Eric Swalwell drives the wedge further between Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy
One of the reasons the January 6th Committee has been so productive, focused, and influential to public opinion is that it’s the rare modern congressional committee whose members are all seeking the truth. Typically, any House or Senate committee investigation consists of Democratic members who are trying to get to the truth and Republican members who are trying to strategically promote lies.
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the January 6th Committee, she offered to let Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pick five of the thirteen seats. He submitted a list that included material witness Jim Jordan, whom Pelosi rejected. In response, McCarthy – surely at the behest of Donald Trump – yanked all of his picks and declined to participate.
This prompted Pelosi to add Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only two House Republicans who seemed interested in getting to the truth of January 6th, to the committee. It ensured that the committee would be bipartisan, but wouldn’t include any pro-Trump liars. Even though the committee has surely had its share of disagreements behind the scenes, its members clearly understand that they must present a united front in public, so as to not get in the way of the facts and evidence being introduced to the American public.
This united quest for facts and truth isn’t sitting well with some right wingers. For instance, Brit Hume of Fox News tweeted this: “I’ve covered Washington for more than 50 years, including 11 years covering Congress specifically. I’ve never seen a committee all of whose members were chosen by one party, and where there is no cross-examination or any attempt to present both sides.”
It’s unintentionally hilarious that Hume is lamenting the fact that “both sides” aren’t being presented, when the two sides he’s referring to are the truth and the lie. Hume is actually complaining that there’s no one on the committee who’s willing to give a voice to Donald Trump’s election lies, or to dishonestly attack the credible witnesses who have been testifying against him.
Hume seems to have truly convinced himself that the truth and the lie deserve equal airtime. And why wouldn’t he? Most of the Sunday morning political shows are based on the premise of giving equal time to the truth and the lie, and at this point CNN pretty much bases its entire daily programming on giving equal weight to one party’s truths and the other party’s lies. It’s not just Fox News that’s full of it these days; the mainstream media is increasingly creeping in Fox’s direction by simply letting the Republican Party get away with telling nonstop lies, as if lies were a point of view.
Not surprisingly, people in the real world weren’t impressed with Brit Hume’s whining. Congressman Eric Swalwell even took the opportunity to point out that Trump has recently begun trying to throw McCarthy under the bus over how effective the January 6th Committee has turned out to be.
Swalwell tweeted this: “I agree, Brit. Kevin McCarthy shouldn’t have pulled his members off this critical committee. Trump agrees with this, too. What say you, Kevin McCarthy?”
