There’s a good reason Democrats call it the Big Lie. Out of the record 30,573 documented lies by Donald Trump during his single term as president, his most preposterous was that a landslide reelection victory was stolen from him through multi-state vote fraud by an evil conspiracy of devious Republican and Democratic election officials.
It also led to the most violent attempt to overthrow American democracy since the Civil War. An estimated 10,000 supporters of the defeated president, apparently believing his absurd lie, swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 after an incendiary speech by Trump sent them to shut down a joint session of Congress certifying President Joe Biden’s election. More than 800 broke through doors and windows to rampage through the Capitol threatening the lives of members of the House and Senate.
Unbelievably, instead of distancing themselves from that assault on democracy by their lawless former president, elected Republicans continue to embrace his outrageous lies about the election and futilely try to pretend that violent attack on the Capitol we all watched on television never happened. Last week, they purged Rep. Liz Cheney from party leadership for telling the truth about Trump’s attempt to overthrow the election.
The irony is before Trump, the greatest Republican threat to the values of American democracy came from Cheney’s father, Vice President Dick Cheney. He was the driving force behind the unlawful incarceration and torture of prisoners in President George W. Bush’s war on terror. Those war crimes were mostly hidden away at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and “black sites.” Trump’s war on democracy was fought in plain sight right here at home.
Pathetic False Claims
Pathetic Republican attempts echoing Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s ridiculous description of the deadly Jan. 6 attack as a lovely Republican family picnic by Trump supporters on the Capitol grounds are doomed to failure. Another one came last week from Georgia Republican Congressman Andrew Clyde rhapsodizing about insurrection day: “If you didn’t know the TV footage was from Jan. 6, you’d actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” Right, except most normal Capitol tours don’t result in the deaths of three police officers, two by suicide, and injuries to 140 others. Many received serious brain injuries from being kicked, stomped or beaten with baseball bats, hockey sticks or flagpoles with Trump flags or American flags attached.
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As of last week, 411 had been arrested, only about half of those sought by the FBI. Half of those arrested have been charged with at least one felony. About 75 were charged with assaulting, impeding or resisting police.
Debating the Insurrection
On Friday, Democratic Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced an agreement with New York Congressman John Katko, the ranking committee Republican, to create an independent 10-member commission evenly divided between Democratic and Republican appointees to investigate the attack on the Capitol and recommend steps to prevent a recurrence. Katko and Cheney were among 10 House Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump for inciting the violent insurrection.
The commission has until the end of the year to complete its investigation. That means the insurrection against democracy Republicans want to forget will continue to be debated leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. Rep. Cheney’s reelection as Wyoming’s single House member will be one of the highest profile races in those midterms. Trump is demanding her defeat and Republicans just handed her an even bigger megaphone to make her case that Trump’s lies are destroying the Republican Party.
“We have to be a party that’s based on a foundation of truth,” Cheney said over the weekend. “I’m not willing to be complicit or silent in the face of those lies coming from President Trump.” She called Republicans like Johnson pretending the deadly attack on the Capitol was a normal event “disgraceful and despicable. You know, I won’t be a part of whitewashing what happened on Jan. 6. Nobody should be a part of it and people have to be held accountable.”
All but the dumbest elected Republicans know she’s right. Republican insiders know better than anyone no one can believe a word the pathologically lying Trump says, but Cheney embarrassed them by speaking that truth right out loud. Party leaders avoid calling out Trump’s lies because they’re afraid of losing his voters who foolishly believe in him in the midterms when he won’t be on the ballot.
Frankly, many are simply afraid of his voters. They have good reason to be. Trump attracted armed white supremacists to the party law enforcement identifies as a serious threat of domestic terrorism. They were among the insurrectionists Trump sent to the Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s election.
Republicans really ought to do something to rid their party of dangerous voters who might want to murder them. They should get right on that after the midterms.
