Republicans Can’t Stop Congress from Investigating the 1/6 Insurrection, But They’re Trying to Every Way They Can
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Republicans Can’t Stop Congress from Investigating the 1/6 Insurrection, But They’re Trying to Every Way They Can
GettyImages-1230505137c - Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Two.
That’s how many Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to create a select committee that will investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, the worst assault on the heart of American democracy since the War of 1812. The remaining 200-odd House Republicans either voted against the committee or didn’t vote at all.
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Six months after the insurrection, the vast majority of Republican lawmakers have decided to treat January 6th as yet another partisan wedge issue or to deny the reality of what happened despite all the evidence to the contrary. In the Senate, Republicans blocked an earlier bill to establish a bipartisan independent commission. Now, in the House, fearful as ever of incurring the wrath of Donald Trump and his followers, Republican leaders fought against a select committee and threatened their own colleagues who might sit on that committee.
With all that in mind, it’s worth asking: How will this new investigation work? Will it stand any chance of digging up new information and discerning the truth of what happened on that dark day? Or will it devolve into a partisan circus like the Benghazi investigation of several years ago?
How We Got Here
A week after the January 6th attack, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — whom Trump infamously berated by phone as lawmakers fled to safety during the insurrection — spoke about the need for accountability and to understand what had just transpired on Capitol Hill. He said then-President Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack and should have “immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” McCarthy added that Trump’s response to the insurrection “deserves congressional action, which is why I think a fact-finding commission and a censure resolution would be prudent.”
These words carried a certain amount of weight coming from McCarthy. He was one of Trump’s most ardent defenders — “my Kevin,” Trump called him — and a potential future speaker of the House. But as the ensuing weeks would show, the calls for a thorough investigation or independent commission like one McCarthy described were empty talk.
In May, the House passed legislation to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. Like the 9/11 Commission, that body would have enlisted outside experts chosen by both political parties to understand the circumstances leading up to the attack on the Capitol, the security failures and governmental responses on the day itself, and how to prevent future episodes.
That bill passed with the support of 217 Democrats and 35 Republicans, a clear statement of its bipartisan appeal and the urgent need for accountability. But in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies filibustered the bill. Democrats searched for 10 Republican votes to defeat McConnell’s procedural road block; they found just six . There would be no independent 1/6 commission.
The New Select Committee
This week, Speaker Pelosi responded to the Senate Republican filibuster by introducing a resolution to create a select committee that would probe the events leading up to and on January 6th. That resolution — it’s technically not a bill — passed Wednesday with the support of just two Republican representatives, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Both Kinzinger and Cheney are outspoken critics of Donald Trump and his stranglehold on the Republican Party . And this time, the January 6th select committee resolution would not need Senate approval.
The new committee will consist of 13 House members. Speaker Pelosi chooses all 13 members but five of those she will select “after consultation” with McCarthy, the top House Republican. At the end of its investigation, the committee will submit a report about how “to prevent future acts of violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism, and to improve the security of the U.S. Capitol Complex and other American democratic institutions.”
Republicans who voted for the earlier independent commission but against the select committee said they didn’t want to support a panel that would become too partisan. “I supported a bipartisan independent commission,” Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) told CNN. “This is the opposite.” Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) said it was “essential we have a thorough, credible January 6 investigation in order to produce an objective report to get at the truth and clear away fictions and lies.” He went on, “I fear the structure of this partisan select committee will not produce that critical outcome.”
Benghazi Redux?
In explaining his opposition to the new select committee, Rep. Meijer pointed to a cautionary tale of recent vintage: the select committee created to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.
That committee spent two-and-a-half years and $7.8 million on a sprawling probe that lasted longer than past congressional investigations into the Pearl Harbor attack, Watergate, 9/11, and the Kennedy and King assassinations. Originally created to scrutinize the Benghazi attacks and the deaths of four Americans including U.S. diplomat Christopher Stevens, the endless Benghazi select committee veered into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and came to be viewed as a partisan exercise intended to damage Clinton’s chances of winning the White House in 2016.
McCarthy fueled those criticisms when he appeared on Fox News and linked Clinton’s polling with the select committee’s work. “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” he said. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”
The fear is that partisanship and tribal loyalties will doom the January 6th committee from start not unlike what happened with the Benghazi select committee. Whether the committee treats it work seriously or not depends almost entirely on its make-up. Should Minority Leader McCarthy put forward five Trump loyalists or election-fraud conspiracy theorists for the committee, it’s not hard to imagine circus-like public hearings and dueling reports that muddle the committee’s work as happened during the Benghazi inquiry.
According to Punchbowl News , McCarthy warned any of his members that if they accepted Pelosi’s invitation to join the committee, they would effectively lose their committee assignments. Pelosi has, in a sense, sought to preempt such an outcome by nominating Cheney, a neo-conservative and dyed-in-the-wool Republican. She joins senior Democrats including Reps. Adam Schiff, Zoe Lofgren, and Bennie Thompson, the three of whom chair committees with oversight related to the January 6th insurrection.
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Every scumbag republican against this is complicit. Absolutely no doubt about that. That includes spineless trumpturd supporter McCarthy. The republicans against this are trash.
Every single scumbag republican against this is a trumpturd supporter/enabler trash.
watching the seditionist party stall the investigation efforts of congress only gives me greater confidence for the midterms.
The Democrats don't want any Republicans on this commission.
The dopey Dems can run the whole silly shitshow on their own
Just another left wing political stunt
they had their chance for a bipartisan commission in the senate and balked. explain that.
That Is just wrong Greg .. Liz Cheney is on the commission.. one may have issues with her .. but I am perplexed to see why - Cheney has issues with January 6th [as should we all] the USA is a nations of laws or it is not - think the election was stolen, prove it .. this republic is about the individual and not mob rule, YET January 6th was mob rule at its finest. Cheney spoke her mind and was punished for it ... but her voting record was closer to Trump's agenda then her replacement.... if you care to look her record up...
The GOP is having a loyalty issue .. and it is connected to the direction the wind blows ... last night we had 70 ish mph gusts of wind coming from the south -- was there a GOP gathering last night?
What is the GOP afraid of? On the 6th GOP leaders came out and condemned the now former presidents actions on that day .. then weeks later started sucking his dick again... ugghhh Trump is not the future of the party .. the quicker that is figured out, the quicker the GOP can get back on track!
Colour Me Confused!
Peace!
Finally I don't have to stay within the lines.
Colour said "dick"
Hmmm .. tell me when you have ever stayed within the lines ... : )
I think this commission is redundancy at its finest .. yet that is American government in the 18th century [can you say Benghazi?], so we must just sit back and wait to see if the same conclusions are reached, that were already reached on the 6th -
Does 'it happened because [fill in the blank]' ... sounds like an ad lib? for fucks sake it is on video .. ALL OF IT IS ON VIDEO ...
I respect the process .. but I do not know what it will accomplish - all one has to do is watch the video to see whom it was that stirred the pot!
How many Hail Mary's do I have to say to be forgiven for not saying 'dickless wonder'...?
Ummmm...40? It's a short prayer
Whoa! Damn'd ... is this a good time to confess I am not religious?
Have a great 4th, Colour! This was fun!
I've just changed my opInion of you Colour. You are so right. Kudos!
I was such a bitch to you. I was so wrong.
I'm ashamed to have been so petty and nasty to you.
From now on if I don't agree with you on something I'll agree to disagree or keep my big yap shut!
Peace.. Mrs G .. May the 4th be with you!
Peace! Happy 4th!
They need to start with the seditious ahole (Mike Nearman) who is on video opening a back door to let the Trumptards in. He was at least kicked out of the Oregon House of Representatives for his actions.
I love this!
Well, if somebody from the repub side would grow a spine and stand up to McCarthy it could be bipartisan
More so to McConnell than anyone else. McConnell like to feel so important that he can control the Congress as he pleases. If he is out of the picture McCarthy will be a none player, and our Congress will stand a far better chance of working together and doing what is right for America and it people, instead of only what is good for them and their party. But, as long as McConnell's wife and rich Chinese family keep buying the elections for him, McConnell will be hard to oust.
Then they should have done it, but NO, they have to be dimwits.
try those domestic terrorists, then erect a concrete wall on the grounds of arlington and stand them up against it.
Sounds like a good plan to me!
Nah. I don't want to see Arlington desecrated in that manner. I'm sure we can find an island down in Loosiana where it's swampy, infested with skeeters, and they have to hunt and fish for their own food. And don't forget the gators
Now that's more like it TG. You're right, no need to dishonor the true heroes with this gop trash
The pic with the guy carrying the confederate flag through the halls of congress says it all.
I would not be surprised at all to learn that guy was also in Charlottesville marching along side his fellow right wing conservative neo-Nazi's waving their swastika flags who Trump called "fine people".