Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell usually has facts and logic to support what he says, but in opposing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, he comes up short, by claiming that it would be “a purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information.”
To use one of his favorite adjectives of dismissal, it’s absurd for McConnell to say that a broad, bipartisan investigation would add no information. How do we really know without such an investigation?
McConnell noted that the Justice Department has made hundreds of arrests and is still investigating, as are congressional committees, but Justice must operate within the bounds of federal criminal law, which may not cover all the actions that inspired the riot, and the focus of Congress is the federal response to the riot and the security needs of the Capitol, not the events that led up to it.
Al Cross (Twitter @ruralj) is a professor in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media and director of its Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. His opinions are his own, not UK’s. He was the longest-serving political writer for the Louisville Courier Journal (1989-2004) and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001-02. He joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2010.
NKyTribune is the anchor home for Al Cross’ column. We offer it to other publications throughout the Commonwealth, with appropriate attribution.
We need to know, for example, what went on in the White House in the three hours and 19 minutes from the time Capitol Police asked for military help until the military finally got an order. More importantly, we need to know why the riot happened, and that’s not typically the focus of criminal investigations, which point to the who, what, when and where of guilt or innocence.
The House or Senate could create a special committee for a broader investigation, but Democratic control of those chambers would give it a partisan taint. The proposed commission would be equally divided between the parties and have more credibility.
McConnell accused House Democrats of “partisan bad faith,” but the House-passed bill to create the commission was negotiated by the Democratic chairman and the top Republican of the House Homeland Security Committee – who was soon thrown under the bus by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Subpoenas would require the agreement of the chair and vice-chair or a majority of members. A final report would be due Dec. 31, creating a short time frame that would likely allow potential witnesses to avoid testifying by keeping the issue tied up in court. Those witnesses include Trump and McCarthy, who had a lively conversation during the insurrection; McCarthy, who was seeking Trump’s help to stop it, told colleagues that Trump told him, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
The only Democrat-leaning element of the bill is staffing. It would have the Democratic chair hire staff “in consultation with” the Republican vice-chair, “in accordance with rules agreed upon by the commission.” That gives Republicans leverage. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says staff should be jointly appointed, or equally divided between the parties. The former would be preferable; the latter could lead to, in effect, a separate Republican investigation of last summer’s disturbances. But if that could pick up enough Republican votes, Democrats should be willing to accept the sideshow. However, McConnell’s opposition almost guarantees that there will not be the required 10 Republicans to make that happen.
McConnell let people think he was for the commission, but when it looked like a substantial number of House Republicans would support it, putting more pressure on GOP senators, he came out against it. That affected not only the Senate but the House, where only 35 of the 211 Republicans (none from Kentucky) supported it.
McConnell’s selective use of the facts and lack of logic point to what is really driving him and his Republican colleagues: winning back their majorities in the 2022 elections.
His No. 2, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, made the political imperative clear: “I want our midterm message to be about the kinds of issues that the American people are dealing with — it’s jobs and wages and the economy, national security, safe streets, strong borders and those types of issues, not re-litigating the 2020 election… Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election, I think, is a day lost on being able to draw a contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda.”
The commission wouldn’t relitigate the election; it would investigate the causes of the assault that tried to prevent the proper consummation of the election. Sure, it’s not to Republicans’ political advantage to plow this ground, but what about the good of the country? That has taken a back seat to politics because most Republican voters believe Trump’s Big Lie about his election defeat. That has made their so-called leaders abject followers who are afraid of the truth.
In January, McConnell seemed to try to keep his party from becoming a cult in the grip of a corrupt authoritarian. He failed, and now is trying to co-exist with Trump, in hopes of regaining the Senate majority. In doing so, he is perpetrating a cover-up, and worse.
The last time we had such a commission, our leaders had declared a “war” on foreign terrorists. Now the FBI says a greater threat is domestic terrorism. By opposing a commission, McConnell is, in effect, ignoring that warning.
BRAVO. Thank you so much for stating the obvious so very, very well.
Very fine analysis of McConnell. For him, it’s always power and party over principle and country History will not treat him kindly., because his Senate leadership has continuously demonstrated obstructionism and outright refusal to build consensus. He is indeed a tragic figure with a lot of power to hamstring so many issues that need to be addressed,
If fact finding results in someone being “gotten”, then they deserved that fate. The US Capitol was attacked by insurrectionist terrorists incited by the vigorous lying of the POTUS, and you’re more concerned with protecting that misbehavior for political gain than with ensuring the viability of our republic.
Trump WAS an unchecked politician, and unchecked spending might or might not be bad for the country, but Trump’s insurgents are a real and present danger to our democracy !