In Jan. 6 Hearings, Gender Divide Has Been Strong Undercurrent

WASHINGTON — Earlier than Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White Home press secretary, even opened her mouth to testify on Thursday earlier than the choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, the Home Republican Convention attacked her on Twitter as a “liar” and a “pawn” of Democrats.

The group didn’t point out the person seated beside her, Matthew Pottinger, the previous deputy nationwide safety adviser, who was additionally there to challenge a scathing indictment of President Donald J. Trump’s conduct on the day of the riot. Nor did Mr. Trump himself point out Mr. Pottinger when he lashed out hours later with an announcement calling Ms. Matthews a fame-seeker who was “clearly mendacity.”

The distinction highlighted how, in a sequence of revelatory hearings which have centered on problems with democracy, the rule of legislation and the peaceable switch of energy, one other, less-discussed theme has emerged: the gender dynamics which were a potent undercurrent.

In the midst of exposing Mr. Trump’s elaborate effort to overturn the 2020 election, the Home committee has relied on the accounts of a number of ladies who got here ahead to publicly inform their tales. Their statements, and the assaults that ensued, laid naked how ladies usually nonetheless pay a better value than males for talking up.

Consultant Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the panel — a lady who herself has suffered heavy penalties for her insistence on publicly condemning Mr. Trump’s conduct — has been express in regards to the function of gender within the proceedings. She has positioned herself because the champion of the ladies who’ve agreed to testify in particular person, evaluating them favorably with the numerous males who’ve refused to take action.

On the committee’s prime-time listening to on Thursday, Ms. Cheney wore a white jacket, the colour of the ladies’s suffrage motion. She invoked Margaret Thatcher, the primary girl to function prime minister of Britain, and the combat by American ladies to safe the correct to vote as she described the ladies who had publicly appeared throughout the panel’s investigation as “an inspiration to American ladies and American ladies.”

The consequence has been that because the committee unfurls the story of the Jan. 6 assault — enjoying footage of a largely male crowd laying waste to the Capitol in Mr. Trump’s identify, with the president trying on supportively from the West Wing — most of the witnesses who’ve emerged most prominently have been ladies, with Ms. Cheney as their defender.

It’s a notable technique by Ms. Cheney, a tricky and hawkish conservative who all through her profession has labored to keep away from being considered by the lens of gender.

It comes because the Republican Get together has labored to diversify and increase its enchantment amongst feminine voters, a gaggle that polls confirmed was a weak spot for Mr. Trump in 2020 and has solely drifted from him since. A current New York Instances/Siena Faculty ballot discovered that six in 10 ladies believed Mr. Trump’s actions after the 2020 election threatened democracy, whereas males have been nearly evenly cut up, with 48 % holding that view and 45 % saying he was simply exercising his rights.

Ms. Cheney was the highest-ranking Republican girl on Capitol Hill final yr when she broke along with her get together after the riot and referred to as out Mr. Trump and his election lies, voting to question him for incitement of rebel. Inside months, she had been ousted because the No. 3 Republican within the Home, and she or he is now prone to shedding her seat in Wyoming as she faces a difficult main election subsequent month in opposition to a Trump-endorsed opponent.

It was troublesome to not hear some parallels when Ms. Cheney described on Thursday how Ms. Hutchinson, the 26-year-old former White Home aide who turned a important public witness, knowingly uncovered herself to harsh criticism from former colleagues. Ms. Cheney mentioned that Ms. Hutchinson “knew all alongside that she could be attacked by President Trump and by the 50-, 60- and 70-year-old males who disguise themselves behind government privilege.”

“However like our witnesses at this time, she has braveness and she or he did it anyway,” Ms. Cheney added.

After Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony, Mr. Trump dismissed her in an interview with Newsmax as “this lady” who was making up tales. “She’s received severe issues,” he mentioned. “Psychological issues.”

Amanda Carpenter, a former adviser to Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, each Republicans, mentioned it was notable to see a conservative girl drawing consideration to the gender dynamic.

“I understand how exhausting it’s for these ladies underneath these circumstances,” Ms. Carpenter mentioned. “I think about it means rather a lot to the ladies being focused. It means rather a lot to me simply watching it.”

The Twitter assault by the Home Republican Convention on Ms. Matthews, who works as a Home Republican aide, was rapidly deleted. However Mr. Trump’s focusing on of her and Ms. Hutchinson was consistent with how the previous president has usually publicly handled ladies who problem him, criticizing them in private phrases meant to name into query their credibility, sanity and self-worth.

Mr. Trump’s allies like to explain him as an equal-opportunity counterpuncher who would assault anybody who crossed him. However over time, he has singled out feminine antagonists with specific viciousness, together with the tv personalities Mika Brzezinski and Megyn Kelly, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Mary T. Barra, the chief government of Normal Motors. His allies, a lot of them looking for his approval, have mimicked his conduct.

Within the case of Ms. Hutchinson, an individual near her mentioned, tales have been shopped to Trump-friendly media retailers smearing her personally.

Garrett Ziegler, a junior aide in Mr. Trump’s White Home, went on a misogynistic rant throughout a livestream this previous week after sitting for an interview with the Jan. 6 committee wherein he repeatedly refused to reply questions. Within the rant, he used sexist slurs in opposition to his former feminine colleagues who’ve cooperated with the inquiry.

“Pat Cipollone, Invoice Barr, Marc Brief, they’re saying the identical factor, but you assault the younger ladies,” mentioned former Consultant Barbara Comstock of Virginia, a Republican whom Mr. Trump up to now branded as a “RINO loser,” for Republican in identify solely.

Ms. Comstock was referring to the previous White Home counsel, the previous lawyer basic and the previous chief of workers to Vice President Mike Pence — all of whom gave closed-door testimony to the committee that painted Mr. Trump in an unflattering mild.

“It is a sample,” mentioned Ms. Comstock, who’s near Ms. Cheney. “The president does this, and that is intentional.”

A number of the male witnesses have additionally suffered skilled penalties and public rebukes for his or her candor. Rusty Bowers, the Arizona Home speaker and a Republican, was censured by his state’s Republican Get together after his emotional testimony earlier than the Jan. 6 committee. Mr. Bowers, who’s working for re-election, instructed NBC Information that it will take “a miracle” for him to outlive politically.

And Mr. Barr, who as lawyer basic instantly instructed Mr. Trump that his claims of election fraud had no benefit, echoed the sentiment in regards to the realities of cooperation.

“I get plenty of vitriol from the correct,” Mr. Barr mentioned in a quick interview.

But whereas male witnesses have obtained some criticism from the correct — in Mr. Cipollone’s case, Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted that he ought to “develop a backbone & go on file” — the assaults haven’t been on the identical quantity or depth, or of the identical diploma of non-public nastiness, as these in opposition to Ms. Hutchinson particularly.

Mr. Trump’s allies insist they’ve substantive issues about what Ms. Hutchinson has instructed the committee. They’ve raised particular challenges on issues of truth in her testimony, homing in on a discrepancy between her account and that of Eric Herschmann, a former White Home lawyer. Each have instructed the panel that they have been the writer of a handwritten observe displayed at one of many hearings that offered directions for what the president ought to inform the rioters on Jan. 6.

There has additionally been an effort to undermine the veracity of a few of the most explosive elements of Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony. Secret Service officers, who spoke to reporters on the situation of anonymity, disputed a scene that Ms. Hutchinson mentioned she had been instructed about wherein Mr. Trump was mentioned to have grabbed a Secret Service agent and lunged for the steering wheel of the S.U.V. he was driving in as he demanded to be pushed to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

However the swiftness of the Twitter assault on Ms. Matthews was notable on condition that it got here from her personal colleagues. The Twitter account for the Home Republican Convention that singled her out is run by two former Trump marketing campaign aides.

Underneath the stewardship of Consultant Elise Stefanik of New York, who changed Ms. Cheney because the No. 3 Home Republican, the Twitter account has taken on an aggressive tone all through the hearings — meant to please the proverbial “viewers of 1.”