The G.O.P. Looks for New Ways to Ignore the Capitol Riot

[babylonsister]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-gop-looks-for-new-ways-to-ignore-january-6th

Daily Comment
The G.O.P. Looks for New Ways to Ignore the Capitol Riot
As a House vote on a bipartisan commission to study the insurrection made clear, it’s Trumpists vs. the truth.
By Amy Davidson Sorkin
May 20, 2021


“Coverup” is a term that two very different congresswomen used in a House debate, on Wednesday, about a bill that would create a bipartisan commission to look into the January 6th assault on the Capitol. One was Val Demings, Democrat of Florida, who supports the idea of a commission; the other was Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, who does not. Demings, who has spent part of the past week putting out the word that she plans to run for the Senate next year, against Marco Rubio, sounded rational. Greene, who took time last week to follow Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and shout at her as she left the Capitol—“Hey, Alexandria! . . . Why do you support terrorists and Antifa?”—did not. (She often doesn’t.) And yet Greene, both on the subject of the proposed commission and in many other areas, is aligned with a majority of her party. Thirty-five Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the commission bill; a hundred and seventy-five did not. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, has said that he will oppose it, meaning that its path in that chamber will be very difficult.

snip//

The alibi for opposing the commission that McConnell seems to have fixed on is that there are a lot of other investigations under way: prosecutions of alleged members of the mob (more than four hundred have been charged), various committee oversight hearings (studying, for example, how security might be improved going forward), and witnesses asked to give accounts in one forum or the other. But the multifarious state of the reckoning is very much an argument for a commission. Pieces of the story might emerge in this courtroom or that committee chamber, but they need to be brought together in a useful way. As Demings put it, we need answers, not just a proliferation of questions. Under the bill, the commission would be directed to submit its report by December 31st, giving it a focus; it is also supposed to come up with “recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions.” Whatever measures those might be should be deliberated openly, in the spotlight that a commission would provide—not cobbled together in different Cabinet departments or pieces of legislation, or neglected entirely.

It is a measure of how far the Republican Party has gone that the thirty-five House G.O.P. votes in favor of creating the commission seemed, by some measures, a lot. It was more than triple the number (ten) who had voted to impeach Trump, but the actions are hardly comparable—this is a bipartisan commission, not an action that could have ended in barring a former President from running again. Before Wednesday’s vote, Trump (whose own legal problems are multiplying) put out a statement saying that the commission would be “just more partisan unfairness and unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.” After the vote, he put out another statement, decrying what he called “35 wayward Republicans.” Trump warned, “Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak.” That admonition might be better directed at his G.O.P. enablers, who are preserving, and even promoting, his fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen. They can’t wanly pretend that January 6th never happened and then be surprised by what Trump and his supporters—or some future version of Trump—might come up with next. And they can’t cover up what their party has become.

[C_U_L8R]

1. They're just making it worse for themselves

Whoever is advising them on strategy must be a complete buffoon. Donald, is that you?

[Botany]

2. The republicans all knew that Trump was installed by Russia and they were OK with that too.

And so they are traitors just like Trump. So if they want to hitch their wagons to Trump let 'em because
if American democracy is to survive Trump's treason must be exposed even though 30% + of Americans
are OK with that.