Conservative National Review Calls GOP 'Morally Repellent' For Latest Jan. 6 Response
The conservative National Review magazine on Saturday savaged its usual ally the Republican National Committee as “morally repellent” and “politically self-destructive” for how it recently addressed last year’s violent attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters.
The magazine slashed the RNC for censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Friday for daring to serve on the House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Particularly startling, in censuring the lawmakers, the RNC described the attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.” Some 140 police officers were injured when the mob stormed the Capitol that day and more than 740 people have been arrested in conjunction with the riot.
“The action of the mob on January 6 was an indefensible disgrace,” the Review flatly declared in its editorial. “It is deserving of both political accountability and criminal prosecution. Aspects of it are also fit subjects for a properly conducted congressional inquiry. It is wrong to minimize or excuse what happened that day.”
The RNC’s massive misstep in labeling the Capitol action “legitimate political discourse” is “political malpractice of the highest order coming from people whose entire job is politics,” the Review noted.
It will be “used against hundreds of elected Republicans who were not consulted” in the drafting of the wording and “do not endorse its sentiment,” the magazine added.
“The RNC bought the entire party a bounty of bad headlines and easy attack ads,” the Review concluded. “It did so for no good purpose, and its action will only encourage those who see riots as legitimate political discourse. A mistake, and worse, a shame.”
The Republican Party doesn't get to have Jan. 6 both ways
Joel Mathis, Contributing Writer
Mon, February 7, 2022
January 6. Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock
Republicans want to have Jan. 6 both ways.
On the one hand, they would have Americans believe the insurrection was just an expression of "legitimate political discourse," the language the Republican National Committee used on Friday to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for participating in the investigation of that day's events. The RNC was echoing the stance held by former President Donald Trump, who had suggested he might someday pardon the rioters, if only he somehow returns to the Oval Office. "If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," he said at a rally last month.
On the other hand, there are a few GOPers who seem eager to cast blame for the insurrection … on Democrats. Axios reports that the Republican "shadow committee" looking at Jan. 6 wants to pin blame for the day on "negligence at the highest levels" for failing to properly secure the Capitol. (Again, this is echoing Trump. "If Nancy Pelosi does her job on security, there is no 'Jan. 6,'" he said last week.) And Politico reports that some of the Trumpiest Republicans — folks like Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — are eager for the party to aim the Jan. 6 committee at Democrats and "deep state" accomplices in the Justice Department, assuming the GOP wins a House majority in this year's midterm elections.
Taken as a whole, the GOP outlook seems to be this: Jan. 6 is no big deal and also Democrats must be punished for allowing it to happen.
This is what actually happened that day, and this is who did it:
It's probably unreasonable to expect a coherent take on the insurrection from a party that takes its cues from perhaps the most incoherent president of modern times. And as I've previously pointed out, the GOP approach to Jan. 6 — aside from simply absolving all the bad actors of responsibility — mostly amounts to an ugly bit of victim-blaming. Everybody is responsible for the violence of the insurrection except the man who incited it, and the people who were incited.
Perhaps throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks is intended to mask the Trumpist GOP's embrace of political violence. But nobody's fooled. We ought to have some more legitimate discourse about that.
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