We all need to be clear-eyed about what we are going to see and hear in the weeks ahead as the House 1/6 select committee conducts its hearings on national TV.
It is seeking to expose to the nation what it has learned through hours of testimony and thousands of pages of documents it has obtained bout the insurrection that sought to subvert our democracy and overturn the 2020 election result.
We will hear from Donald J. Trump’s defenders that the committee is on a witch hunt, that it is a partisan gathering of Democrats intent on destroying the ex-POTUS, that what happened on that day wasn’t so bad.
It’s not a witch hunt; the panel does contain two Republicans along with seven Democrats; Trump is engaging in a form of self-destruction by continuing to foment The Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” that he knew did not exist; and what we saw was an unprecedented attack on our democratic process that included verbal threats against the lives of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
The committee is a duly constituted congressional body that has been charged with determining the cause of the insurrection, seeking solutions to prevent it from recurring and (hopefully) determine who should be held accountable for the ghastly event that unfolded.
Do not be fooled by those who say they “can’t defend Trump” but refuse to condemn his inaction on that day. Nor should we be fooled by those who point fingers at others for refusing to provide “adequate security” on Capitol Hill.
As we heard during testimony this past week from the brave Capitol Police officer, Caroline Edwards, she was trained to detain a limited number of subjects; she was not trained to engage in “hours of hand-to-hand combat.”
Let’s keep our eyes and ears open to what will be laid out before us.