The Senate Judiciary Committee this week took up a batch of White House nominees, and as is usually the case, the panel’s Democrats were eager to explore the nominees’ records related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
This evidently annoyed one of the committee’s Republican members. HuffPost reported:
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) complained Thursday that Democrats keep bringing up the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where President Donald Trump’s nominees routinely, and alarmingly, refuse to answer questions about the violence of that day and about who won the 2020 election.
Schmitt, a close ally of Trump, griped about having to keep talking about the violence of Jan. 6 in the middle of National Police Week, a time when lawmakers in both parties play up their support for law enforcement officers and honor those who have died in the line of duty.
“I think that we ought to change the date of Groundhog Day to Jan. 6, because every time I walk into this committee hearing — it’s everything,” the Missouri Republican said. “Everything stops and starts with Jan. 6.”
As a factual matter, Schmitt’s observation about the frequency with which Democrats focus on Jan. 6 isn’t altogether wrong. Democratic senators do routinely press judicial nominees and U.S. attorney nominees about the insurrectionist attack. This is in part because it’s important on its own, and in part because Trump’s picks for these posts continue to struggle with the inquiries in ways that undermine their credibility and raise doubts about their judgment.
But at the heart of the GOP senator’s complaint is that Democrats should simply move on from Jan. 6 questions, as if the 2021 assault on the Capitol is old news and no longer relevant. And that’s a position that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously.
I’m reminded of William Faulkner’s line, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Five years after the president summoned a mob, filled them with lies and pointed them at the Capitol, the significance of the political violence hasn’t changed at all. Five years later, pardoned Jan. 6 rioters continue to get arrested and, in many instances, convicted of additional crimes. Five years later, the president continues to look for ways to reward those who targeted our seat of government in his name.
Five years later, Republicans are still trying to rewrite the story of the attack. Five years later, Trump’s Justice Department is still eager to erase the convictions of those responsible for the violence. Five years later, parts of the GOP base still treat rioters like celebrities. Five years later, the Republican Party still rejects the very idea of Jan. 6 accountability.
“Everything stops and starts with Jan. 6”? We should be so lucky.
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