Republicans Hit a New Low in Insurrection Denial

Perry also rebuffed a caller who said Republicans were afraid that a bipartisan commission would reveal GOP culpability in the attack, WITF-FM reported, saying that Republicans were “happy to have an open investigation,” and that “if people are culpable … justice needs to prevail in that regard.”

Which, it’s also important to note, is precisely what that bipartisan commission would have done.

But the GOP rewrite of the history of that day is in full swing. And with his “no” vote, Perry is complicit.

As offensive as it is, Perry’s defense of the indefensible is far from the most egregious. Consider the rationalizations offered by some of his ideological fellow travelers.

Another “no” vote, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, told reporters that she “wouldn’t call it an insurrection.” Greene also dismissed the “temple” language resolution, saying “This not a temple. That is for sure,” Slate reported.

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky sprained a rhetorical muscle trying to explain away the violence.

“I think it was a mob but I don’t think it was an insurrection. … They were protesting and I don’t approve of the way they protested, but it wasn’t an insurrection. My goodness. Can you imagine what a real insurrection would look like?” he said, according to Slate.

Massie further told CNN that “if they just wanted to give the police recognition, they could have done it without trying to make it partisan."

Again, the bill passed the House by a vote of 406-21. You can’t get much more bipartisan.

But that’s how far the Trumpified GOP has fallen, and how far it will go to deny the facts of a day that shook American democracy to its very foundations: Far enough that they will even deny honoring those who gave, as the what the greatest of all Republicans once described as, “the last full measure of devotion.”

That’s garbage.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.