I listened to the televised presentation of the January 6 committee’s hearings last night. More than ever I wish that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had allowed the Republicans to appoint the members they wanted to the committee. That would have foreclosed the claim that the hearings were a partisan witch hunt. In his Washington Post column George Will says this about the hearings:
The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the planning of it, can present facts crucial to Congress’s performing this legitimate function: supplying the public with information indispensable to understanding itself. The information’s importance can be, but need not be, related to some legislative purpose. Telling an important story can be sufficient. Assembling the narrative of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, thereby dispelling conspiracy theories corrosive of social trust, was a sufficient justification for the 1963-1964 Warren Commission.
The Jan. 6 committee will forfeit the public’s limited trust in it — and the public’s limited interest in it — if members pursue preexisting progressive agendas, such as abolition of the electoral college or other changes to election law. Furthermore, Congress has neither a constitutional power nor an institutional aptitude for building a criminal case against Donald Trump. If the committee attempts this, it will sink into the quicksand of fascinating but legally problematic definitions of “conspiracy,†and of speech that becomes illegal by “inciting†illegality.
This morning media commentators are lauding the hearings for just that.
I believe that
- Joe Biden is the legal and legitimate president of the United States.
- The breaching of the Capitol was wrong and those who did so should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
- Not all of those protesting in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 were engaged in insurrection but some were.
- Tarring everyone who engaged in those protests as an insurrectionist while not treating those protesting in support of causes you favor the same way increases the perception that the hearings are a partisan exercise.
- Donald Trump is an arrogant dolt.
but I believed all of those things before I started listening to the hearings. I seriously doubt they will change anyone’s minds about anything.
Catch 22. It would have been better to have the people the Republicans wanted but they would have torpedoed the investigation. Leaks, obstruction and delays.
Steve
It’s a matter of priorities. If the preference is for fast and partisan, mission accomp[lished.
No, its a matter of function. If you think the committee could have possibly functioned with the people the Republicans wanted to put on it you are naive, or something. At least propose some meaningful explanation about why this would uniquely be the one thing on which they could work together.
Steve
Lending credible, balanced information to an event would seem to flesh out the “truth†more. When such a bipartisan committee is ever formed this actually may be beneficial. However, the one run by Pelosi is far from such a construct.
What it would take would be Pelosi to release her own emails, texts, communications during January 2020. The 14,000 hours of video, that are being suppressed by Pelosi, should also be aired for public viewing, rather than just the carefully curated clips that were cherry-picked to suit the government narrative. Questions should be answered as to why Pelosi refused to permit more security be present on January 6th – security requested by the president himself as well as the Capitol Police.? Video footage should be explored of why some of the main characters, encouraging breaching of the Capitol, were not arrested? Why were so many flash grenades, rubber bullets used while the crowd was still relatively peaceful, hitting children, striking people in the chest, causing at least one heart attack and death? Why weren’t the beatings the Capitol police used on some protesters aired, especially the female officer’s vicious clubbing of Rosanne Boyle who died? She was beaten and trampled to death, not dying from a drug overdose like the government wanted people to believe. How did magnetically controlled doors, which could only be opened from inside the building, suddenly open? Why were there images of Capitol police waving people inside, if they were trying to stop an “insurrection†where there were no weapons carried? Why was an unarmed female veteran recklessLy shot and killed, by a man who did not first identify himself, and then used a gun when there were already police directly behind her? Why are people being chased down, rounded up by huge, armed military enforcements, taken away and put into solitary confinement for sometimes over a year. Most of these citizens have no police record, are being held, without bail, on misdemeanor charges or hyper inflated ones, not being allowed to see their families, their attorneys, or given access to due process. Some are beaten, have been denied medical services or even basic hygiene protocols. Many are small business people, have families, but are smeared as nameless “domestic terrorist,†with one broad brush stroke.
This is America????
And, was the evidence dug up and theatrically produced, by this extremely biased committee, really telling the true story surrounding the J6 protests….or, is this just another example of political harassment carried out by a weaponized FBI and political party intent on keeping it’s power over the people?
As a kid I was always mystified how rancid governments could influence enough people to turn on each other, giving directives and committing acts that give cover for man’s eventual inhumanity to man. How the whole J6 event was co-opted and then scripted by the progressives, to sufficiently blur how beneficial it was for democrats to create disruptive chaos, before state evidence could be presented to Congress, prior to election certification, has been a lesson in how easy it is for abusive governance to screen out a justified protest and prevail. Basically, the J6 kangaroo committee is a perfect demonstration of government power running amuck.
steves right. If you want a committee to function well you need people of honor and integrity. Like Nancy Pelosi or Adam Schiff……….
Or Jordan or Nunes.
Yes jan. Democrats organized and were the people attending on Jan 6.
Steve
That’s odd. I don’t recall Jim Jordan bald faced lying about first hand knowledge of impeachable offenses in public, but denying he had anything when under oath. Maybe you could enlighten us, steve. I was also unaware that, like Nancy Pelosi, Devon Nunes had parlayed a Congressmen’s salary into a net worth variously estimated at between $130MM and $200MM, highlighted by extremely fortuitous stock purchases of companies soon to be granted large government contracts, and access to IPO’s almost always restricted to institutions. But maybe, steve, you have other evidence.
What you won’t get in these hearings: The actual words.
“peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.†“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy…And after this, we’re going to walk down – and I’ll be there with you – we’re going to walk down … to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.â€
Clearly a traitor.
Also never mentioned is the claim by the committee that the event was pre-planned and was known to be imminent. (by Trump) And yet, if it was known to be imminent and orchestrated by Trump why did he offer 20,000 strong just in case? And why did the DC Mayor, Nancy Pelosi, the Sergeant at Arms all reject this offer?
Liz Cheney states that Trump did not offer the support “on January 6.” A technically true statement, but pure sophistry. It was offered January 4, and rejected.
The correct arguments are that Trump should not have given a speech to a crowd that could be whipped into a frenzy. (But I notice no one making the similar observation about Schumer threatening Gorsich or Kavanaugh.) And the observation that those who acted violently should be prosecuted is correct. But the naive and gawkers should be cited for simple trespass, and that’s that.
It was a riot and a dumb idea. But I can’t take seriously the opportunists calling it an insurrection or clutching pearls talking about “almost losing our democracy.” Its pure political theatre, and farcical.