It’s not a witch hunt.
Whatever former President Donald Trump might think about the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, it matters a great deal for the public to learn what happened that day, in the days and months leading up to it, and how those events continue to reverberate.
Last week’s primetime hearing was a powerful reminder of Jan. 6 itself, with previously unseen footage augmenting the compelling testimony of Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards. She described a scene of chaos she felt ill-equipped to handle, as it had become more war zone than crowd control.
Testimony by Edwards and British documentarian Nick Quested did nothing to establish a link between Trump and the various factions – Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – dedicated to disrupting the certification of the election. Still, Edwards’ and Quested’s words recalled the horror of those hours and the bravery of Capitol Police officers who fought to keep lawmakers, and indeed American democracy, safe.
Proof of a direct link between Trump and the far-right extremists in the months leading up to Jan. 6 still might be forthcoming. Or the former president might be insulated by enough layers of flunkies that a smoking gun can never be identified.
Regardless, what is already clear is that Trump did not call off supporters at the Capitol until hours after the attack began, and then halfheartedly and only after repeated urging of family members and friends.
Similarly clear is that in the days and weeks leading up to the attack, President Trump fed his supporters false hopes, innuendos and flat-out lies, as Monday morning’s hearing revealed in greater detail than we’ve heard previously. He was following, intentionally or not, Joseph Goebbels’ infamous observation about the efficacy of propaganda: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
On both the first and second day of the hearings, the committee presented the words of many of Trump’s closest advisors, who told the 45th president in no uncertain terms that he had lost the election and that his claims of fraud were not supported by evidence. Their accuracy was borne out by more than 60 legal defeats by Trump and his allies in the months following the November election.
Nevertheless, Trump persisted. He used false claims to dupe $255 million from his followers, allegedly to pay for recounts and court cases, but most of it squirreled away for unknown future purposes. Don the Con once again did what he does best.
Yet the biggest impact of the attempted insurrection might yet to be felt, as voters elect, or governors and legislatures appoint, secretaries of state and other officials who are comfortable certifying or decertifying election results at the behest of some future White House. We often hear about the “guardrails of democracy,” and many are being systematically dismantled or weakened at the state level.
For me, one of the biggest concerns is that we refer to the insurrection in the past tense, as a finite event now concluded. But it isn’t over.
Hearing so many people characterize the Jan. 6 committee’s efforts as a waste of resources is disheartening. Critics’ whataboutisms include the economy, soaring gasoline prices and border concerns.
But these issues aren’t mutually exclusive to the insurrection. It is possible to be concerned about the very real challenges the nation faces today and still want the truth about Jan. 6, 2021.
Because however bad things are now, they would be even worse with Trump in office, a statement that has nothing to do with the man’s policy decisions or leadership.
Rather, it’s because Trump would be an illegitimate president. His presence in the White House would mean the will of the people had been subverted, and American democracy had failed. That’s what the Jan. 6 committee is fighting. No witches need apply.
Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.
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