This week we look at the ongoing attempts of the GOP to re-write history and deny that the Jan 6th Insurrection and attack on the Capitol actually occurred. We will look at next steps for Democrats and the increasing tensions we are witnessing on the Hill between legislators as folks like MTG and her staff continue to engage in personal attacks on other members of Congress.
I am sure that many of you have been a tourist on vacation. You enjoyed taking photos and videos of your destination to capture the memories of your time exploring and learning the place you were visiting. Perhaps you shared those images with friends and family on your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles or created interesting short videos that you then posted to TikTok of your adventures. Now I would like to ask each and every one of you tourists the following set of questions.
- Did you ever engage in physically beating and assaulting police or security officers at the place you visited?
- Did you ignore verbal warnings by police and other security officials at your destination and stormed the location as part of a frenzied mob that damaged the building, broke into office locations, ransacked any areas you were not allowed to access or smeared human feces on the walls of the place you visited.
- Did you overrun police and protective barricades ignoring official police and security warnings to cease your illegal actions?
- Did you bring bear spray, pepper spray, zip ties, handcuffs, tasers, large blunt instruments or a working hanging gallows to your destination?
- Did you run through the halls of the destination screaming out for the hanging of a public official or taunting other officials in an attempt to locate them?
- Did you break windows, doors, office drawers of places where you were prohibited to go?
- Did you attempt to crush security and police personnel in doors, stab them in the eye, beat them about the head with large objects including posts, metal bars and fire extinguishers, drag them down steps, kick and stomp on them, taser them multiple times while listening to their pleas to stop?
So, if you answered yes to any of these questions, you are absolutely, positively in no way a “Tourist”, you are an insurrectionist who broke the law and engaged in a dangerous and bloody coup attempt.
We will discuss this vile revisionist history on the part of the GOP after this break.
Now for some reason various House GOP members want to attempt to rewrite history and frame those who stormed the Capitol as peaceful tourist and not the ugly deadly mob that they were. This is the most egregious attempt at gaslighting Americans. Do those GOP members of Congress believe that that we would somehow ignore hours of violent footage showing the abuse and assault on members of the Capitol police who were brutalized by this mob that was incited by the former guy who wanted to retain power in order to escape further inquiries into his corruption, law breaking and treason.
A House Oversight Committee hearing on the “unexplained delays and unanswered questions” surrounding the Jan 6th Capitol Insurrection devolved into a series on conspiracy theories and lies from many GOP members. In what can only be as blatant outright light GOP Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ), Jody Hice (GA) who each voted to attempt to overturn the duly validated Presidential election, called those who bloodied Capitol police and participated in the violent coup as “peaceful patriots”. Representative Hice went so far as to make the laughable conspiracy claim that the violence was not perpetrated by rioters incited by Trump but were instead “outside agitators. Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde outright lied and claimed that “There was no insurrection.” He made the laughable statement that violent mob were really just tourists, stating that “If you didn’t know the TV footage was from a video from January the six, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. It is clear that Republicans continue to cling to “The Big Lie” so that they don’t run afoul of Trump’s temper and risk being primaried from their far right of their party.
So why the attempt at rewriting an obviously well documented day of mob violence that can only be described as a coup attempt to attack our lawmakers and overturn the electoral results? More critically what can Democrats and moderate truth loving Republicans do.
Rep Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Rep Adam Kinzinger of Illinois have both been sharp critics of the Republican leadership who continue to tie the party to “The Big Lie”. Both have pushed back on the GOP’s lies about the Insurrection as little more than a day out at the Capitol for patriotic tourists, who just seemed to have rampaged and assaulted the Capitol police. They have also specifically called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who has attempted to downplay the Capitol attacks and has done a 180-degree flip flop from his initial statements that Trump was responsible for inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol. Rep. Cheney and Rep. Kinzinger, each invoked McCarthy’s calls the day of the attack to Trump begging for immediate assistance and pushing back on any attempt to reframe the Insurrection either playing it down or to ignore the facts of the mob violence. The Republican party lead by Minority Leader McCarthy and even McConnell are seeking to desperately turn the page and wipe the violence of the Jan 6th Capitol attacks from Americans collective memory. This has led to significant foot dragging on the part of Republican leadership to moving forward with a bipartisan commission to do a thorough investigation into the Jan 6th Capitol Insurrection.
This past Friday, the Democrats finally made substantial progress on setting up the investigation into the Jan 6th Capitol Insurrection. Benny Thompson, D-MS and Chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and his Republican counterpart from NY, Rep John Katko, announced that they had reached an agreement to introduce “legislation to form a bipartisan, independent Commission to investigate the January 6th domestic terrorism attack on the United States Capitol and recommend changes to further protect the Capitol.” Of course, that legislation needs to be passed and I for one would not be surprised at whatever shenanigans Trump supporting Republicans may take block this legislation. What is interesting to note is some of the provisions which make it exceptionally easy for Republicans to veto the issuance of potential subpoenas, the overall operations of the commission as well as its conclusions. So congratulations on putting together a bipartisan commission that will likely be unable to do its job because the Republican party will certainly want to delay, bury or in any way possible inhibit any findings from being made public ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections that would paint Republicans who supported, conspired or bolstered the illegitimate claims which both lead to the Insurrection and also continue to present a very real and dangerous threat to our country and to our democracy. So, like the 9/11 commission which largely ignored substantive evidence of key governmental authorities ignoring credible threats ahead of the 9/11 attacks we now will have another feckless and ineffective commission that will be unwilling to confront the financial and operational supporters and conspirators who planned, financed and inhibited a quick response the day of the Jan 6th Capitol Insurrection.
The Republican party will do everything in its power to dispute the facts of the day as they know cling to outlandish claims that the Jan 6th Capitol attacks were just tourist visits. It decries a party that has lost its moral authority and any shred of the credibility to lead. Rep Elise Stefanik (NY) after having won Rep Liz Cheney’s old Republican leadership position attempted to portray a picture of party unity. But that is not the case because the truth tellers within the party have been willing to stand up and call BS on Republican leaders like Minority House Leader McCarthy, Stefanik and even Trump and call out the dangerous and outlandish nature of their lies. The Democrats in an effort to be bipartisan are forgetting that a larger majority of the Republican party is trafficking in dangerous lies that seek to attack the very heart of our democratic principles. We are this close to sliding into an autocracy and it begins when one side attempts to control and re-write history. We can’t allow this to happen, and we need to call out both Republicans and the media for not being more forceful in calling this egregious and willful lies out.
We will take a look at the role the media is playing in helping Republicans to whitewash the Republican lies and conspiracy theories.
During this time of ongoing crisis, we need the fourth estate to do their jobs and investigate. It is clear that there were significant operational and planning ties between such characters as Roger Stone, the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and senior level Trump officials that point to both a coordinated attack on the Capitol on Jan 6th as well as an egregious attempt to inhibit a rapid response by national guard troops the day of the insurrection. With ongoing committee hearings being unable to unearth real facts about pre-planning coordination all the way up the former guy we need to far more vigorous exploration of the key players and the roles they played in putting our legislators in harm’s way that day. It is critical that beyond the timelines of the attack we need to review the communications and financial support and infrastructure prior to the attack, communications among key players during the attack. It remains suspicious that mere weeks before leaving office, Trump installed loyalists at the DOD who would be called upon in the event of violent attack. We need to understand why frantic calls from lawmakers went unheeded and whether or not Trump himself, who has been widely reported as having indicated prior to the coup that the Capitol police were to make every effort “to protect” the riotous Trump supporters. It is clear that Trump and his cohorts laid the foundation and ignited the rioters with their pre-riot “Stop the Steal” rally. But more critically they carefully sought to dismantle the ability to react quickly to any violence that could and was likely to take place. Given both the level of pre-event social media posting that clearly indicated the dangers involved and the conspicuous lack of proper support and rules of engagement it is evident that Trump and many of his associates and Administration lackeys enabled and outright encouraged the Insurrection to take place. This and more must be looked into by journalists who seem to be incapable of tackling the nuanced and layered story of the planning and response of the Trump Administration and his cabal of hangers on to the Capitol attack. We have a window of approximately six months to continue to investigate the attack and the players and to expose the very dangerous sedition and treason that occurred both that day, and in the days prior. Yes, it will likely topple several key senior Republicans but to have their treason and sedition stand unanswered is the bigger risk to our democratic ideals, the Constitution and the rule of law.