Tag Archives: House 1/6 committee

Clock is ticking, 1/6 panel

U.S. House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson doesn’t need unsolicited advice from little ol’ me on how he does his business.

Too bad. I am going to give him some anyway.

Mr. Chairman, I am acutely aware that the clock is ticking on your 1/6 investigation. Which makes me implore you to get your probe done sooner rather than later.

You must ignore the happy talk among Democrats who have stars in their eyes and who are thinking they can retain control of the House after the congressional midterm election. The fate of the Senate is another matter. The House, though, remains vulnerable to a Republican takeover of leadership of that legislative chamber.

That means if the committee’s work is unfinished when the new Congress convenes in January, the new Republican leadership is going to scuttle every damn thing the panel did. It will toss all the evidence it has collected implicating Donald Trump in the insurrection and his effort to deny the peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration.

A new GOP House speaker is going to launch investigations of his own into the panel’s conduct. There might even be efforts to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland. Believe this, too: The Trump cultists who comprise the Republican Party will have vengeance on their minds if they seize control of the House.

I say all this to remind the chairman that he has to finish the committee’s work sometime this fall. The committee is set to reopen the public hearings next month with a new round of witnesses. They are likely to add even more evidence to the growing pile of it already gathered through hours of public and private testimony.

The panel might ask former Vice President Mike Pence to testify. Fine. Do it and then get him to spill whatever beans he can under oath.

Look, Mr. Chairman, time is not your friend. It is your relentless enemy as you seek to finish your work, compile a report and present it to us — and to the attorney general.

He must not be deterred by whatever blowback he gets from the diehard cultists who stand with the insurrectionist in chief. They have loud voices, but so do the rest of us who want to make sure those who are responsible are held to account for the dastardly deeds they launched against the government they all swore an oath to protect, preserve and defend.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ratings don’t matter

Donald Trump and his cabal of cultists can complain all they want about the allegedly low “rating” the insurrection hearings are getting.

What matters, though, is the testimony that is being produced from these televised events. Not only that, the witnesses are talking to a limited audience. They are speaking to prosecutors and investigators working for the Department of Justice.

The most recent testimony offered by mid-level White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson already has come under fire. Donald Trump cultists say she offered “hearsay” testimony. Oh, really?

Others around her said incriminating things about the 1/6 insurrection … and she was present to hear what they said!

Hearsay? That’s hardly a defense when someone delivers the kind of damaging goods that Hutchinson dropped onto the laps the1/6 House select committee examining the insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson told a compelling — and damning — tale of corruption within the White House on that horrible and horrifying day as Donald Trump’s time as president was staggering to its conclusion.

Whether the vast bulk of Americans are not yet paying attention doesn’t matter one damn bit to those who are paying attention. They are the legal professionals who are preparing to decide whether to file criminal charges against those who did the bidding of the most corrupt president in U.S. history.

And, yes, whether they will file charges against the president himself. It looks for all the world to me that the Justice Department is being left with few choices other than to take a historic leap.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Jordan: GOP weasel

Jim Jordan is seeking to weasel his way out of a declaration he bellowed back when he was involved in a wild goose chase called “Benghazi.”

The Ohio Republican congressman said while serving on a House panel looking into the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that no one should avoid testifying before Congress. He said the panel on which he was serving deserved to hear the whole truth about the attack on the consulate and, by golly, Congress is empowered to seek the truth from anyone it sought.

Hah! Well, now comes the House select panel looking into the events of 1/6. It wants to talk to Jim Jordan about a conversation Jordan said he had with Donald Trump on that terrible day.

Jordan’s response? He is refusing to cooperate with the committee.

Jordan’s duplicity isn’t a surprise to those of us who have been watching this 1/6 probe unfold. The committee already has issued taken a bead on Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who stiffed the panel; it is looking at whether to go after former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who’s done the same thing.

Now we have Jim Jordan. C’mon, committee members. Don’t let this blowhard get away with this line of hypocrisy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com