I have written previously, in this space, about Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney.
Ms. Cheney, one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection, was featured prominently during the committee's opening hearing Thursday night.
New Yorker writer Susan B. Glasser wrote this about Cheney, and the initial hearing:
Speaking directly to her fellow-Republicans in Congress, the vast majority of whom have continued to support and promote Trump even after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and sent them fleeing for their lives, she concluded her presentation with a warning: "There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."
Cheney's words--about Trump, January 6th, and the state of the Republican party--are routinely, and strikingly, eloquent.
Yet her oratorical style--her manner of presentation--also commands attention.
It is the speaking style, one might say, of stoicism. The style is unadorned, sober. There is often a near-flat quality to her oratory.
Yet one guesses it is precisely because of this--that her style is so unusually restrained, is so often without ornament--that her words, at their best, become that much more powerful, and dramatic.
The House Select hearings continue Monday morning, at 10 o'clock Eastern time.
(This post was edited, slightly, on June 14th, and on June 27th.)
