The House on Wednesday passed a bill to establish a commission to investigate the MAGA/QAnon seditious insurrection on the Capitol on January 6. More House Republicans voted to whitewash this horrific assault on American democracy, in an attempt to disappear it down the memory hole, than the 138 House Republicans who gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists by still objecting to the election results even after the Capitol attack.
This is nothing less than a continuation of the January 6 insurrection by complicit Republican members of Congress in furtherance of Trump’s Big Lie as an election strategy.
Where is the “unity” for a 9-11 Commission after the al Qaida terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001? This was an attack on the Capitol by Americans who are domestic terrorists, part of the GQP base, so Republicans now don’t care about terrorism? This bill should have passed unanimously.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) was justifiably incensed at his Republican colleagues.
The Hill reports, House approves Jan. 6 commission over GOP objections:
Lawmakers passed the bill in a 252-175 vote, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
Arizona Delegation: Yeah: Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton; Nay: Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert.
All four Arizona Republicans also voted not to certify the election results on January 6. Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says. Paul Gosar was the lead objector to certifying Arizona’s election results after the attack on the Capitol (seconded by Texas Senator Ted Cruz). Watchdog Organization Calls for Investigation into Reps. Gosar and Biggs for Role in Jan. 6th Insurrection; Ethics, criminal probes sought for Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar.
In a just world, all four Arizona Republicans would have been expelled from Congress already.
The legislation’s chances appear increasingly slim in the Senate after both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) came out in opposition to the bill.
The GOP leaders’ refusal to back the bill threatens the chances of the proposed commission becoming law as many Republicans seek to divert attention from former President Trump’s role and their own involvement echoing his false claims of election fraud leading up to the insurrection.
McCarthy insisted that the legislation should have expanded its scope, arguing it “ignores the political violence that has struck American cities, a Republican Congressional baseball practice, and, most recently, the deadly attack on Capitol Police on April 2, 2021.” Expanding the commission’s focus would dilute the focus on Trump.
As Sesame Street says, “One of these things is not like the other.” The only violent armed seditious insurrection against the U.S. government to overturn American democracy was by MAGA/QAnon cult members. And Republicans in Congress are complicit in the crime.
The GOP leader’s opposition came even though the legislation was negotiated by the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. John Katko (N.Y.), and largely mirrors a GOP bill introduced in January to establish a bipartisan commission focused on the Jan. 6 attack that led to the deaths of five people and injuries to more than 140 police officers.
But unlike most of his cohorts, Katko is a moderate who was one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the violent mob that tried to forcibly stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s electoral victory.
“I urge all of you in the body, all of you on both sides — not just my side, not just your side, all of us — to set aside politics just this once … and pass this bill,” Katko said in an impassioned floor speech.
Katko pleaded with lawmakers to think of the police officers who died or were injured while defending the Capitol from the Trump mob.
“Imagine being a family member of these officers who do this. So let’s take a deep breath and think about what’s really important here. These people every single day are willing to lay down their lives for us. They deserve better,” he said.
Blue lives do not matter to Republicans, only their sycophant fealty to Donald Trump. They are a dangerous personality cult.
Relatively few Republicans participated in floor debate on the commission legislation, with Katko, who was managing time for Republicans, repeatedly reserving time.
While only a handful of Katko’s fellow Republicans spoke in support of the bill he negotiated, Democrats repeatedly praised him as a “true American.”
Democrats emphasized that the compromise bill on the floor on Wednesday incorporated GOP demands that the commission include an equal ratio of Democrats and Republicans and coequal subpoena power. Katko had rebuffed an earlier proposal from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that would have allowed Democrats to appoint seven members over four for Republicans.
When asked if Democrats would reserve the right to turn to ongoing congressional investigations where they have full subpoena power if Wednesday’s bill doesn’t become law, Pelosi said she’d prefer to also have a commission with bipartisan credentials.
Forget it, Speaker Pelosi. There is no good faith from the Republicans who gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists, and who were complicit in the attack on the Capitol on January 6. They are culpable. They are now engaged in a coverup to protect their own asses.
Members of the commission would have to be experts in intelligence, law enforcement, counterterrorism or related fields and could not be currently serving in government. They’d be tasked with issuing a final report by the end of this year.
“What is important, and the reason I was willing to — we as a group were willing to — yield on certain points which we thought were, shall we say, contradictory to past Republican behavior when it came appointing commissions was that we wanted the American people to have the fullest confidence in the product that there is,” Pelosi said ahead of the vote.
McConnell further dimmed the bill’s prospects in the Senate Wednesday, calling the bill a “slanted and unbalanced proposal.”
“There is, has been and there will continue to be no shortage of robust investigations by two separate branches of the federal government,” McConnell said.
You can now count on this, “Grim Reaper of Democracy.” Democrats should go Benghazi! on Republicans, times ten. And the Department of Justice should aggressively prosecute all those involved in the insurrection.
“It’s not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress,” he added.
And before McConnell’s announcement on Wednesday, Trump issued a statement on Tuesday night opposing the commission that specifically called out the top two GOP leaders.
“Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission. … Republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, and stop being used by the Radical Left. Hopefully, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!” Trump said in the statement.
Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) affirmed Wednesday that he will bring up the legislation for a vote.
“It will be on the Senate floor, and we’ll see where our Republican friends stand. Will they stand with the truth, or will they stand with the big lie?” Schumer said.
I think we all know the answer. The only question is what Democrats will do in response to the GQP filibuster of this bill. This is the bill that Democrats should use to eliminate the Senate filibuster. Democrats must be unified for a January 6 Commission (even if the commission will accomplish less than congressional committees). It will demonstrate to Americans that congressional Republicans are continuing their seditious insurrection from January 6.
Will simps Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema actually enable Republicans on this? How could they possibly say no to eliminating or reforming the filibuster for a January 6 Commission?
The tension in Congress over creating the commission stands in stark contrast to outside voices largely unified in the call for an independent commission to investigate the event.
More than 140 national security leaders who served under Democratic and Republican administrations called for such a commission in April, saying such a review was “critical to preventing future attacks.”
And former members of the 9/11 Commission — which the bill was modeled after — slammed Republicans for trying to rope in events that happened as far back as four years ago.
“Jan. 6 was a highly unique event. It is different than almost any other time in our nation’s history,” said Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman who served on the 9/11 Commission.
“That is an extraordinarily different situation than what some people are talking about in terms of protests in cities,” he added.
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Not only are Republicans blocking an investigation into their own complicity in the seditious insurrection on January 6, but they are also blocking new security funding in order to leave he Capitol vulnerable to their next seditious assault on the Capitol. The Washington Post editorializes, “Republicans are scuttling a Jan. 6 commission — and now a bill to secure the Capitol, too”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-are-scuttling-a-jan-6-commission–and-now-a-bill-to-secure-the-capitol-too/2021/05/21/92b840d6-ba69-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html
AFTER THE Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lawmakers in Washington recognized the urgency of taking steps to prevent future attacks. A landmark commission investigated the attack’s root causes, reforms were made in intelligence gathering and security was hardened across the country. Similar action is needed to deal with another day of infamy — the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and U.S. democracy by supporters of former president Donald Trump. But the prospects of putting the proper protections in place seem to fade more each day.
Not only have prospects dimmed for an independent commission to investigate the violent attack, thanks to the obduracy of Republicans enabling the former president, but badly needed efforts to improve security at the Capitol complex also may be in trouble. A $1.9 billion emergency spending bill to cover costs related to the Jan. 6 attack, bolster Capitol Police and better fortify the Capitol building barely passed the House this week and faces certain opposition in the Senate, where it will need Republican votes to pass.
Every voting House Republican opposed the measure, objecting to its price tag and arguing the country faces more pressing emergencies. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) characterized the GOP opposition as “yet another blow to recognizing and acknowledging the truth of what happened that day.”
Many of the proposals were recommended by a panel of security experts chaired by Russel L. Honoré, a retired Army lieutenant general appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to investigate security after Jan. 6.
[There] are issues that could be worked out if Republicans had leaders willing to put the interests of the country ahead of their narrow political calculations. Securing the Capitol is an urgent priority. A bipartisan commission and legislation to fortify the Capitol are essential to addressing it.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post writes, “Republicans’ Jan. 6 coverup is yet more evidence they are unfit to serve” , https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/20/republicans-jan-6-coverup-turns-into-political-debacle/
Once more, House and Senate Republicans have shown how utterly unfit they are to serve. Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said the quiet part out loud when he admitted on Wednesday, “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election, I think, is a day lost on being able to draw contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left wing agenda.” Translation: Revelations that Republicans helped incite a riot with their “big lie” that the election was stolen would interfere with their reelection chances. The notion that they have an obligation to investigate and prevent a reoccurrence of this sort of violence apparently remains foreign to most of the party.
[A] group of U.S. Capitol Police officers — not identified by name for fear of jeopardizing their jobs — released a statement expressing their “profound disappointment with the recent comments from both chambers’ minority leaders expressing no need for a January 6th commission.” The letter added, “The brave men and women of the USCP were subjected to hours and hours of physical trauma which has led to months of mental anguish.” They declared they found it “inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6th. Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of USCP.” Inconceivable, but totally expected.
[I]t is one of the principal reasons allowing Trump’s obedient handmaidens to reclaim the majority in either chamber would imperil democracy.
Max Boot of the Washington Post writes, ‘”Why Republican opposition to a Jan. 6 commission could be a blessing in disguise”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/19/why-republican-opposition-jan-6-commission-could-be-blessing-disguise/
Another week, another milestone in the GOP’s transformation into an authoritarian party — an American version of Poland’s Law and Justice, Hungary’s Fidesz, or Turkey’s Justice and Development.
The stated reasons for the GOP opposition to a 1/6 Commission are incoherent and implausible. Both Republican leaders denounced the commission as a partisan Democratic plot.
[T]his will play well on Fox “News” but, like much of what the right says these days, it simply isn’t so. The bill to establish a January 6 commission was negotiated in good faith between Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and the ranking Republican member, Rep. John Katko (N.Y.).
The proposed version of the 1/6 Commission is scrupulously bipartisan with five members, including the chair, appointed by Democratic leaders, and five members, including the vice chair, appointed by Republican leaders. While the chairman would be allowed to appoint senior staff members and demand information from the federal government, the panel could only issue subpoenas if both the chair and vice chair agreed, or if a majority of the members voted to do so. The bill also set Dec. 31 as a deadline to issue a report — far too little time to litigate subpoenas if potential witnesses (such as Trump and McCarthy) refuse to voluntarily testify.
Even if this bill were passed — which now appears unlikely — it would have still allowed considerable room for Republican obstructionism if all of the GOP-appointed commissioners voted in lockstep. There would have been nothing to stop McCarthy and McConnell from appointing rabid Trumpkins for precisely this purpose. (Imagine if, say, former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller were the vice chair.)
That McConnell and McCarthy are opposing even this balanced approach suggests they are intent on simply covering up what was arguably the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Both Republicans, while voting not to impeach Trump, also strongly indicted him. Just days after the assault, McCarthy said: “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” McConnell later called Trump’s conduct “a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
But now, the Republican leaders have become Trump’s collaborators in a coverup. Without a thorough investigation, we will never learn exactly what Trump did prior to, and during, the riot. There was a gap of three hours and 19 minutes between the time Capitol Police requested military assistance and the time when the military was finally ordered to respond. Was Trump responsible for the delay? What did the president know and when did he know it?
And what about the role of Republican members of Congress in fomenting this insurrection? We know the disgraceful things they have said in public. For example, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.) accused Democrats of staging a “coup d’etat” and told his followers: “Be ready to defend the Constitution and the White House.” But what links did GOP members of Congress have behind-the-scenes with the insurrectionists?
These are only a few of the many questions that remain unanswered despite ongoing congressional hearings and law enforcement investigations. McConnell and McCarthy must be concerned that the answers would prove embarrassing to their party. But Democrats can get the truth out by following the example that Republicans themselves set.
In 2014, the Republican House majority voted to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack — a terrorist assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Republicans treated this as a scandal akin to Iran-contra or Watergate — largely, as McCarthy later boasted, because they wanted to hurt the presidential prospects of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The committee was heavily stacked for the majority party: It had seven Republican members and only five Democrats. Republicans were able to do what they wanted — and they did. The Benghazi Committee spent 2½ years and $7.8 million in its investigation — and still did not find any wrongdoing by Clinton.
The Republican refusal to agree to the bipartisan 1/6 Commission bill could actually be a blessing in disguise. It will free Pelosi to set up a January 6 Select Committee in which Democrats will be more firmly in charge — as Republicans were on the Benghazi committee. The Benghazi investigation was a political stunt, but this investigation is deadly serious. We must get a full accounting of the events of Jan. 6 despite Republican attempts to bury the truth. If we do, Republicans may come to regret their opposition to the bipartisan 1/6 Commission.