We did not need the so-called bipartisan commission to investigate what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6th. We especially do not need House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democrat-controlled select committee to investigate.
The alleged idea that Pelosi’s Select Committee would produce an objective fact-based report is nonsense. This will be another of her kangaroo court-type hearings. We already know the findings. They will describe the riot as an armed seditionist insurrection carried out by radical right-wing extremists under the direction of President Trump – and with the encouragement and support of members of Congress. Committee members will refer to it as a coup attempt.
We know this because even as Democrat leaders express the need for an investigation, they literally say it is to prove how Trump, Republican members of Congress and even police and military personal were involved in the attempt to overthrow the government and install Trump as President-for-life. Those conclusions are already baked into the work of the Select Committee.
They will allege that the four-hour riot came close to ending democracy in America. Some call it the greatest threat to the Republic since its founding – somehow overlooking the Civil War that lasted four years, killed 620,000 Americans (at a time when there was only 30 million people in the United States) and resulted in the first assassination of an American President.
They forget about the “Days of Rage” that engulfed the United States in the 1960s, when anti-government rioters (insurrectionists?) killed scores of people – including police. When government buildings were being bombed – and yet another American President was assassinated, along with a Senator running for President and America’s preeminent civil rights leader. A governor running for president was shot and permanently cripples.
Hundreds of thousand of citizens assembled in Washington to protest the government – and some of them breeched the very Capitol Building that was attacked this past January.
And still there was no talk that the Republic would not survive – that the American democracy was on the verge of collapse. In fact, it is arguable that democracy WAS under much greater threat at times in the past than the few hours of rioting on January 6th.
Pelosi Select Committee will produce nothing more than fodder for the hyperbolic partisan narratives that have permeated the political atmosphere since January. Her plan is to have 13 members on the Select Committee – eight Democrats selected by her and five Republicans that she will appoint after consultation with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The political autopsy of the January 6th riot shows that it was very much like the demonstrations-turned-violent that have been seen in city after city – year after year. The vast majority of the demonstrators on Capitol Hill did not engage in rioting. In fact, when the rioting broke out, they mostly obeyed police orders to disperse and leave the scene.
Calling what happened on Capitol Hill on January 6th an “armed insurrection” is like calling Bridge a blood sport. There were fewer guns found among the tens of thousands of protestors that were actually fired off in several of our urban riots.
Contrary to left-wing claims – only one person died due to violence at the riot – and that was one of the rioters. Yet, I believe the Pelosi Select Committee will dishonestly inflate that number to five or six –deaths that were not people killed in the rioting.
As with the iconic riots of modern times, there were among the peaceful protestors those individuals looking to engage in violence for various reasons. Some were likely there to premeditatedly provoke the violence, while others got caught up into the action. In both cases, they carried out criminal acts – and I have no pity for them. Like virtually every political figure – Republican and Democrat – I called for the prosecution of the criminal elements.
The Pelosi Select Committee should have no credibility with the public. She claims it must now be partisan because of the failure to pass legislation for an official 9/11-style Commission. That is nonsense. Pelosi can provide partisan balance by allowing Republicans to name half the members of the Select Committee – and to give them subpoena powers. But no … no … no.
Pelosi’s Select Committee will have eight members named by herself and five Republicans named by … herself – with “consultation(?)” with Republican leaders. As one of the most stridently partisan members of the house, Pelosi will literally name ALL the members of her Select Committee – and only Democrats will have full subpoena powers.
Pelosi hopes that – with the support of the elitist media – she can use the Select Committee to keep hammerng at Republicans up to Election Day 2022. That is the sole purpose for the Committee. The Pelosi Select Committee is a sham and a shame. But, I am better the people will not be flimflammed by such an obvious charade.
So. There ‘tis.
