One of the greatest rivalries in sports is Dan Rather versus facts of literally any sort. A journalist who talks a lot about honesty and integrity is still nonetheless remembered for a blockbuster story that turned out to be based on forgeries – a story he still stands by to this day.

The latest attempt by Rather to pursue political discourse and score a point on the Internet was in response to a New York Times piece on the January 6 committee preparing potential charges against Donald Trump.

In a court filing in a civil case in California, the committee’s lawyers for the first time laid out their theory of a potential criminal case against the former president. They said they had accumulated evidence demonstrating that Mr. Trump, the conservative lawyer John Eastman and other allies could potentially be charged with criminal violations including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the American people.

The filing also said there was evidence that Mr. Trump’s repeated lies that the election had been stolen amounted to common law fraud.

The filing disclosed only limited new evidence, and the committee asked the judge in the civil case to review the relevant material behind closed doors. In asserting the potential for criminality, the committee largely relied on the extensive and detailed accounts already made public of the actions Mr. Trump and his allies took to keep him in office after his defeat.

To all of this, Rather went up for the dunk to seal the importance of this story, but instead fell flat on his face much to all of our delight.

There is a scene in Star Wars in a trash compactor. Reminds me what happens to the walls… https://t.co/Zrk8iMlmZF

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 3, 2022

Rather’s tweet is a reference to Star Wars: A New Hope, the original movie released in 1977 that kicked off a major franchise that maintains significant cultural relevance today. The scene he is referring to is one in which the heroes – Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia Organa – find themselves trapped in a trash compactor in the villains’ stronghold. After discovering there was something alive in the chamber with them, the main characters find the walls closing in on them.

It sure seems like certain doom for the heroes, which is the point Rather was attempting to make. That the walls are closing in on Trump and his allies in the wake of the January 6 committee’s investigation.

But, spoiler alert: The heroes of the movie Rather referenced eventually find a way out thanks to the droids that accompanied them.

They would then go on to save the galaxy and appear in several more movies in the franchise, becoming recognized as some of the greatest heroes in a generation.

I have really no opinion on the January 6 committee and those potential charges against Trump. I get the feeling they are going to come up with nothing and that this has all been a show for voters who are growing increasingly disinterested in this committee or January 6, 2021, in general.

But this “walls are closing in narrative” has been used by Democrats and folks in the media pretty much since Trump came into office.

But each time, Trump seems to escape those closing walls. After a while, one gets the idea that the walls were never really closing in at all and that this was all simply rhetoric from a group of people who were really mad that they lost an election and looked for every reason to believe that it was really stolen from them.

That surely couldn’t be the case, though, considering their extremely strong stance on upholding democracy.