Democrats haven’t finished exploiting the attacks on the Capitol early this year. Don’t hold your breath they ever will.
On Wednesday, House Democrats are expected to pass legislation creating a 9/11-style commission regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. It’s just their latest effort to re-traumatize the American psyche after a failed impeachment with fabricated evidence to excommunicate their political opponents, branding any and all on the political right who dared raise concerns about chaotic November election procedures as complicit in the horror.
Some House Republicans appear to see the commission for what it is: the 2021 version of 2017’s special counsel probe run by Robert Mueller, another excuse to use the weapons of law enforcement against Democrats’ political enemies. After the two-year investigation run by a team of Democrats with unlimited resources, Mueller’s team found not one person, let alone Donald Trump himself, had colluded with the Russian government to capture the pinnacle of power. It was a damaging conspiracy with origins in the deep state. No meaningful commission has ever yet held those responsible for this assault on American democracy accountable.
On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rejected Democrats’ proposal for the commission, branded as bipartisan after Republican Rep. John Katko of New York negotiated its scope. That still excludes any investigation into last year’s deadly routine riots by the far left, the shooting of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice, or the Good Friday attack this year.
“Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,” McCarthy said in a statement.
Republican leadership, which now excludes Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney who voted for Trump’s impeachment over the riot and supports the commission, has urged the conference to reject its creation in Wednesday’s vote. In other words, House leadership has reclaimed its backbone.
Hse GOP Whip Scalise recommends no vote on bill to establish bipartisan commission to probe 1/6 riot. Says Katko improved the bill. But says bill won't allow probes of Good Friday attack at the Capitol & '17 baseball practice attack. Says bill could interfere w/prosecutions
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 18, 2021
No self-respecting Republican would vote for the commission as proposed. The absence of any investigation into any of the widespread political violence outside of the Jan. 6 riot exposes it as deeply unserious and, worse, deeply exploitive.
Most conservatives are not in denial about what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6. In fact, the events were roundly condemned by conservatives, who remained consistent in vilifying all political violence, a stark contrast to leftists, who broadly only came out against political violence the single time last year the disorder ensued from their opponents.
Jan. 6 was a horrific day. Glass was broken, artifacts shattered, members threatened, and someone died. By nearly every metric, however, the prolonged summer of rage excused, endorsed, and encouraged by Democrats and their allies in legacy media was far worse. More than 30 people died, dozens, if not hundreds more livelihoods went with them when businesses were destroyed, and the dollar cost far exceeded, by 66 times, the already inflated estimate of the damage to the Capitol.
But the carnage wreaked havoc on Main Street and furthered leftist goals, so Washington politicians didn’t care until political violence finally came to their marble doorstep carrying Trump banners. This final outrage became all the more justified when the violence came conveniently from the ideological adversaries of those who normalized it.
There is no shortage of double-standards between response to the riot at the Capitol and the fiery riots declared “mostly peaceful” just outside that same complex in what became a familiar scene in communities across the country.
Reminder that our nation's capital looked like this at the beginning of the summer and most Democrats/media shrugged it off as mostly peaceful https://t.co/1zvsLVRuQc
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 6, 2021
While overwhelmed police departments met drastic cuts to their funding, beltway politicians were met with militarized protection that lasted for months. Five times more troops were deployed in the capital city than were stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined in January.
Double standards that expose the gaslighting nature of the Jan. 6 commission also remain at play in the prosecution of those charged for their participation. American Greatness Senior Contributor Julie Kelly has documented the experiences of more than three dozen people rotting in solitary confinement awaiting trial for months while the Biden Justice Department grants leniency for individuals charged in Portland’s insurrectionist riots.
“Several Capitol defendants have been denied bail and transported from their home state to a D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility where they reportedly are held in solitary confinement and have been attacked by prison guards, some have been behind bars for three months,” Kelly wrote. Though in Portland, “The Justice Department already has dropped roughly one-third of the cases tied to last year’s violence.” Some of those cases included individuals charged with assaulting a federal officer.
Recently released footage reported by Kelly has also unveiled more evidence that many protestors at the Capitol who are now targets of a DOJ manhunt were welcomed into the complex by police. Video footage of some scenes had already been revealed at different entry points of the building, where the violent clashes seen at others were absent.
Capitol police open doors for the protestors. They stand aside and invite them inside. pic.twitter.com/OnSd3KGzz5
— Christina Bobb (@christina_bobb) January 8, 2021
More than 14,000 hours of footage from the Capitol that day remain concealed from public view and likely show similar images of police stepping aside. At least 29 people arrested said in court documents reviewed by ABC they thought they were allowed to be there because law enforcement didn’t object to their entry.
If there is a commission approved by the split Senate, which would require Republican support, a thorough investigation of law enforcement’s failures must be a focal point of its work, complemented by the publication of footage kept hidden from the public. Capitol Police were unprepared without additional security during a major protest in the city despite warnings for potential violence.
Given the nature of the commission’s scope, however, tied exclusively to the violence on Jan. 6 without any probe of the events that normalized such violent protest, the commission will merely be a tool of the left to attack the right. The commission is nothing more than further exploitation of the Capitol riot and the continued dismissal of their own deadly record of rage.
Source: The Federalist
