Democrats want to go the route of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Republicans, who spent years using congressional subpoena powers to go on several anti-Democrat witch hunts (“Benghazi!”), are calling foul on this Jan. 6 commission, saying it reeks of politics.
Something here reeks, and it ain’t the Jan. 6 commission.
“Jan. 6th was a dark day in our nation’s history, as lives and our precious democracy were put at risk,” Fourth District Democratic Donald McEachin said. “We have an obligation to our future as a nation to examine what happened, in a thorough and nonpartisan manner, and determine ways to ensure these kinds of violent attacks on our government do not happen again.
“Just as the 9/11 Commission addressed that tragedy, this Commission has the potential to allow us to move forward stronger, more united, and better prepared to defend and protect our democracy. I call on my colleagues in the Senate to pass this legislation expeditiously so the Commission can begin its critical and timely work,” McEachin said.
We’re hearing that the commission has a slim chance of passing the Senate, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insists that the bill will come to the floor for a vote, putting pressure on Republicans and whatever Democrat wants to try to pretend to be above the fray – looking at you, Joe Manchin – to express how it is that we don’t want to know more about the events precipitating an attack on Congess.
“Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in advance of the vote.
But then actually, 35 Republicans defected from their dear leader – and the Dear Leader, Donald Trump, whose comments earlier in the day Jan. 6 preceded the attack by a large group of his supporters on Congress as the Senate was meeting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election – to support the establishment of the commission.
And then also actually, if there isn’t movement in the Senate to approve the proposed independent, bipartisan commission, Democrats could simply follow the approach of Republicans who used congressional subpoena power during the Obama years to investigate the attacks and what preceded them.
The reason Democrats want to go the commission route is to avoid the stink of those obviously partisan efforts on the part of GOP leaders who wasted millions of dollars on taxpayer money on a series of wild goose chases aimed entirely at undercutting the pending presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
Which is to say, an investigation is going to happen either way.
“A full investigation of this attempt to block the constitutional duty of Congress and overturn the will of the American people is more than warranted,” Seventh District Democrat Abigail Spanberger said. “On Jan. 6, I was trapped in the gallery of the House Chamber with colleagues and members of the media whose evacuation route had been blocked — and I witnessed courageous, selfless law enforcement officers fend off a violent attack on our democracy. This attack resulted in more than 140 injuries to U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers, and this destruction was fueled by consistent lies about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“Today, I joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues in recognizing the need for a Jan. 6 commission. This panel would have the opportunity to provide an objective picture of the events of January 6 to the public — and this bipartisan commission would also have the latitude to issue authoritative recommendations on preventing future assaults,” Spanberger said.
“At a moment when there are still ongoing threats to the Capitol complex, Members of Congress, Capitol employees, and Capitol Police, we cannot afford to simply move on or accept inaction,” Spanberger said.
Ball’s in your court, Senate GOP. Do you want a independent, bipartisan commission with a say in how things are investigated, or do you want a 2020s-era Benghazi?
These guys are so dumb that they’re going to try to block the one that they can influence in favor of the one that they will be on the sidelines passively observing.
Idiots.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
