WATCH: Judge Luttig speaking swiftly and coherently.

[Bucky]

Someone took out the glacial pauses in his testimony. The man is quite eloquent in his thoughts. I wonder if it was some kind of medical condition that so slows him down and makes him so hard to listen to.

But when he's sped up to a normal pace of talking, he regains the moral clarity of his words:

https://jimstewartson.substack.com/p/please-listen-to-mike-pences-lawyer?fbclid=IwAR1Zfl0t_liSoD7iCO4dvsnbJ18NY2ydfCLL8uxfs17f1YJ6P1iwU6cjE4k

[calimary]

1. Bookmarking.

[progressoid]

2. Twitter says he has a stroke.

Dolly's sister:

Link to tweet

[stopdiggin]

7. it was difficult to listen to

thanks for cluing me in.

[haele]

3. Word is he had a small stroke a couple years ago.

He's still in motor skills recovery mode, but his cognitive functions were not damaged.
Anyway, he chose his words deliberately as he was not speaking with a teleprompter and apparently had no notes that he could refer to to make an easier, quicker but just as accurate statement.
He did not want to misspeak, or be able to be taken out of context.

Haele

[Bucky]

4. That makes sense. I've been wondering if there was a medical condition

It's good to see that he's not slowing down his service to the country just because his health has slowed him down

[calimary]

5. I did, too. But that was just one of several explanations I was grasping for.

It does make sense. Good to know!

[NCLefty]

6. After he talked about praying a lot, I decided he was just praying in the spaces.

[BigmanPigman]

8. The first time that I heard him speak were normal to me.

When I read earlier on DU that he was really slow I watched it again and I still feel that he was speaking normally given the situation. Obama always puts care and thought into his words and I think this judge was doing the same thing. It impressed upon me the image of a truly intelligent, thoughtful and sincere patriot, not typical of the average consrvative these days.

[Hortensis]

12. Yes. Being noticeably slow did not distract me from what he said.

He stated right out that he was informing the American people about issues of great importance and speaking for history. Most of us couldn't have understood as well at normal speech speed anyway, and it gave us time to think about what we were taking in.

Link to tweet

[BigmanPigman]

13. That's a good point.

Considering what he said and the situation the country is in, I'm almost glad he was deliberate. It emphasizes the serious danger we are facing. Viewers had time to process what he was saying and it was scary, especially coming from a person with his experience and position.

[JI7]

9. The problem is people watch these things for entertainment and want it to be like watching

a movie.

[Bucky]

10. Yes, good public speaking should have a pleasing flow.

I guess you could call it entertaining, but really that persuasive sense of timing is really about demonstrating in the speaker a sense of confidence and ethos.

Even in expressing strong and high ideals, a speaker should embue their presentation with a sense of salesmanship, or persuasion. One should carry an audience along toward one's thesis or argument. This is the art of rhetoric and anyone taking a place of leadership, such as being an expert witness before Congress, should cultivate these habits.

Now, if there is a medical disability, we can make allowances. Who he is, how he's served the republic, and who he's influenced in life is also part of that ethos. The respect and deference that both Republicans and Democrats showed him in the testimony also demonstrates his gravitas. But for the general audience a speaker's stylistics does indeed matter.

[Bucky]

11. I'm kicking myself

cause everyone should enjoy this 5½ minute testimony in 2:19