Star Member Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (73,212 posts)
THE JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE ISN'T PLAYING GAMES WITH TRUMPWORLD
It was a recurring theme of Donald Trump’s presidency: Congressional Democrats would launch a legitimate investigation into some clear malfeasance, the former president and his allies would refuse to cooperate, and the probe would prove toothless, unable to provide the accountability it was designed to bring about. Now, as Trumpworld stonewalling plays out again, congressional investigators are seeking to ensure their January 6 inquiry doesn’t meet a similar fate. The select committee probing the Capitol Hill insurrection on Thursday announced it was referring Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist, for criminal contempt after he refused to comply with its subpoenas, blasting him for “hiding behind insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke.”
“The Select Committee will not tolerate defiance of our subpoenas, so we must move forward with proceedings to refer Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt,” Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chair, said in a statement Thursday. “The Select Committee will use every tool at its disposal to get the information it seeks, and witnesses who try to stonewall the Select Committee will not succeed.”
The announcement by the select committee makes good on threats its members have been making for days amid a game of chicken with Trumpworld. “We intend to enforce our subpoenas,” Democratic Representative Stephanie Murphy, a member of the select committee probing the pro-Trump riot, said on MSBNC Thursday.
It is crucial for the committee to assert its authority, considering it was already at a disadvantage before it began its work: Mitch McConnell and his Senate Republicans this spring filibustered the 9/11-style commission that Democrats and some in the GOP had hoped to establish, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy politicized the select committee that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created instead. With just two Republicans on the panel—Adam Kinzinger and vice chair Liz Cheney, both of whom have been exiled from the GOP for their votes in favor of impeachment—whatever it uncovers is sure to be refracted through the hyper-partisan lens of Trump era politics. It’s hard to hold insurrectionists accountable when half of Washington and a good chunk of the electorate actively supports said insurrection.
"And here I was, thinking I was the most insignificant and irrelevant thing in the universe" - Mr. DryFartInAHurricaneI think the coterie of guests we have here at the Cave like to imagine that we are all afright when it comes to the Jan 6 Committee (which I admit I didn't know actually existed until a couple of days ago). I am certain that when I ask (rhetorically) WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT JANUARY 6? that our guests detect at least a soupcon of nervousness.
There isn't any, because I do not believe that anyone outside the influence of Slate.com or Daily Kos gives a tinker's damn about any of it. But you want to know what might elevate my interest in a non-event that happened on a single day, during which a bunch of goofballs went HAM at the Capitol?
If there was a Committee on who funded and is funding the various protests that destroyed various American downtowns, statues, and caused harm to peace officers and first responders. But we all know that won't happen. As a consequence, I will follow the lead of the current Speaker of the House and say in response to January 6: "People will do what they do."
Lots of harumphing in the thread, not worth bringing over. Give it up, DUmmies. It will all amount to nothing, just like you.
