The committee has secured its legacy in several methods, offering a searing image of what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, and exhibiting the cowardice of those that, out of concern of Mr. Trump, refused to assist it reckon with that darkish day.
The general public now is aware of way more about Mr. Trump’s culpability. New particulars, together with videotaped testimony from former Trump aides, confirmed Mr. Trump had been instructed he’d misplaced the election however nonetheless leaned on state officers, the Justice Division, his vp and others to maintain him in energy — a marketing campaign that resulted within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Monday’s listening to featured new revelations about longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks. Whereas the Capitol was being swarmed on Jan. 6, she texted a White Home spokesman that she had urged Mr. Trump on each Jan. 4 and Jan. 5 to tweet one thing about how protests that day must be nonviolent, however he’d refused. Ms. Hicks recalled Mr. Trump telling her: “The one factor that issues is successful.”
Ms. Hicks is simply one of many Republicans who testified about Mr. Trump. The listing additionally contains Arizona Home Speaker Rusty Bowers and former White Home aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Ms. Hutchinson was a star witness regardless of having a lot to lose professionally — and at the same time as her former boss, ex-White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows, refused to testify.
The 2 Home Republicans who served on the committee, Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ailing.), additionally deserve credit score. Sadly, neither will return to Congress subsequent yr. However the work they did helped create an important historic file. The committee plans to launch the majority of its non-sensitive data, together with transcripts of deposition. The report they’ll put out this week will embrace a sequence of legislative suggestions for stopping a future Jan. 6.
It mustn’t have taken braveness to take part in a congressional inquiry into an tried riot. But so many individuals who may have testified refused to take action. Greater than 30 witnesses invoked their Fifth Modification privilege in opposition to self-incrimination, together with John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and Kenneth Chesebro.
Likewise, a number of Home Republicans refused to adjust to committee subpoenas. The committee referred the 4 who will stay within the Home subsequent yr to the Ethics Committee: Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.).
Jan. 6, 2021, and its aftermath ought to have been a unifying second. All Individuals ought to have recoiled the best way Ms. Cheney did. As an alternative, too many determined to be profiles in cowardice.
