For an alternate viewpoint, see “Point: Hearings Reveal Trump’s Vast Plan to Overturn Americans’ Votes.”
From the outset, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has been marred by political motives and malfeasance, making it unlikely the vast majority of Americans will have confidence in the committee’s ultimate findings.
In fact, before the hearings even began, the committee was tinged by partisan politics when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi defied protocol and refused to seat two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks for the committee — Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio — and instead chose Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
While Banks and Jordan would have added a semblance of balance and credibility to the nine-person committee (which consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans), Pelosi nixed both and replaced them with two of the most anti-Trump Republicans in Congress.
Instead of getting to the bottom of what occurred on January 6, 2021, the committee is interested only in scoring political points with the public and deterring Trump from potentially running for the presidency in 2024. For instance, why is the committee ignoring that President Trump approved the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol in the days leading up to January 6?
Why is the committee not questioning Pelosi and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser about why they did not increase security at the Capitol in the days before January 6 after they were briefed that viable security threats existed?
Why is the committee overlooking the single death that occurred that day during the so-called insurrection? On January 6, a Capitol Hill police officer killed Ashli Babbitt at point-blank range, even though she posed no immediate threat and was unarmed at the time of her death.
Why is the committee conveniently disregarding evidence showing that undercover FBI agents likely played a role in the attack? Indeed, why is the committee not interviewing Ray Epps, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List immediately after the attack, because he is on video calling for protesters to enter the Capitol the night before and the day of January 6? Interestingly, in one video that shows Epps encouraging protesters to enter the Capitol, protesters begin shouting “no” and call Epps a “Fed.”
Why has Epps not been arrested or interviewed about his participation in the events before, during and after the alleged coup?
Why does the committee seem disinterested in the fact that Capitol Hill police officers allowed hundreds of so-called insurrectionists to enter the Capitol during the chaos that ensued after the initial breach?
Why is the committee not digging into the reprehensible treatment of those who entered the Capitol complex with no intent to cause harm or damage? More than 16 months after the fact, scores of Americans who entered the Capitol grounds while committing no major crime other than possibly trespassing remain locked in a Washington jail. Some have yet to be formally charged with a crime.
Why has the committee not made public the thousands of hours of video at the Capitol complex that would add much-needed context to the events of that day?
And why is the committee not investigating the pipe bombs found at the Republican National Committee headquarters and the Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before January 6?
Perhaps the committee is ignoring all of these questions is that the committee is not interested in finding the full, unvarnished truth about what happened on January 6. Perhaps the committee is solely interested in using the pomp and pageantry of its seven hearings to distract the American public from the awful economy and all the other problems Americans believe are far worthier of congressional hearings and actions. And perhaps the committee is well-aware that the midterm elections are expected to result in an overwhelming red wave, so they are doing everything they can to tar and feather their political opponents before they lose control of Congress.
Whatever the case may be, it is clear that the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a crass political endeavor that is unlikely to resonate with the majority of the American people, who know that January 6 was a stain on the country that could have been avoided in the first place but is now being used for political gamesmanship on behalf of congressional Democrats.
