Trump and the Committee

 

The subject of the house’s January 6^th committee is serious. Whether the committee is also serious is a matter of controversy. Many Democrats say the committee’s hearings are necessary to create an official record of all the wrong and/or criminal things Donald Trump did in trying to remain in power. Many Republicans say they are a partisan effort by Democrats to smear Republicans in a probably futile attempt to make the beating facing them in the coming mid-term elections less severe. Few people have noticed that these are not mutually exclusive opinions. Both can be right.

It is clear that the Democrats and their public relations people in the traditional media have exaggerated some things to the point of silliness. The riot at the capitol was not an armed insurrection. The rioters were not armed. The seemingly goofy Proud Boys were nothing like Ernst Rohm’s sturmabteilung. The rioters violent crimes were fewer and far less serious than the actions of leftist rioters in any of several cities. There was no chance the poor, disturbed, misled guy in the buffalo horns and his buddies were going to overthrow the government.

However all of this is completely irrelevant to the main issue. From at least December 14^th on, Donald Trump was an enemy of the republic. He and some of his associates plotted to cancel the results of a national election and illegally and unconstitutionally remain in power. The evidence is plain and easy to understand. Liz Cheney summarized some of it very well. The fact that he called his supporters to Washington on January 6^th and said what he said to them makes it obvious that he had not given up and was still trying to stay in power. He sent the rioters to the capitol. He ordered Mike Pence to overthrow the government of the United States and place him in power through a coup d’etat.

What he did was criminal. The members of the committee, the US attorney general, and legal authorities in places such as Georgia need to decide if some of it was also illegal. If so he should be indicted and convicted. That would keep him from seeking elected office again. He should have been impeached and convicted for the orders he gave Pence alone. That would have stopped him too, but it did not happen. I don’t think the Republicans will be foolish enough to nominate him for president in 2024. That would turn what is looking like a probable walk over win into a likely loss. But it would not hurt to make it impossible for him to run, just in case. Besides, apart from any pragmatic reasons, justice should be served for a man who turned against the republic as surely as did Jefferson Davis.