Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $60,000 fee, the 6 January hearings, and the difficulty of changing people’s minds

Potentially damaging allegations have been made but whether they’ll have an effect is another matter, writes Phil Thomas

Kimberly Guilfoyle at a rally in support of then-president Donald Trump (Jacquelyn Martin)

It was not, by any standards, a speech to echo through the ages.

When she took to the stage of the “Stop the Steal” rally on the morning of 6 January 2021, Kimberly Guilfoyle – former Fox News presenter and Donald Trump Jr’s girlfriend – treated the still-gathering crowd at the Ellipse in DC to her usual spiel. A couple of minutes of yelling platitudes about then-President Trump, wrapped up with her now famous battle cry: “The best is yet to come!” Then she handed the microphone to Don Jr, exited stage left and that was it.

None of which would have been very memorable but for one intriguing detail that has emerged from the edges of the public congressional hearings into the events of 6 January: Kimberly Guilfoyle was apparently paid $60,000 for her brief contribution. The revelation came from Democratic congresswoman Zoe Lofgren in an interview following the second in a series of bombshell public hearings into Trump’s multifaceted and increasingly desperate efforts to hang on to power after losing the 2020 election.