Jan. 6 Hearings Begin, Republicans Side With the Terrorists

The House of Representatives select committee examining the events of Jan. 6, composed of Democrats and two Republicans (Minority leader McCarthy pulled all other Republicans when his pick of an open Trump cultist and a potential witness were rejected by the House Speaker) opened its investigation today with vivid, disturbing and visceral testimony from Capitol police officers who were among those attacked by armed supporters of Donald Trump as they defended the U.S. Capitol.  This testimony was interspersed with video showing rioters physically and verbally assaulting the police who stood in their way and showed the outright lie of Republicans who have shockingly and dishonestly called the attack on the U.S. Capitol a "peaceful protest" or tried to blame the assault on "Antifa." Even as the hearing was unfolding some Republicans (see image above) sided with the terrorists who attacked the Capitol and acted as if those who have been rightfully arrested were instead political prisoners rather than violent and destructive criminals. One can only hope that the televised hearings will be a wakeup call to citizens and cause them to call for strict and harsh accountability for the insurrectionists and those who urged them on to violence.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the Republicans siding with the seditionists and terrorists.  Here are highlights (NOTE: Capitol security is the JOINT responsibility of the House and the Senate the latter of which on Jan 6th was controlled by Republicans):

The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol held its first hearing Tuesday, and Republican lawmakers took the occasion to demand justice — for the terrorists who took up arms against the U.S. government on that terrible day.

Six Republican members of the House, escorted by a man in a giant Trump costume bearing the message “TRUMP WON,” marched on the Justice Department Tuesday afternoon to speak up for those they called “political prisoners” awaiting trial for their roles in the insurrection.

“These are not unruly or dangerous, violent criminals,” Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.) proclaimed at a news conference outside DOJ headquarters. “These are political prisoners who are now being persecuted and bearing the pain of unjust suffering.”  Rep. Louie Gohmert (Tex.) speculated that “we have political prisoners here in America.”

They distributed copies of a letter alleging the Jan. 6 defendants had been denied “potentially exculpatory evidence” and subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The lawmakers, ironically, had to cut short their defense of the insurrectionists, because demonstrators disrupted them with heckling, whistleblowing and signs (“Traitors Sit Down”).

The half-dozen lawmakers, including Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, made explicit what has become more obvious by the day: Republicans stand with those who attempted a violent coup on Jan. 6. And it’s not just the wingnuts. House Republican leaders held a news conference before the hearing, blaming Jan. 6 not on seditionists but on Capitol Police and, particularly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the House Republican conference chair, proclaimed: “The American people deserve to know the truth: that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility, as speaker of the House, for the tragedy that occurred on Jan. 6.” Stefanik charged that Pelosi “doesn’t want a fair or bipartisan investigation.”

Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, one of the saboteurs House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy had tried to place on the select committee, announced that Capitol Police “weren’t trained” adequately and that “Nancy Pelosi is ultimately responsible.”

Seven of the eight Republicans standing there had voted down an independent, bipartisan commission negotiated by the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. And now they claim Pelosi is the one blocking a fair, bipartisan investigation? All this while faulting the Capitol Police, who at that very moment shielded them with a ring of officers, barriers, vehicles and a canine unit.

Had the GOP leadership been watching the hearing instead of spinning yet another conspiracy theory, they would have seen what it means to put country before party. Cheney, at the hearing, warned that without accountability for Jan. 6, “this will remain a cancer on our constitutional Republic. . . . We will face the threat of more violence in the months to come and another Jan. 6 every four years.”

She challenged her colleagues: “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?”

Police testified about their grievous injuries, the ferocious violence and racism of the armed attackers, and their fears that they would die that day defending democracy. . . . . But a number of Republicans expressed more sympathy for the attackers.

The insurrectionists’ allies grew anxious as more hecklers arrived and unfurled signs calling them racists, rapists and traitors and “Pedophiles for Trump.”

“Wrap it up,” a worried staffer told the lawmakers. “We got to get out.” They fled to waiting vehicles, one of which sped off the wrong way on 9th Street NW. It swerved in front of oncoming traffic onto Pennsylvania Avenue amid a hail of honking horns.

What were they afraid of? These protesters were nonviolent — unlike the Jan. 6 terrorists with whom Republicans now side.

 The Republican Party with a few exceptions is now the party of treason and sedition.