On the same day that the select committee investigating January 6 began its hearings, the third-ranking House Republican - the one who got that position by replacing Liz Cheney - offered this pathetically lame attempt to put the onus for the insurrection on Nancy Pelosi:
Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) on Tuesday claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “bears responsibility” for the January 6 Capitol riot and accused the “drooling media” of being “too petrified” to question the Democratic leader about it.
“The mainstream media serves as Lame Duck Nancy Pelosi’s loyal stenographers,” Stefanik wrote in a tweet. “No questions allowed about Speaker Pelosi! All off limits.”
“Speaker of the House clearly bears responsibility for not securing the US Capitol on Jan 6th – But the drooling media is too petrified to ask,” she added.
The tweet came after the congresswoman made similar accusations during a press conference on Tuesday morning.
“The American people deserve to know the truth. That Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility, as speaker of the House, for the tragedy that occurred on January 6,” Stefanik said then.
She said the Capitol Police expressed concerns about security ahead of January 6, when a mob of former President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Rather than providing them with the support and resources they needed and they deserved, she prioritized her partisan, political optics over their safety,” Stefanik said.
Other Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have made similar claims.
McCarthy said that nearly a month before the uprising “the leadership knew there was a problem.”
Got that? The blame lies with Congressional leadership for having the temerity to assume that it could go about its Constitutional obligations free of violent invasion of its chambers rather than with the instigators themselves. Victim-blaming much?
Compare and contrast opening remarks at the hearing given the same day by Cheney, she who was replaced by Stefaniak:
Thank you very much, Chairman Thompson. Thank you to all of my colleagues on this committee, and thank you to each of the witnesses appearing before us today. It is because of you -- you held the line, you defended all of us, you defended the Capitol, and you defended the Constitution and our Republic, and every American owes you our undying gratitude. Every American, I hope, will be able to hear your testimony today and will watch the videos. The videos show the unbelievable violence and the inexcusable and intolerable cruelty that you all faced, and people need to know the truth.
I want to begin by reflecting briefly on the investigation that we are launching today. Every one of us here on the dais voted for and would have preferred that these matters be investigated by an independent non-partisan commission, composed of five prominent Americans selected by each party, and modeled on the 9/11 Commission. Although such a commission was opposed by my own leadership in the House, it overwhelmingly passed with the support of 35 Republican members, it was defeated by Republicans in the Senate. And that leaves us where we are today.
We cannot leave the violence of January 6th – and its causes – uninvestigated. The American people deserve the full and open testimony of every person with knowledge of the planning and preparation for January 6th. We must know what happened here at the Capitol. We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House – every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during, and after the attack. Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward. If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our Constitutional Republic, undermining the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democratic system. We will face the threat of more violence in the months to come, and another January 6th every four years.
I have been a conservative Republican since 1984 when I first voted for Ronald Reagan. I have disagreed sharply on policy and politics with almost every Democratic member of this committee. But, in the end, we are one nation under God. The Framers of our Constitution recognized the danger of the vicious factionalism of partisan politics – and they knew that our daily arguments could become so fierce that we might lose track of our most important obligation – to defend the rule of law and the freedom of all Americans. That is why our Framers compelled each of us to swear a solemn oath to preserve and protect the Constitution. When a threat to our constitutional order arises, as it has here, we are obligated to rise above politics. This investigation must be non-partisan.
While we begin today by taking the public testimony of these four heroic men, we must also realize that the task of this committee will require persistence. We must issue and enforce subpoenas promptly. We must get to objective truth. We must overcome the many efforts we are already seeing to cover up and obscure the facts.
On January 6th and in the days thereafter, almost all members of my party recognized the events of that day for what they actually were. One Republican, for example, said: “What is happening at the U.S. Capitol right now is unacceptable and un-American. Those participating in lawlessness and violence must be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” No Member of Congress should now attempt to defend the indefensible, obstruct this investigation, or whitewash what happened that day. We must act with honor and duty, and in the interest of our nation.
America is great because we preserve our democratic institutions at all costs. Until January 6th, we were proof positive for the world that a nation conceived in liberty could long endure. But now, January 6th threatens our most sacred legacy. The question for every one of us who serves in Congress, for every elected official across this great nation, indeed, for every American is this: Will we adhere to the rule of law? Will we respect the rulings of our courts? Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power? Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America? Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution? I pray that that is not the case. I pray that we all remember, our children are watching, as we carry out this solemn and sacred duty entrusted to us. Our children will know who stood for truth, and they will inherit the nation we hand to them – a Republic, if we can keep it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Once testimony at the hearing got underway, it was gut wrenching indeed:
Tears and a frustrated slammed fist punctuated the testimony from four emotional Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers during the first House select committee hearing to investigate the Jan. 6 riot on Tuesday.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell teared up, taking a moment to compose himself, as he described realizing that his family members in the U.S. and abroad were "were frantically calling and texting me from 2 p.m. onward" while watching the violence on television.
When he got home, he pushed away his wife when she came to give him a hug, because of the chemicals on his uniform.
“We’re not asking for medals or recognition. We’re simply asking for justice and accountability,” Gonnell said.
Next up was Michael Fanone:
Fanone, normally a plain-clothes officer who put on his uniform in order to assist with the mob response, described being in a tunnel attempting to fend off the mob. He described being dragged from the line of officers and into the crowd.
"I heard someone scream, 'I got one!'" Fanone said. "As I was swarmed by a violent mob, they ripped off my badge. They grabbed and stripped me of my radio. They seized ammunition that was secured to my body. They beat me with their fists and with what felt like hard metal objects.”
“At one point, I came face-to-face with an attacker who repeatedly lunged for me and attempted to remove my firearm. I heard chanting from some in the crowd: ‘Get his gun, and kill him with his own gun,’” he said. “I was electrocuted again, and again, and again, with a taser. I’m sure I was screaming, but I don’t think I could even hear my own voice.”
He said that he considered using his firearm on the attackers, but knew that he would be quickly overwhelmed. After yelling that he had children, someone helped him away from the mob. He was unconscious for about four minutes, and the hospital told him that he had suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain disorder.
Fanone’s body camera caught the assault, and some of it was shown later in the hearing.
Daniel Hodges recounts his experience:
Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges, who at one point was shown on video being crushed by a coordinated mob attempting to break into the Capitol, clearly called those in the mob “terrorists.”
One rioter yelled at him “You will die on your knees,” he said. Another attempted to gouge his eye out with his thumb, but Hodges shook him off before any permanent damage was done.
“To my perpetual confusion, I saw the ‘thin blue line’ flag,” Hodges said.
Harry Dunn verifies that the insurrection had a racist element:
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn described getting a screenshot from a friend showing rioter plans to target the Capitol, urging demonstrators to bring "trauma kits" and "gas masks" and to “keep your guns hidden.” But because he had not received any threat warnings from his chain of command, he did not believe the Capitol and officers were at risk.
He described rioters calling other black officers and himself the n-word to their faces. “No one had ever — ever — called me a n***** while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer,” Dunn said.
And yesterday, a Texas political figure from one of America's most prominent political families discovered the price to be paid for sucking up to the Very Stable Genius:
On Monday night, Donald Trump issued his endorsement in next year’s race for Texas attorney general. You’ll never guess who he picked. Let me give you a hint: It was not the guy whose name rhymes with tush.
Thus concludes the single most craven political career in—honestly, I’m not even sure how long. Because no politician in my lifetime has brought more dishonor upon himself than George P. Bush.
Over the course of his five years in politics, Donald Trump insulted, disparaged, and slandered many decent Americans. One of them happened to be George P. Bush’s father, the former governor of Florida, Jeb Bush.
Is this just a case in which we should just shrug and chalk it up to the inherent rough-and-tumble of politics?
Now maybe you say that’s just the hurly-burly of politics. It’s just locker room talk. Nothing personal. Man in the arena. Whatever.
Except that Trump also insulted Jeb’s wife—this would be George P.’s own damn mother—and, even after a cooling off period, refused to apologize for it.
And then there was the time that Trump talked about George P.’s uncle, George W. Bush, and literally accused him of treason.
George P. Bush surveyed all of this, thought about the family to which he owed everything—do you think this guy could have gotten elected dog catcher in Amarillo if his last name had been Jones?—and decided that he didn’t just want to be the Texas attorney general. He really, reeeealllllllyyyyyyyy wanted to be the Texas attorney general.
Still, George P. exuberantly tweeted a photo of himself with the VSG and gushed over "his friendship and kind words."
What did it get him? Not the endorsement, which went to Ken Paxton, he of the request last December to the US. Supreme Court to block election results in four states that Joe Biden won.
There is no room for anyone in the Republican Party who is not a wacko, coward or sycophant.
Someone in a comfortably red state and county may raise a vehement objection, something along the lines of, "I know our local party chair, precinct committee people and office-holders on the city and county councils. They are solid citizens who volunteer in the community and are active in their churches. They are ethical businesspeople. They are the bedrock that ensures the party has a vibrant future."
Here's my question for such folks: what will your upstanding local leaders do when crunch time comes? When they can't avoid weighing in on the Arizona audit / Stefaniak's remarks today, and their contrast with the police officers' testimony / the censures earlier this year of Cheney, Ben Sasse, Barbara Cegavske, Brad Raffensperger, etc. / Mike Pence's pathetic lapdog want-to-thank-President-Trump-and-the-first-lady remarks on the Columbus Indiana Municipal Airport tarmac on January 20 / the Mar-a-Lago pilgrimages of Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham?
I daresay they understand that to take the road dictated by integrity is political suicide, and that they will dance around the challenge with transparent poltroonery.
There is a small remnant of actual conservatives who reject every last subatomic particle of poison that the Trump phenomenon has injected into our politics. There are two such figures on the 1/6 committee. There is a handful of periodicals and websites dedicated to such a rejection.
But no aspirant to elected office can take a forthrightly conservative stance that involves denouncing Trumpism out of the gate and expect to raise the funds and garner the support needed to be taken seriously. Consider the fate of Michael Wood.
There's going to be a time in the wilderness for the non-infected. Alas, the wilderness is a big place and one can find a spot on which to avoid the debris from the inevitable implosion of the party that irreversibly opted to become a cult. Being a Republican is fast becoming a road to nowhere.
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