JOHN DEAN

The Jan. 6 congressional hearings have paused, at least for now, and Washington is taking stock of what was learned about the actions of Donald Trump and associates surrounding the Capitol attack.

The Supreme Court's decision that women have no constitutional right to an abortion marked the apex of a week that reinforced Donald Trump's grip on Washington more than a year and a half after he exited the White House.

Nielsen numbers tell us how many people watched live coverage of the Jan. 6 committee hearings — 20 million the first night, 11 million the second and nearly 9 million for the third.

It took close to two years for Richard Nixon to be driven from the presidency in disgrace after the Watergate break-in 50 years ago.

FILE - This Jan. 16, 2001, file photo shows G. Gordon Liddy, a Watergate conspirator, arriving at Baltimore's federal courthouse. Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, has died at age 90. (AP Photo/Roberto Borea, File)WASHINGTON – G. Gordon Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, died Tuesday at age 90 at his daughter’s home in Virginia. After his release from prison, Liddy became a popular, provocative and controversial radio talk show host. His syndicated radio talk show, broadcast from Virginia-based WJFK, was long one of the most popular in the country.

FILE - In this Monday, June 9, 1997, file photo, G. Gordon Liddy kneels next to his Corvette outside the Fairfax, Va., radio station where he broadcasts his syndicated radio talk show. Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, has died at age 90. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)WASHINGTON – G. Gordon Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, died Tuesday at age 90 at his daughter’s home in Virginia. After his release from prison, Liddy became a popular, provocative and controversial radio talk show host. His syndicated radio talk show, broadcast from Virginia-based WJFK, was long one of the most popular in the country.

And he had demanded in advance that the results be known on Election Day, which is never a given. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell waited until Friday morning to tweet that “Every legal vote should be counted. All sides must get to observe the process.”Whether that dynamic will continue if fuller election results deliver the presidency to Biden is another key unanswered question. If the vote count goes against him, does he really want to be remembered as the president who burned down the building on his way out the door? ___EDITOR’S NOTE -- Nancy Benac is White House news editor and has covered government and politics for The Associated Press for four decades.

This image provided by the Richard Nixon Foundation shows a copy of correspondence between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon. The letters between once and future presidents, revealed for the first time in an exhibit that opens Thursday, Sept. 23, 2020, at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, show the two men engaged in something of an exercise in mutual affirmation. The museum shared the letters exclusively with The Associated Press ahead of the exhibits opening. (Richard Nixon Foundation via AP)

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 1973 file photo, President Richard Nixon speaks near Orlando, Fla. to the Associated Press Managing Editors annual meeting. There were two men in 1980s Manhattan who craved validation one a past president, one a future president. Their letters are being revealed for the first time in an exhibit that opens Thursday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum. “Let me be so presumptuous as to offer a little free advice (which is worth, incidentally, exactly what it costs!”) Nixon writes to Trump. Pat Nixon thought Trump did “great,” Nixon writes.

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 1973 file photo, President Richard Nixon speaks near Orlando, Fla. to the Associated Press Managing Editors annual meeting. Nixon told the APME "I am not a crook." There were two men in 1980s Manhattan who craved validation one a past president, one a future president. Thats how a thirty-something Donald Trump and a seventy-ish Richard Nixon struck up a decade-long correspondence in the 1980s that meandered from football and real estate to Vietnam and media strategy. Their letters are being revealed for the first time in an exhibit that opens Thursday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum.

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 1973 file photo, President Richard Nixon speaks near Orlando, Fla. to the Associated Press Managing Editors annual meeting. There were two men in 1980s Manhattan who craved validation one a past president, one a future president. Their letters are being revealed for the first time in an exhibit that opens Thursday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum. “Let me be so presumptuous as to offer a little free advice (which is worth, incidentally, exactly what it costs!”) Nixon writes to Trump. Pat Nixon thought Trump did “great,” Nixon writes.