The U.S. House select committee that Speaker Nancy Pelosi impaneled to examine the 1/6 insurrection is performing a stellar public service in delivering evidence to Americans who want to know the truth behind what happened on that horrifying day.
But … you know what? It could’ve gone sideways in a major hurry had the House GOP leader’s selections to the committee been allowed to stay on the panel.
Kevin McCarthy selected several Republican House members to serve on the panel, but Pelosi — acting within her authority as the House’s presiding officer — nixed those picks.
One of them, I hasten to add, was none other than Jim Jordan, the Ohio GOP lawmaker who has made quite a (nasty) name for himself with his bloviating bluster while seeking to deflect any blame for the insurrection from his guy, the 45th POTUS.
I was thinking of Jordan today as I watched Day Five of the televised hearings and wondering: How would these hearings go if wild men such as Jordan been kept on the panel?
I have been trying to wrap my noggin around that thought. I say that, though, wondering if there isn’t a way for the panel to summon more Trump-friendly witnesses to justify the events of 1/6 and how the insurrection wasn’t what it damn sure looked like to me and millions of others who saw it unfold in real time. It looked like a frontal assault on our democratic process with one aim: to overturn the free, fair and legal results of the 2020 presidential election.
You can bet your first-born child that a dedicated Trumpkin serving on the committee would spin the insurrection into something that none of us would recognize.
The committee that emerged from the mess left at its creation, though, is a bipartisan panel, comprising two Republicans along with seven Democrats. It has performed beautifully in collecting and presenting evidence to the public.
I also want to offer a high-five to Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who has conducted the hearings with decorum, grace and class as it has slogged through the mountain of evidence that keeps getting higher after every session.
There’s more to come? Yes. I am waiting with bated breath.