The majority of Republicans in the United States Senate have voted against creating a bipartisan commission, evenly staffed and composed of Republicans and Democrats, to investigate the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States capitol. In order for such a commission to go forward, 10 Republicans would have needed to join the majority of Democrats voting in favor of the legislation forming the commission. Today the headline will be “GOP Senators Block January 6 Insurrection Commission.”
Ironically, the vast majority of Republican Senators — most notably Senate Minority Leader McConnell — think that voting against an investigation in which they could have participated will give their criticism of such an investigation more weight and credibility. This is ridiculous.
Before the May 28 vote in the Senate, Representative John Katko, Republican of New York, negotiated the legislation creating the commission with Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi. And during that negotiation, Mr. Katko received agreement from Thompson on all his requests. This means that the Republicans got everything they asked for in creating a January 6 insurrection investigation commission, but after that, they decided they did not want such a commission.
By declining to participate in an investigation to which they were invited, and they could have participated, the Republicans have put themselves in a very difficult position. There will be an investigation and facts will come out. But the Republicans will have no ability to impact that investigation.
Let’s use a job interview scenario for comparison. The Republican Senators’ behavior (except for six of them) on the January 6 commission, is like this: Let’s say “Gerry” interviewed for a position with Company B and he received a job offer, which he declined. Gerry really led Company B to think that he really wanted the job. Gerry did five interviews — three on the phone and two in person — and he even went through a salary negotiation process with the company that went back and forth five times, and he got everything he asked for during that negotiation.
But then, when Company B made its final offer, Gerry turned it down.
But then, after all that, Gerry thinks that he can credibly criticize the work that “Jane” does after she accepted the job that he negotiated for and then ultimately turned down.
Gerry, like the Senate Republicans, has no credibility if he tries to complain about the work that Jane does. Even if Jane does a pretty terrible job, Gerry doesn’t have a leg to stand on in criticizing her.
This is where the Republicans in the Senate will find themselves — they’ll be in the same position as Gerry in the job interview scenario.
Clearly, there are lots of secrets that the Republicans do not want to come out through an investigation. Many in the GOP have said that they want to “move on,” but there is clearly no truth to that excuse for not wanting a commission to investigate the insurrection, because they are creating hundreds of laws in states to make it more difficult for people to vote, and they are still holding recounts of the 2020 ballots, in states like Arizona.
We will so how this story unfolds during the upcoming months.