump probe.

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If there’s a question your Insiders get all the time, it’s whether the Jan. 6 committee hearings will influence voters in the November election.

We have no crystal ball, but we can tell you that many Democrats have been riveted and horrified by the hearings, while many Republicans have flat-out ignored them.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock waded into the debate at a campaign stop Wednesday in Dalton as he spoke to an audience of hundreds of supporters who had piled into a gym to see him.

Warnock talked about the violence that unfolded just hours after he and Jon Ossoff swept the Senate runoffs on Jan. 5., becoming the first Black senator from Georgia and the first Jewish senator from Georgia. Supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol even as Georgia’s election results were still being confirmed.

“We don’t want to pretend like Jan. 6 didn’t happen. It did happen,” Warnock said. “Those weren’t tourists making their way through the Capitol,” he added - taking a familiar swipe at the words of Georgia GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde.

“I’ve seen tourists. Those weren’t tourists,” Warnock said.

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Contrast Warnock’s remarks about the ongoing Jan. 6 investigation with the response from Republican U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker’s campaign about the hearings.

“Think of where we’d be if Raphael Warnock and his colleagues spent this much time trying to lower gas prices or fight inflation,” said Mallory Blount, Walker’s spokeswoman.

That’s a familiar refrain from Georgia Republicans both inside and outside of the Congress, as the GOP argues that the Jan. 6 focus is a giant waste of time - and/or an effort to divert attention from inflation, high food prices, and record gasoline prices.

Rep. Jody Hice @CongressmanHice

Fill in the blank. Americans care more about _____ than the sham 1/6 committee hearings.

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PEACH POLL. A Quinnipiac Poll of registered Georgia voters that showed U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock with a 10-point lead over Herschel Walker and a neck-and-neck race for governor triggered a buzz in political circles.

Our advice? Don’t read too much into it. The campaigns and candidates certainly aren’t taking much stock in the results.