NEWS TAKING LIBERTIES
Can the January 6th Committee Become Another Watergate Committee? BY JOEL MCNALLY Illustration by Michael Burmesch.
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nce upon a time there was a bipartisan congressional committee investigating a terrible crime committed against America by the Republican president of the United States. After the committee revealed shocking details about the crime in live television hearings that riveted the nation, Republican leaders told their president he had to resign. He did, leaving in disgrace.
Cheney and Kinzinger were among the small Republican minority of 10 House members voting to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection and seven Senators voting to convict him. Cheney and Kinzinger have been publicly shunned by Republicans ever since who closed ranks in support of Trump and now pretend January 6 never happened.
That certainly sounds more and more like a fairy tale after the hostility President Trump unleashed against American democracy within the Republican party. But we do know thanks to good journalism Republican House and Senate leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell were just as disgusted as the rest of America by the violent mob Trump sent to attack Congress to prevent the House and Senate from certifying his defeat by President Biden.
CHENEY IS DEFIANT
But the January 6th House Committee will need to recreate the true horrors of that assault on democracy when their televised hearings begin on June 9 because the official position of the Republican party now is that the violent insurrection killing nine people and seriously injuring 140 police officers, many with permanent physical and brain damage from beatings with flagpoles, iron pipes and other weapons was simply the result of “citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW?
Cheney is defiantly running for re-election as Republican Wyoming’s only House member. Kinzinger decided not to run for a seventh term in a heavily Republican district. Cheney tops Trump’s hit list among Republicans he’s targeted for defeat for criticizing him. She vows to “do everything I can to make sure the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans.” The January 6th Committee, chaired by Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson, also includes Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, the leaders of both House impeachments of Trump, one for threatening to withhold military aid protecting Ukraine from Russia unless Volodymyr Zelensky started a criminal investigation smearing Biden during the 2020 election and the other for urging the violent mob attack on the Capitol to overthrow Biden’s election.
That’s a far cry from the Republicans serving on the 1973 bipartisan Senate Watergate Committee investigating the burglaries, illegal wiretaps and other crimes committed by President Nixon and his henchmen. Republicans considered it their patriotic duty to determine “What did the president know and when did he know it?”
REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY
The House January 6th Committee is bipartisan because Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger were appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After initially telling Republicans Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were indefensible, McCarthy refused to appoint any Republicans to participate in the investigation and shamelessly begged Trump’s forgiveness for criticizing him.
Most Americans probably don’t expect Trump ever to be held accountable for his crimes. They watched Trump bob and weave through one of the most personally corrupt presidencies in history filling his own pockets by using the office to funnel millions of dollars into his private businesses and cut his own personal and corporate taxes by millions more.
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Both organized powerful cases outlining Trump’s guilt, but McConnell’s Republican Senate had no intention of convicting him. After joining Republicans voting to acquit Trump for the insurrection, McConnell hypocritically denounced Trump for inciting it and encouraged the Justice Department to prosecute him.
