I dispute that this is “customary” for Congress. I also believe that with all of the bureaucrats in Washington, it wouldn’t bring the federal government to a halt to have a guy sit in front of his computer and type a report.
I’m not speaking as a representative or spokesman for the Republican party. In that hypo, I would agree that a congressional investigation would be appropriate.
Why do you think that this should be strictly a criminal investigation? Doesn’t Congress have an interest in investigating the circumstances of January 6 to determine if there were actions taken or not taken that need to be addressed through legislation?
This is always the fallback, and I respectfully suggest bullshit reason for congressional hearings. What sort of legislation would Congress like to enact? A “no rioting, breaking things, and stealing the speaker’s rostrum” bill?
Unbelievable. So the only scenario where a commission would not be appropriate seems, miraculously enough, to be the exact situation we find ourselves in.
How convenient for the GOP, and how horrifying for our country.
You don’t trust Joe Biden to do his job?
You don’t trust Congress?
It is not Congress’ job to investigate criminal activity. The executive branch is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
Congress can investigate malfeasance by its members and take action. Also the electorate deserves to know what their representatives are doing in their names.
It certainly can do that. But since it involves criminality wouldn’t it be better done by a nonpartisan body who is the very best in human history at doing it?
Involves criminality does not mean exclusively criminal. The country deserves to know who was inciting and assisting these people. Just because you find it embarrassing for your side does not mean that this country is not entitled to know.
There’s nothing for Congress to learn from January 6? No possible changes to policy or funding that might fruitfully be considered? The events of that day are strictly a matter for criminal investigation, with no larger examination of how a mob was incented and able to breach the Capitol warranted?
Inciting and assisting a riot sounds pretty criminal.
Doesn’t mean its provable in court beyond a reasonable doubt, but the American People still deserve to know what our representatives are doing in our name and on our dime. Trying to hide the truth is a very bad look, especially in these fraught times with our Democracy still under attack.
You’re kidding, right?
Partial list of current investigations by Congress:
A significant part of the Jan 6th attack was a political attack – meaning an attack using the tools of politics on the American system of government. Those tools sometimes aren’t technically illegal, and thus the FBI won’t have a crime to prosecute for some of what happened (i.e. Trump and co being derelict in their duty to protect the US and its government). For such a political attack on American democracy, only our political system can respond – i.e. an investigation by an explicitly political branch of government.
There also is a case for investigating the executive branch @UltraVires, in that it took many hours for any force (military or additional police) to be brought to bear on the rioters, and the reasons for that were not under the control of congress and were under the control of various actors in the executive branch and defense department. Finding out why that is is entirely appropriate under a congressional investigation, and entirely inappropriate for the military and the executive to investigate itself.
This is important and I was going to post something to this effect, but Aspenglow said it better than I would have.
I don’t even feel that motivated to have people punished. Even if we could execute people for their involvement in this, we could only execute them once each, which is nowhere near enough punishment. Hundreds of millions of citizens had their semi-democracy knocked down a few more notches. Sure, punish. But much more important, let’s put everything where we can see it, whether it converges on a reasonable doubt standard and a conviction of specific existing felonies or not.
The DOJ is great for conducting criminal investigations. I don’t think anyone disputes that. But there was a lot going on that day that was more negligent than criminal. The DC NG was not called in for far too long. Why? Who asked who to bring them in and who refused? The MD NG was on the border ready and willing to come assist. But they were not brought in. Why? Which congressmen gave tours to people who were part of the coup attempt? All these things need to be aired in a public forum so that those people who still live in reality will know the full story.
January 6 was in my opinion the greatest threat to democracy in history, surpassing the Civil War. It was several orders of magnitude more significant than Benghazi, yet there were many investigations of Benghazi. Why was Benghazi so thoroughly litigated in Congressional committees? To discredit Hillary Clinton. Now we have people saying that multiple investigations for the purpose of smearing one person were okay, but having one investigation that might make Herr Donald and Comrade William Barr uncomfortable are out of the question.
Like I said, Republicans are allergic to accountability for their actions. Always have been, always will be.
The idea that a wealthy conservative might have to face consequences for their actions is just totally unacceptable to the Right. And yet, “lock her up!” is fine for the other side.