Republicans Release Their Jan. 6 Report. Which Riot Did They See?
So forgive me if I read the GOP security report, which McCarthy submitted as a supplement to the House committee’s official report, as another part of the gaslighting — not an outright lie but a major deflection to Capitol security matters with no mention of any accountability for then-President Trump.
From the beginning of the House investigation, Democrats and their two Republican members, Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, have been focused on the causes leading up to the insurrection and its aftermath. Republicans chose to focus on alleged breakdowns in security, which have been well documented but now enable the party to dance around other touchy questions, such as what was going on that fateful day in Donald Trump’s White House.
If you want to know more about who was trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power that day and what role political leaders played behind the scenes, you might as well look somewhere else, like the full report of the official Jan. 6 committee.
What I find appalling even in the GOP report is how much it tries not only to deflect from Trump’s dereliction but also to actually sugarcoat his efforts to incite the mob of his supporters.
Trump waited hours before calling on the rioters to leave the Capitol, and yet the GOP report describes him as encouraging his supporters to demonstrate “peacefully,” leaving out the parts of his speech in which he encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell.” So much for peacemaking.
Kinzinger who, along with Cheney, essentially lost his seat for his disloyalty to Trump, tweeted a message to McCarthy on Friday that sounded surprisingly genial, at first:
“The unsung hero of the Jan. 6 committee is @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy, who pulled his choices to obstruct the investigation, allowing for a smooth bipartisan investigation and presentation to America,” Kinzinger tweeted. “Thanks Kevin!”
Nobody should hold their breath waiting for McCarthy to respond. Sometimes, political courtesies demand too much.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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