What could have been

We didn't have an independent J6 commission because Republicans didn't want one

Dec 22, 2022

grayscale photo of the city of new york times newspaper — Photo by little plant on Unsplash

It may have to wait until after Christmas, but I intend to read the House January 6th committee’s final report.

The report hadn’t been released as I was writing this on Thursday, and at a reported 800 pages, it’s expected to be a doorstopper.

Still, if the executive summary released earlier this week is any indication, it will contain a lot of important information about former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.

That said, I can’t help but be disappointed by how this all turned out.

Mostly, I’m disappointed this report isn’t coming from an independent commission.

When I was opinion page editor of the Quad-City Times, I wrote an editorial that urged Iowa lawmakers to support an independent commission, modeled after the panel formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The idea that a sitting president would lead an effort to overturn an election and ignite a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, causing members of Congress to flee in fear of their lives was, and still is today, mind-boggling to me. The events leading up to that terrible day, as well as the day itself, now nearing its second anniversary, deserved a serious, unbiased approach because, like 9/11, it was a day in our history like hardly any other.

Congressional Republicans weren’t about to allow an independent commission, however.

It’s important to remember this fact when you hear them dismiss the House committee’s report as a partisan exercise.

Frankly, I think there is much to commend this committee. Despite the stonewalling by the Trump side, we’ve learned a lot from its work. In addition, we’ve learned a lot about character from the personal and political sacrifices of the committee’s two Republican members, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

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I’d still rather have seen an independent commission, however.

The commission was to have included 10 members, five appointed by each party. The panel would have had subpoena power, but bipartisan buy-in was needed to issue them.

In fact, the structure of the panel itself was a bipartisan compromise. It honored the gravity of the moment.

Most Republicans, however, were having none of it.

Mitch McConnell spoke out against it.

In Iowa, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst said that an independent panel was a political ploy, echoing Trump’s claim that it was a “Democrat trap.”

In a May 2021 conference call with Iowa reporters, the Times reported that Grassley “said he suspects the panel ‘is part of a scheme’ by Democrats ‘to distract from whether or not the Democratic Congress is getting its job done…’”

Ernst, meanwhile, complained there would be staff and pay disparities on the commission. “Here we are five months later. What is the point? It’s turning into a political exercise,” she said, according to a report out of Washington, D.C., recounted by the Bleeding Heartland blog.

Only five Senate Republicans backed the independent commission. In the House, just 35 Republicans did so. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was one of them. Miller-Meeks went on to vote against creation of the current January 6th panel.

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I bring up this history, because it’s important to remember how we got here.

It’s important to remember that regardless of what congressional Republicans say about this report, nearly all of them never wanted an independent look at the events leading up to January 6th and the actions of Donald Trump on that terrible day.

They didn’t want the public focusing on what he did. And what he didn’t do.

One of the most remarkable revelations about that day, ably documented in the summary, is that Donald Trump, even though he was commander in chief, did nothing to respond to the violent attack on our government. He sat on his hands, resisting the pleas of those in the White House to even tell the insurrectionists to leave the capitol.

He even pushed back on the pleas for him to urge them to be peaceful, according to the summary.

As I say, I plan to spend more time with the report. I think other Americans should, too. Despite what some politicians and pundits are telling you, a lot of Americans still care about the threats to democracy in this country. This report is important to understanding those threats.

Yes, I wish I could read the report of an independent commission. But it wasn’t to be. Adam Kinzinger said it well when he dismissed the idea that he and Liz Cheney were courageous in this endeavor. Not so, he said, “it’s just that we’re surrounded by cowards.”

Postscript

A week ago, I was a guest on the Iowa Press program on Iowa PBS, along with three others who are members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. As a longtime admirer of the show, it was great fun to be a guest. The half-hour program is scheduled to air Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m., but you can get an early look on the Iowa PBS web site, which is right here.

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What could have been

We didn't have an independent J6 commission because Republicans didn't want one

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