Seven House committees launched an investigation Thursday into federal handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, demanding communications in the month preceding the violent breach and in the days that followed it that might provide further insight into security and intelligence failures.
I can’t for the life of me understand why Republicans would want to obstruct efforts to find out the whole truth.
Could it be…?
Getting public testimony from some of the top insurrectionists will really help the country. You know, it could be run, at least in part, like a Truth and Reconciliation Commission: have some of them come clean, all the way, in public testimony. In exchange, charges would be dropped. That could be offered to some of the them not involved in physical assault, for example. Take the high road. Teachable moments and all that.
Excellent. Don’t wait for #MoscowMitch to drag his feet. So how many of these communications might be subject to executive privilege claims?
ETA a quote:
Faced with such requests to the archivist for Trump’s presidential records, the Biden administration would have to weigh institutional interests in confidentiality—for which career officials would likely advocate—against intraparty pressure to release the information. After undertaking such an inquiry, it would not be surprising if the Biden administration determined that the congressional need for the information justified its release, despite its presumptive confidentiality. Trump, however, may disagree, and he may attempt to assert executive privilege to prevent the release of the materials, perhaps even suing the archivist if necessary to enjoin the release of the records on the basis of his assertion.
They should subpoena Benedict Donald and record his lies to be followed-up with an indictment for lying to Congress.
No investigative commission will be able to effectively look into the insurrection for as long as the reactionaries retain the power to impede, water down or whatabout its findings.
All three of these things seem to be their goal. Not surprising, in that that party is as heavily invested in limiting the findings as it was in the events that led to the insurrection.
Per their pattern of behavior, they put their power, and that of their partisans, ahead of the welfare of the country and its government.
Nancy knows this. The enemy is in the room, she said it. That has to be factored into her thinking about timing and actions here. Just like if the Southern States never seceded but were in Congress blocking any efforts to end slavery, using the “states rights” card and other blocking b.s. to obstruct and obfuscate.
Shades of Nuremberg…
That many committees doing independent investigations will water down any results. It’s not like the information is just hanging out there, ready to be reviewed.
I’m concerned that by the time the committees get things done, it will be so far away from the original event that no one will care. As it is, the investigations are just starting and we’re almost three months away from the event. The media have already picked up the GQP position that this was no big deal. I hope something good comes from this, but it’s just too fractured to be effective and will probably just play itself out and die without so much as a whimper.
It’s just too little too late. This needed to be done on a grander scale. The result is indicative of how strong the GQP is for being a minority party.
The committee review comes as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) struggled this week to secure bipartisan cooperation
Stop struggling. The GOP are complicit in the attack. Giving them a place on the panel is like giving a murderer a jury seat at his own trial.
No commission, huh?
Here, have a subpoena!
Yeah, I’m really liking the new Democratic approach:
“This is a vital issue for our nation, let’s work together to solve it”
“Fuck off”
“Suit yourself, we’ll solve it ourselves then”
So Mitch’s calculation apparently is that he’ll let Democrats do all the lifting on the 1/6 insurrection investigation, then blast it as “partisan” and “politically motivated”, rather than put Republicans on a commission to water down the results. What he can’t say is that Pelosi didn’t give him a chance.
Personally, I think the criminal charges coming from DoJ will speak for itself.
I think that’s poorly written, putting the onus on Pelosi rather than Mitch. It should, instead, be, “McConnell refuses to agree to a bipartisan commission, similar to the 9/11 commission, to investigate the deadly insurrection of 1/6.
The Republicans thought they were going to be able to.block any inquiry into why the insurrection happened. But are they wrong.
No, but true to form, they’re gumming up the works by objecting to a single commission and, therefore, splitting the investigation up in to multiple committees where they still have a lot of say of what can and cannot be done.
This is their strategy and, I fear, it will work.
The letters were issued to the White House, National Archives, Justice Department, FBI, Pentagon, National Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Interior, U.S. Park Police and the intelligence community.
Yes, addressed to the current White House — but obviously covering the previous administration, including the Office of the Vice President.
They are a minority on each of these committees which is the fate they were trying to avoid. Using the committees gums up the time Congress has to work in other matters but this doesn’t really matter unless the filibuster is over turned. What it does do is have far more people looking at it from far more different angles. It’s a far better than a hamstrung commission.
With a Justice Department that is motivated to enforce them!
Biden can declassify whatever he wants. Time to play hardball with TMFWSNBN and see if he can even afford enough representation to get it to the packed SCOTUS.