Congressional Committee to Investigate the January 6 Capitol Insurrection Is Blocked
The Big Lie continues to grow. Up is down. The earth is flat. The January 6 insurrection didn’t happen. Or it was just a bunch of tourists. Or Black Lives Matter + Antifa staged it.
Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have decided they want no part of any commission investigating what happened when a mob broke into the Capitol building, caused $30 million in damages/related security costs, injured 138 officers (73 Capitol Police and 65 Metropolitan Police), directly/indirectly caused 5 deaths, and interrupted the constitutionally mandated process of certifying the votes of the Electoral College.
While the vote taken in the House will affirm the creation of a commission, its passage in the Senate is unlikely. And here's the thing--if they can't kill it with a vote, the commission will be doomed with a thousand cuts. Meetings will be disrupted, subpoenas will be ignored, Fox News will curate personal attacks,,,,etc,etc.
Here’s the deal struck by Speaker Nancy Pelosi with some GOP members, via Joan McCarter at Daily Kos, written before McCarthy formally came out against the commission:
The legislation creates a commission made up of 10 members, an equal number of members chosen by Democratic and Republican leadership. None of the members can be currently serving government officials and all must have a depth of experience in a combination government, law enforcement, civil rights, and national security service. Democrats would appoint the chair, Republicans the vice chair. The committee would have the power to subpoena McCarthy or anyone else, but if the vice chair wanted to veto that subpoena decision, they could.
The chair—appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer—has the sole power to secure information from the federal agencies and has control over appointing staff. That gives them significant power. But there are still pitfalls for the commission.
One of the key faults of the commission as negotiated is that it has a deadline of the end of this year. Republicans have already dragged it out for five months, and have the chance to do so again, even after the bill passes. Even if McConnell decided against filibustering the bill, he and McCarthy can simply draw out the process of naming their five members.
We’re being asked to believe the unbelievable about January 6, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
NATO intelligence agencies briefed their governments, calling it an attempted coup by President Trump which may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials.
Live TV coverage and reports from law enforcement agencies certainly made it seem as though this was a major event.
According to Insider, 482 people have now been arrested in connection with the events of that day. This link will take you to a searchable database of those arrested, with information about where they came from and what they were charged with.
As to House Minority Leader McCarthy, he’s got one huge reason to avoid any investigation of what happened on January 6, namely his phone conversation with former President Donald Trump on January 6.
As CNN reported, Trump told McCarthy on that call that the rioters "are more upset about the election than you are" and the GOP leader responded by insisting that the people overrunning the Capitol were backers of the President and that he needed to tell them to stand down.
Now McCarthy has “forgotten” all that.
We’re being told by the Former Guy’s enablers that it’s time to move on; to ignore what we saw and heard. Or that it wasn’t that big a deal.
Take Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde, for instance. He’s the one circulating the claim that the invasion of the Capitol was a “normal tourist visit.” Except the Capitol was closed to visitors due to the COVID-19 lockdown. And there are photographs of him running scared and helping to place barricades in front doors.
Or how about Texas Congressman Louie Gohmer, who says January 6th arrests are about “Joe Biden’s Justice Department is criminalizing political protest, but only political protest by Republicans or conservatives. They’re destroying the lives of American families, they’re weaponizing the events of January 6 to silence Trump-supporting Americans.”
https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1394672422176047104?s=20
Despite a previously negotiated bipartisan agreement, Senate Republicans (who can kill the deal) are now expressing worries about how the commission will be formed, whether it should have a broader scope and if it might hinder the work of congressional committees that are already probing events of January 6.
This is a classic example of what it is like to negotiate with Republicans these days: lots of talk and then they want to kill any deal.
https://twitter.com/labyrinthweaver/status/1394655068415139846?s=20
One of the things at play here is that Republicans want to broaden the scope of any investigation to include events occurring in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the summer of 2020.
Via Politico:
“They’re going to have to broaden the inquiry in order to get 60 votes,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “There’s more things wrong in this country than just [what] happened on January 6th.”
There’s no connection between the two topics, but leave it to the GOP to try and find a way to blame Black people. This is an example of the “whataboutism” used to distract from the subject at hand any time reactionaries are asked to defend the indefensible.
Make no mistake about it: January 6th was a bungled attempt to overturn the November 2020 Presidential election. Since the claims about voter fraud were unprovable, no matter how many nutcases went on Fox to repeat them, the Former Guy and his enablers did their best to derail the political process.
Fortunately, the last administration wasn’t particularly competent when it came to implementing schemes. As we now know, following the election, Trump attempted to unilaterally withdraw US forces from around the world, hoping to foster chaos on three continents for the Biden administration to deal with. This effort failed in large part because the President’s team didn’t grasp the protocols necessary to make such a move. Lacking direction, the plan withered.
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1392887906545672199?s=20
Frankly, I don’t see any way out of this mess for Congress. While it would be nice to learn a few more details and reinforce the memories of what happened, I suspect the best we’re going to get is whatever the Justice Department wants to say in open court. And if past enforcement efforts aimed at the TrumpBunch are any indication, we won’t learn much until sentencing statements get filed.
The important thing about January 6 that could come out would be the level of interaction between all the grifters associated with the events of the day. I can guarantee that more than just Proud Boys and Oath Keepers had a hand in what transpired.
Maybe if this video is where negotiating started, Republicans might think differently:
https://twitter.com/AnIllicitWriter/status/1394439033095344132?s=20
Hey folks! Be sure to like/follow Words & Deeds on Facebook. If you’d like to have each post emailed to you check out the simple subscription form on the right side of the front page.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com