The January 6th Committee already has House Republicans running scared
The House Select Committee on January 6th began its proceedings with public hearings that included powerful testimony from four police officers describing the harrowing abuse they suffered at the hands of the Capitol Insurrectionists. Committee members, Republican and Democrat alike, took their duty seriously, vowing to unearth the truth of the origins of the vicious attack on our government and our constitutional processes that day.
Then Jim Jordan went on Fox News and promptly demonstrated exactly why Nancy Pelosi was correct to veto his nomination by Kevin McCarthy/Trump to be on the House Select January 6th Committee. Under persistent questioning by Bret Baier, Jordan admitted that he talks to Trump all the time and did so on January 6th. He said he still talks to Trump to this day.
Anyone who is not brainwashed can see that if Jordan had been allowed to participate on the Committee, he would no doubt continue to talk to Trump about the Committee’s inner workings, including plans and evidence uncovered by its investigation. Sharing this information with a potential target of an investigation is obviously not proper or appropriate. Not to mention that Jordan himself should be a witness before the Committee, as noted by Republican Member Liz Cheney.
Jordan also displayed his penchant for deflection and misdirection, in his typical machine gun-like delivery, stopping only to reload every so often. He claimed the real issue was why Nancy Pelosi had not properly fortified the Capitol on January 6th, conveniently overlooking the fact that, to the extent that she had any role to play, she shared that responsibility with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Moreover, that’s like saying an investigation into a robbery at your home needs to focus on deficiencies in your security system, not who planned, funded, and executed the robbery.
And remember the Republican arguments that a bipartisan January 6th Commission wasn’t necessary because Congressional Committees were already investigating the events of that fateful day? Well, in June, after conducting an investigation, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a joint bipartisan report on the security, planning, and response failures related to January 6th attack on the Capitol.
The report identified failures in communication of intelligence information and inadequate planning and preparation by law enforcement agencies, including the Capitol Police. It also included specific recommendations for the Capitol Police Board, the Capitol Police, the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms, federal intelligence agencies, DOD, and regional law enforcement agencies. So Republicans can’t really be arguing that duplicating those committees’ efforts should be the primary focus of the Select Committee on Jan. 6th, right?
House Republican “Leader” Kevin McCarthy, Jordan, and other Republicans also try to argue that the Select Committee is simply an attempt to cripple Donald Trump’s political future. First, as Palmer Report has consistently pointed out, Trump has already done that to himself, and in any event, criminal indictments coming in New York, and possibly other jurisdictions, will finish him off.
Second, this claim tacitly acknowledges Trump’s culpability for the January 6th Insurrection. So Republicans know Trump was responsible — as was acknowledged by McCarthy in the immediate aftermath of the Insurrection and by McConnell after Trump’s second impeachment trial. Why do they want to bury this fact now?
Republican objections to the Select Committee’s work seem to be that, if the truth comes out over the next year about who planned, funded, and organized the January 6th Insurrection, it will hurt their chances in the 2022 mid-term elections. So they accuse Democrats of politicizing the investigation into January 6th in a cynical attempt to hide their own crass political motives.
