The Republicans did not send their best on this one
The House Rules Committee held a meeting to discuss whether Steve Bannon should be held in Contempt of Congress and referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for defying a lawfully issued Congressional subpoena from the Select Committee on January 6th.
To paraphrase one of their own, the Republicans did not send their best. Instead, they sent Gym Jordan and Matt Gaetz to argue that the subpoena — and in fact, the entire January 6th investigation — was improper and inappropriate. Imagine how thin your bench must be to think that Jordan & Gaetz were the best ones to argue about propriety and appropriateness. Were Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene unavailable?
MAGA bullhorns Gaetz & Jordan, who typically parrot Trump’s mantra to “Make America Great Again” (by turning back the clock to a decades-ago era that suits them), now want to just move past January 6th and look ahead. Except when it comes to re-litigating Trump’s bogus claims about election fraud and how he “wuz robbed” of a second term.
Gaetz tried to argue Big Lie case law with Rules Committee Member Jamie Raskin, but the only receipts Gaetz brought were from Venmo. Oops. Suffice it to say that in this battle of wits, Gaetz came unarmed.
Jordan got flummoxed, as he always does, when asked when he spoke to Trump on January 6th. He alternatively tried to beat his chest about how often he speaks with Trump, and then shiftily squirmed, not wanting to commit to when he spoke to Trump that day. Tying himself to Trump is not the flex he thinks it is, and he may or may not be smart enough to realize that investigators will have his cell phone records that will show exactly when he spoke to Trump. Keep talking, Gym!
The performance (it was just theater, after all) of the Dimmer Twins revealed several things, including the wisdom of Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reject the nomination of Jordan by House GOP “Leader” Kevin McCarthy to serve on the Select Committee.
Republicans love Jordan’s bullshit in a china shop approach, but it would have simply distracted the Committee (as McCarthy (i.e., Trump) intended) from its important work in ferreting out those responsible for planning and promoting the January 6th assault on the Capitol.
Most Republicans, who for years beat the Benghazi horse to death by holding hearing after hearing for the sole purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton politically (according to McCarthy), now want to put January 6th behind us, even though it nearly tore apart the fabric of our nation.
The lone exceptions seem to be Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who by all accounts, recognize the importance of the Select Committee’s work, are taking their duties as members of the Committee very seriously, and are working diligently to unearth the truth. That is why they are pariahs in their own party.
