Right-wing Domestic Terrorism

[LFC]

Congress is moving forward on a commission to investigate and report on the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection.

[LFC]

Meghan McCain wants to sweep the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection, based on The Big Lie, under the carpet because it's been 4 months since a group goaded on by the de facto leader of the GOP attempted to stop election certification by force. It's a good thing her father isn't a alive to see this. It would kill him.

The View’s Meghan McCain dismissed concerns about Republican denialism of the Capitol riots on Thursday, declaring that the January insurrection “was four months ago” and that her colleagues should be more focused on whether or not she can get gas in her car.

On the same day that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was booted from her GOP leadership position because she continued to push back on former President Donald Trump’s election lies, a number of House Republicans openly embraced Jan. 6 trutherism during a House hearing on the insurrection—which was incited by Trump’s false stolen election narrative.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), for instance, said it was a “bald-faced lie” to call the violent riots an insurrection, insisting that the MAGA mob storming the Capitol looked like “a normal tourist visit.” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who is tied to the organizers behind the Jan. 6 events, claimed federal investigators were “harassing peaceful patriots” by arresting and indicting the rioters.

Discussing GOP attempts to revise history at the top of Thursday’s program, liberal co-host Joy Behar said it was “just shameless” what Republicans were doing while claiming people she talks to “are frightened that this party will bring down this country.”

Fellow host Sara Haines, for her part, largely agreed with Behar. Saying it was “unbelievable to watch,” Haines went on to say “this is a strategy” by the GOP as they are now just copying Trump’s tactics of repeating a lie over and over until a large percentage of Americans believe it.

“We’ve seen this before. We’ll see it again. It’s just—it’s about as insane as it gets,” she added.

Asked whether she thinks Republican voters will continue to buy this new narrative, McCain—the show’s resident conservative panelist—said it was time to move on and focus on how bad America has supposedly gotten under President Joe Biden.

[LFC]

May 14, 2021 15:43:51 GMT LFC said:

Congress is moving forward on a commission to investigate and report on the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection.

FFS. Kevin McCarthy is lazy as well as stupid and corrupt.

House Democrats and Republicans Friday morning announced an agreement has been reached "to introduce legislation to form a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the January 6 domestic terrorism attack on the United States Capitol." Many have doubted the commission would be formed after Republicans worked to derail progress. Now, House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy may do just that.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the Committee on Homeland Security's agreement, saying, “It is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened on January 6 with an independent, bipartisan 9/11-type Commission to examine and report upon the terrorist mob attack."

But as CNN's Annie Grayer reports, "Kevin McCarthy tells reporters he has not read through the deal that John Katko made with Dems on 1/6 commission and said that the scope should not just be focused on 1/6 even though that's what the deal says."

Republicans have been trying to include the Black Lives Matter protests in the investigation, even though they have nothing to do with the attempted coup and attack on the Capitol.

When asked about McCarthy's roadblocking, Speaker Pelosi told Grayer, "You know what, why don't you ask him?"

"His ranking member is a cosponsor of the legislation," Pelosi noted. "We're very pleased that it is bipartisan, and the scope was very important in the legislation."

[LFC]

All I can say is ... BWAHAHAHAHA! I have zero compassion for this traitorous f***wit.

A member of the Proud Boys who was arrested for taking part in the January 6th MAGA riots angrily lashed out at former President Donald Trump after he realized he wouldn't be getting pardoned for his crimes.

Politico's Kyle Cheney reports that federal prosecutors this week revealed anguished messages sent by Proud Boy Ethan Nordean on January 20th after he watched Trump leave office without delivering a blanket pardon to all those who rioted on his behalf weeks earlier.

"F*CK TRUMP!" he wrote in a social media message. "F*ck him more than Biden. I've followed this guy for 4 years and given everything and lost it all."

Nordean expressed disillusionment because he believed that the United States was really on the precipice of "some great justice," only to see it dashed after watching Trump leave office in disgrace.

"So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and sh*t on us on his way out," he wrote. "F*ck you Trump you left us on the battle field bloody and alone."

[LFC]

Another Republican mouth breathing MAGAt in Congress is pissing on the Constitution and pledging fealty to Dear Leader and Lord God Trump.

On Thursday, CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju pressed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) about the Capitol riot — and Massie flatly refused to acknowledge that former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about the election result were false, or that any violence came out of them.

"Do you agree with Donald Trump that the election was rigged or stolen somehow?" asked Raju.

"We didn't have hearings, there's no way to litigate that up here if you're in the minority," said Massie. "The DOJ wouldn't investigate it—"

"They said there's no evidence of widespread fraud," cut in Raju.

"That's your opinion," the congressman replied.

"No, that's what the Justice Department said," Raju pressed him. "Even [Trump appointee] Jeffrey Rosen testified that—"

"I just told you, the DOJ didn't prosecute it, that's Trump's DOJ," said Massie.

"Are you concerned that by suggesting there's something wrong, it could lead to more violence?" asked Raju, as Massie moved to walk away.

"I didn't see any violence," said Massie, turning back as he left.

We have all been following the likes of Greene, Boebert, Jordan, Nunes, Gossar, McCarthy, Johnson, Tuberville, and other loudmouth and totally insane Republicans for quite some time. What we're seeing now is that the ones who are quieter, less public, but equally insane now feel emboldened to speak up. Remember that this asshat, who I'd never heard of before, bleated out this oral cow pie just a few days ago.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) made the tourist comment, saying that calling what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 an insurrection “is a boldfaced lie.”

“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures,” the first-term lawmaker said. “You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from Jan. 6, you’d think it was a normal tourist visit.”

And remember that these are just the federal level fascists. The state GOPs are brimming with them and, as we've discussed, they're actually taking over.

[Deleted]

Proud Boys Leader Charged In Capitol Attack Feels Betrayed By Trump: ‘You Left Us’

Yeah, nobody could see this coming. 

[pnwguy]

The intellectual leader of the House GOP fights for 'political prisoners'

[goldenvalley]

May 14, 2021 21:38:46 GMT pnwguy said:

The intellectual leader of the House GOP fights for 'political prisoners'

Those "political prisoners" took the Capitol building hostage.  They did it for political reasons so yeah he's right but not in the way he thinks he is.

[LFC]

DHS is warning us again about right-wing domestic terrorists.

The Department of Homeland Security released a new terrorism bulletin on Friday, warning that far-right extremists are likely to consider attacking protests against police brutality.

The bulletin, issued through the National Terrorism Advisory System, says that domestic violent extremists and white supremacists have been looking for “civil disorder” as an opportunity to commit violent acts “in furtherance of ideological objectives.”

That includes targeting protests about “racial justice grievances and police use of force concerns, potentially targeting protestors perceived to be ideological opponents,” the bulletin reads.

This is the second threat bulletin DHS has issued in 2021 regarding the threat from far-right extremists.

In January, after the Capitol insurrection, DHS issued a warning saying that the Jan. 6 attack had “emboldened” white supremacist extremists and that the threat of violent attacks would likely remain high throughout the year. That’s led to a sprawling DOJ investigation into the matter, as FBI agents continue to pore over video from the attack to try to identify rioters.

And the complicit Congressional Republicans continue to voice support and provide cover for the terrorists.

[LFC]

If the military was called in to put down another Republican insurrection which side would this guy be on, the one that includes American democracy and the Constitution or the Marching MAGAts? I'm pretty sure I know.

Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier of the U.S. Space Force was fired on Friday for claiming the Department of Defense has an agenda “rooted in Marxism” because of its diversity trainings.

A Space Force spokesperson told the Washington Post on Sunday that the agency had ousted Lohmeier “due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead.”

“This decision was based on public comments made by Lt. Col. Lohmeier in a recent podcast,” the spokesperson said.

Additionally, the agency has begun a “Command Directed Investigation on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity,” the spokesperson told Military.com, which was the first outlet to report Lohmeier’s firing.

[Deleted]

When did Marxism become associated with diversity? Granted I know very little history (a rather startling realization of the last half decade). Still it's pretty self-evident Marxists wherever had come to hold power had quickly dispensed with diversity of any kind. If anything, it's the American motto: E Pluribus Unum.

The guy should have been fired for monumental ignorance. (And, sent to Marxist history reeducation camp. )

[goldenvalley]

May 17, 2021 14:45:01 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

When did Marxism become associated with diversity? Granted I know very little history (a rather startling realization of the last half decade). Still it's pretty self-evident Marxists wherever had come to hold power had quickly dispensed with diversity of any kind. If anything, it's the American motto: E Pluribus Unum.

The guy should have been fired for monumental ignorance. (And, sent to Marxist history reeducation camp. )

Marxism, Communism, Socialism..are simply buzz words for "things we don't like." They create an emotional response in their target audience.

[LFC]

LOCK HIM UP! Also he must never, ever be legally allowed to possess or use a firearm. I bet he's viewed as just another "responsible" gun owner.

An accused Capitol rioter shot and killed a mountain lion after he was released from jail -- and was prohibited from possessing firearms.

Patrick Montgomery was allowed to return home to Colorado after he allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and kicked a police officer, but federal prosecutors have filed a motion to revoke his release after he posed for a photo with the 170-pound mountain lion he killed, reported the Washington Post.

"Given that Montgomery has repeatedly and flagrantly violated both state and federal law while on pretrial release in this case — including by possessing and using a firearm — the Government respectfully requests that the Court revoke his release pending trial," prosecutors said in the motion.
On the Raw Story Podcast: Marcus Flowers
Marjorie Taylor Green's worst nightmare

The 48-year-old Montgomery was identified by Facebook friends who saw photos he posted of himself inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, and one notified him that he had been reported to the FBI.

"I'm not a scared cat or running from anything," Montgomery responded, according to court documents. "I didn't storm the castle violently. My group was let in peacefully by the police we were talking to with respect."

However, prosecutors said Montgomery tried to grab a police officer's baton, wrestled him to the ground and kicked him in the chest before presenting both of his middle fingers at the officer.

The Littleton resident was arrested Jan. 17 on 10 counts, but state authorities began investigating him a short time later for the illegal killing of a bobcat.

Montgomery then killed the mountain lion on March 31 and posed for a photo with its body, but federal prosecutors said he was not supposed to have a gun at that time due to a court order and a previous conviction in 1996 for armed robbery in New Mexico.

[LFC]

Remember Rep. Andrew "Just a Tourist Visit" Clyde of Georgia? Well a picture is worth a thousand words. What a traitorous lying sack of shit.

Far-right Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia has been drawing a great deal of scathing criticism for his recent comments comparing the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building to a "normal tourist visit." But a photo taken during the invasion of the Capitol, Thomas Colson reports in Business Insider, shows Clyde and security helping to barricade a door inside the Capitol in order to protect himself from those "tourists."

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on May 12, Clyde seriously downplayed the horrors of January 6, when a mob of far-right extremists stormed the Capitol in the hope of preventing Congress from certifying now-President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over then-President Donald Trump in 2020. The extremists included members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and QAnon, among others, and some of the Capitol rioters were calling for then-President Mike Pence to be lynched — as they believed he had betrayed Trump by not stopping Biden's Electoral College certification. A hangman's noose meant for Pence was set up outside the Capitol, and one of the rioters was carrying zip-tie plastic handcuffs.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City has stressed that she feared for her life on January 6. But when Clyde addressed the House Oversight Committee, he said it was a "bald-faced lie" to describe the invasion of the Capitol as an insurrection.

Clyde said, "You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." But in the January 6 photo that Business Insider has published, it's obvious that Clyde is taking the Capitol invasion quite seriously as he helps security barricade the door.

Colson explains, "After Clyde's comments, a photographer shared a photo he had taken of Clyde using furniture to barricade the House against rioters trying to force their way in to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Several people died in the riot."

The photographer, Tom Williams, has posted the photo on Twitter:

[Deleted]

Nothing new though. People in many countries barricade themselves from American tourists.

[LFC]

The asshats who would have been the ones screeching about personal responsibility are now blaming somebody else for their actions. Pathetic little shits.

A few weeks after his arrest for allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, the man known as the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, floated an idea that dozens of others have tried — that Trump himself deserved some of the blame for his actions.

Chansley’s attorney wrote that his client had been consistent “in his assertion that but for the actions and the words of the President, he would not have appeared in Washington, DC to support the President and, but for the specific words of the then-President during his January 6, 2021 speech, the Defendant would not have walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and would not have gone into the U.S. Capitol Building.”

That argument did not work.

In a memo explaining his order to keep Chansley detained pending trial, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said it wasn’t necessary to question Chansley’s sincerity.

“Even taking defendant’s claim at face value, it does not persuade the Court that defendant would not pose a danger to others if released,” Lamberth wrote. “If defendant truly believes that the only reason he participated in an assault on the U.S. Capitol was to comply with President Trump’s orders, this shows defendant’s inability (or refusal) to exercise his independent judgment and conform his behavior to the law.”

Nonetheless, the so-called “Trump defense” continues to resurface as alleged participants in the Capitol riot wend their way through the legal system.

And even though the tactic may not get the defendants entirely off the hook, lawyers with whom TPM spoke, including defense attorneys for the accused, say there’s an upside to roping Trump into the case — including, potentially, a lighter sentence.

“Legally, these are unprecedented cases,” Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, told TPM last week. “And as a result, while the judge may not be compelled to emotionally embrace, as a matter of opinion, the effect or the impact of the words and actions of the former President as being a cause, there is going to necessarily be a legal compulsion to address that reality as part of an evaluation of culpability.”

[LFC]

Bumbling but dangerous fool Kevin McCarthy sent in his hand-picked Rep. to negotiate the terms for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection. He got nearly everything McCarthy demanded. Now that he's caught the car McCarthy doesn't know what to do so he is spewing bad faith excuses for getting what he said he wanted.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has—as expected—come out against a bipartisan deal struck last week for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, offering a long list of dubious excuses as to why he doesn’t want lawmakers to investigate the insurrection in support of his ally Donald Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote later this week on a deal struck with Rep. John Katko (R-NY) that would set up bipartisan commission to probe the Capitol riot. In a Tuesday statement, McCarthy announced that he won’t support the legislation because he feels he’s been the victim of “political misdirection” from Pelosi in talks over the commission, and because the scope of the investigation won’t include unrelated incidents of alleged political violence, including those against Republicans. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said last week that her Republican colleagues are trying to block the commission because they fear it could expose that they helped to provoke the attack, or contributed to it in other ways.

[Deleted]

May 14, 2021 18:27:07 GMT LFC said:

All I can say is ... BWAHAHAHAHA! I have zero compassion for this traitorous f***wit.

Rudy Giuliani says "trial by combat" is a metaphor, just a turn of phrase. It is not incitement to violence. Everyone can easily determine it to be a hyperbolic statement. 

Everyone on stage with fiery rhetoric says it's not their fault that rubes can't understand their true intent. Everyone off the stage says the responsibility lies with the leaders who goaded them. Interesting.

Maxine, she shoots off her mouth without much forethought, said "confront" and everyone heard "violently confront". 

[LFC]

May 18, 2021 16:25:07 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

May 14, 2021 18:27:07 GMT LFC said:

All I can say is ... BWAHAHAHAHA! I have zero compassion for this traitorous f***wit.

Rudy Giuliani says "trial by combat" is a metaphor, just a turn of phrase. It is not incitement to violence. Everyone can easily determine it to be a hyperbolic statement. 

Everyone on stage with fiery rhetoric says it's not their fault that rubes can't understand their true intent. Everyone off the stage says the responsibility lies with the leaders who goaded them. Interesting.

Maxine, she shoots off her mouth without much forethought, said "confront" and everyone heard "violently confront". 

The difference is obvious. It's as clear as, ooooohhhh I don't know, let's say "black and white."

[goldenvalley]

May 18, 2021 16:43:30 GMT LFC said:

May 18, 2021 16:25:07 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Rudy Giuliani says "trial by combat" is a metaphor, just a turn of phrase. It is not incitement to violence. Everyone can easily determine it to be a hyperbolic statement. 

Everyone on stage with fiery rhetoric says it's not their fault that rubes can't understand their true intent. Everyone off the stage says the responsibility lies with the leaders who goaded them. Interesting.

Maxine, she shoots off her mouth without much forethought, said "confront" and everyone heard "violently confront". 

The difference is obvious. It's as clear as, ooooohhhh I don't know, let's say "black and white."

That is a very large component, no doubt.  I think there is also a function of personality at work.  Some will hear those words and say that's hyperbolic.  Others hear them and think it's a call to action, see for example all those who are in custody as a result of 1/6 who are saying Trump told them to do it.  Those who heard Trump and company as a call to action just assume that there are people who will hear Waters' words in the same way.

[LFC]

Josh Marshall (paywalled) has a bit more on Kevin McCarthy being handed his demands on the Jan 6 commission and then feeling forced to desperately try to kill it. I wonder if Pelosi et al played him. Give into all demands (but allowing them to go completely off the rails over antifa) assuming they'd try to spike the whole thing once got it. If the Democrats throw out the agreement and create a commission more favorable to them and actually finding the truth then we may have our answer.

Trump's Puppy Speaks


Kevin McCarthy’s turnabout on a Jan 6th Commission proposal that was negotiated by his chosen negotiator and, by all indications, at his direction is a good reminder – for anyone who needed reminding, and really who are you who needed reminding? – of the reality of bipartisan negotiations in the Trump era. As I noted yesterday, Rep. Katko does not appear to have been freelancing. McCarthy chose him to negotiate on his behalf. And reporting suggests Katko worked from McCarthy’s directives and kept him in the loop. But once the deal was announced McCarthy felt he needed to torpedo it.

The only plausible explanation here is that McCarthy didn’t really think the negotiations would go anywhere. When the Democrats agreed with most of his demands, he had a hot potato in his hand and didn’t know what to do with it.

Trump clearly made clear he doesn’t want any commission under any circumstances ever. And I mean … of course he doesn’t. The perp never wants an investigation. That’s obvious. As my colleague Kate Riga has noted a number of times, McCarthy has his own reasons not to want any commission, even over and above Trump’s opposition. McCarthy was on the phone with Trump at the critical moments demanding the then-President do something. McCarthy’s testimony would likely be some of the most illuminating about the President’s state of mind and actions. That’s a nightmare for McCarthy. Of course he wants to avoid it.

The other possibility, though I find it a bit hard to credit, is that Katko basically sandbagged McCarthy. Perhaps Katko got McCarthy most of what he said he wanted but knew McCarthy would probably accept any deal. So rather than showing McCarthy the deal which he said he wanted, he just announced it. As I said, that’s a bit hard for me to believe. Members don’t usually cut their leaders off at the knees like that.

On the other hand, Katko is one of the ten members who voted to impeach President Trump over January 6th. That alone makes me wonder why McCarthy put him in charge of the negotiation. But he did. The whole thing is a mystery.

The only global reality we can glean from this is one I think we already know: that the leader of the House GOP caucus is Donald Trump. He’s a big factor in the Senate. But he’s not the leader. He’s the leader in the House. McCarthy is most charitably seen as his spokesman.

[goldenvalley]

McCarthy isn't as iron willed as McConnell, he doesn't have complete credibility with the loyal Trumpists in the House, and he didn't fully grasp that Trump is the leader of the House. He's a guy who got by in politics as the heir apparent to the Congressman he succeeded and by following along with the other "young guns" (Paul Ryan and I think Eric Cantor). Only now, with the Cheney issue, does he realize that Trump calls the shots and the Trump loyalists around him call the shots. He better get with the program or he'll get tossed out as Minority Leader.

[LFC]

Josh Marshall is looking towards the Senate (paywalled). I can't believe Moscow Mitch will allow a Jan. 6 Commission to be formed. He already knows what happened. All he cares about is shoving it down the memory hole as fast as possible.

Just this afternoon we’ve seen two developments on a possible Jan 6th Commission. The House GOP will formally ‘whip’ the vote, i.e., they’ll use the party apparatus to get all their members to vote no. This seems more than anything to be a signal to Donald Trump from McCarthy and Scalise that they are all-in to protect him. Does anyone GOP member not know what’s expected of them from Trump, McCarthy and Scalise? Of course not.

At the same time, TPM alum Sahil Kapur reports that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) seems to be in support of the bill. Rounds isn’t a Senate fire breather. But he’s not a Romney/Murkowski type either.

Like everything else in the Senate, Democrats need ten Republican votes to pass the commission bill. It’s not assured. But it certainly seems more likely than not that the seven Senators who voted to convict Trump over Jan 6th would vote to create a bipartisan commission to investigate it. If that’s true then Rounds would make eight votes, putting the commission pretty close to passage.

I don’t know if there are two more Republican votes or more than two more. And as I’ve argued I’m pessimistic about the chances of the commission really doing much given that the Republican-appointed commissioners, if they remain united, will have what amounts to a veto over any commission actions. But what’s interesting here is that this is shaping up as a loyalty test which could at a minimum create some drama in the Senate.

[LFC]

Trump has given the Republicans their marching orders. Despite being handed virtually everything they demanded we can now expect near total obstruction. That now includes Moscow Mitch who has fallen in line.

Here’s a shock—Donald Trump doesn’t want to hear any more talk of an investigation into the insurrection that was carried out by his biggest fans right after he whipped them up into a frenzy on Jan. 6. On Wednesday, the House is set to vote on legislation that would set up a 9/11-style bipartisan commission to investigate the MAGA riot at the U.S. Capitol. But, on Tuesday night, Trump ordered his Republican minions in Congress to resist, writing in a statement that his allies in the House and the Senate should not fall for the “Democrat trap” of backing the commission. He wrote: “It is just more partisan unfairness and unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.” Meanwhile, Axios reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has fallen in behind Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in telling colleagues that he will not be supporting the commission as things stand.

Read it at The Hill

[LFC]

Josh Marshall (paywalled) adds more insight.

The Perps Never Support the Cops

Yesterday in a close door Senate GOP caucus meeting, Mitch McConnell announced he can’t support the Jan 6th commission deal which Kevin McCarthy’s negotiator negotiated apparently because McCarthy assumed nothing would ever come of it before it blew up in his face. According to Axios, McConnell hasn’t yet come up with any clear reasons why he opposes such a commission other than vague suggestions about its work interfering with the DOJ’s probes. The main concern is that the commission might subpoena members or “alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump.”

Earlier this week, the number two GOP Senate leader John Thune expressed support for the Commission and said he expected it to pass. Yesterday he said that after hearing that McCarthy had pulled his support he wasn’t so sure.

Meanwhile, Punchbowl says that as many as a few dozen House Republicans may vote for the commission and that many more are miffed that McCarthy has put them in a bad position by not giving them any good reasons to oppose it. For clarity here, those folks will oppose it but they wish McCarthy had managed the situation so they could have excuses that wouldn’t make them look silly. As Punchbowl puts it, “McCarthy’s [reason for opposing] was lame to many House Republicans. He said this commission should be focused on other political violence, not just Jan. 6. A lot of Republicans found this excuse incredibly weak, especially since most GOP members had called for a Jan. 6 commission months ago.”

Meanwhile, ex-President Trump, as I noted below, has made his position clear. On his new blog, he said last night that “unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.”

The best way to understand the current situation is the legal concept of ‘consciousness of guilt’. Perpetrators never support investigations into their crimes. Republican members of Congress aren’t all perpetrators in the sense that Donald Trump is. But virtually all of them are determined to cover up his crimes. They are best seen in legal terms as accessories after the fact. The US Criminal code defines this as “Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.”