This week the House of Representatives pushed ahead with debate over a proposed “National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex,” continuing an obsession with what has become a never-ending wedge issue that is invoked indiscriminately.
What happened on January 6 should not be forgotten, nor should those who broke our laws be given a free pass. They must be held accountable for their actions in accordance with America’s criminal justice system.
But the new commission legislators are trying to set up is an unserious attempt that, as it stands now, seems little concerned with safeguarding the United States Capitol and is more a vehicle to indulge the obsession Democrats and those few Republicans who just can’t quit our 45th president.
The Commission, as proposed in the House, portrays the investigation’s goal as figuring out what happened on January 6 and the days leading up to it so that the Capitol building can be better protected in the future should a similar situation threaten the safety and security of the complex.
Per the House resolution, the Commission’s purpose is:
“To investigate and report upon the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the ‘‘domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol’’) and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region and other instrumentality of government, as well as the influencing factors that fomented such attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.
...
To investigate and report to the President and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures that may include changes in law, policy, procedures, rules, or regulations that could be taken to prevent future acts of targeted violence and domestic terrorism, including to prevent domestic terrorist attacks against American democratic institutions, improve the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex while preserving accessibility of the Capitol Complex for all Americans, and strengthen the security and resilience of the nation and American democratic institutions against domestic terrorism.”
More succinctly, members of Congress want to accomplish two things: figuring out what caused people to attack the Capitol so that such attempts in the future may be thwarted and determining what can be done to better secure or prevent attacks on the Capitol complex should attempts reach that level again.
Good goals, I suppose—I think most Americans were upset by the sight of people shattering windows on the building we’ve all known since we first saw Schoolhouse Rock’s explanation of how a bill becomes a law. But this commission is an unserious attempt to stop future violence from befalling the Capitol because of one significant omission in its focus and stated purpose.
The 19-page resolution outlining the Commission does not once mention another attack on the Capitol carried out on April 2 that took the life of a United States Capitol Police officer named William "Billy" Evans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted after April’s deadly attack that Evans was “a martyr for our democracy,” yet the memory of this selfless officer and any apparent concern about preventing similar loss in the future had evidently evaporated from Pelosi’s brain by the time this Commission was being drawn up.
For what reason would those backing the January 6 Commission not also want to understand how the April attacker was motivated or decided to speed his car into two Capitol Police officers in the process of ramming a security checkpoint just yards away from the entrance to the United States Senate? Or understand what can be done to safeguard the valiant members of the Capitol Police against future ramming attacks?
These are mostly rhetorical questions because we know why those pushing for a commission in the name of Capitol security don’t want to investigate the deadly April attack. It’s pretty basic memory-holing for anyone who’s watched the media disappear a narrative before.
As Senator Ted Cruz predicted shortly after the attack in April—carried out by a young black man who was a follower of Louis Farrakhan and a supporter of the Nation of Islam:
“Suddenly, like the recent shooter in Colorado, this lunatic is going to magically disappear from the news,” Cruz tweeted. “If a depraved murderer doesn’t fit the woke narrative, he doesn’t exist.”
“As soon as Green’s race was identified, the sweeping under the rug protocols were engaged,” Matt noted in an artful recap on the media’s botched identification of the suspect.
These sweeping under the rug protocols also apparently prevent investigations into such inconvenient incidents because to do so would be detrimental to one side of our polarized political reality.
By failing to include a thorough investigation of all recent attacks on the Capitol, those advocating for the January 6 Commission show that they’re interested in little more than re-litigating the House’s second impeachment of President Trump.
It’s not surprising that Democrats would be unable to move past their blind obsession with DJT, but it’s unfortunate to see Republicans signing on to the effort, seemingly without any concessions to include investigations of the April attack on the Capitol or leftist attacks on Portland’s federal courthouse.
After all, if the Commission is serious about its purpose to “prevent domestic terrorist attacks against American democratic institutions,” then Antifa funding, communication, and infrastructure should definitely be included in the investigation. Maybe throw in an investigation of the Bernie Sanders supporter who targeted Republican members of Congress during baseball practice for good measure.
So while some on the Right paint supporting the Commission as a bipartisan act, it’s really just an unnecessary exercise in partisan futility designed to distract from Biden’s crises and create chaos for Republicans headed into the midterms.
As GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy noted Tuesday, the Architect of the Capitol has already received $10 million to do an audit on the Capitol complex, and more than 445 arrests have been carried out in the wake of January 6—our system of justice is working to hold accountable those who broke laws.
Senate Minority Leader McConnell was right Wednesday when he called the January 6 Commission “slanted” and “unbalanced,” adding “it's not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress.”