In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell
As the January 6 committee continues its publicized hearings this week, America is getting a clearer picture of how close our democracy came to unraveling on that fateful day. What is so alarming to me is that all three branches of our government were involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the Capitol.
Evidence presented during the hearings revealed a tangled web of planning and deceit. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, urged former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn the election. Her involvement in the insurrection must have influenced her husband’s ruling not to release documents requested by January 6 investigators. Judge Thomas was the only dissenting voice on the high court who approved the former president’s demand to injunct documents requested for the House Select Committee.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to block the formation of the January 6 special committee, yet in a recorded phone call, he supported the resignation of Trump after the insurrection. Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn called for then-president Trump to invoke martial law to overturn the election.
Last year, January 6 organizers revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that they had “dozens of briefings” with Republican members of Congress and their staff before January 6. Named members on Capitol Hill included Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, and Louie Gohmert. Many of us have seen the image of John Hawley (R-MO) raising his fist in solidarity with January 6th rioters, read Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) January 6th tweet: “Today is 1776,” and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s justification of the riot as an attempt to “overthrow tyrants.”
More recently, former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann testified to the January 6 Committee that Trump’s former attorney John Eastman told him (Herschmann) he would accept violence in order to overturn the 2020 election. And, Trump was told more than once by his staffers and lawyers that his plan for VP Mike Pence to “come through” and overturn the election was illegal. But Trump tried anyway.
The January 6 hearings show that all three branches of government were involved in the attempt to overthrow our democracy: The Judicial, executive, and legislative.
The level of involvement and details that continue to emerge are both shocking and mind-boggling. Never before in our history have all levels of government been involved in something so despicable, and so damaging to our nation.
As January 6 rioters continue to be charged with insurrection (including state legislators), will those White House staffers, Supreme Court Judge Thomas, and those senators and representatives who supported (and were perhaps involved) in the riot face similar justice?
There is a precedent for the expulsion of members of the legislative branch for “disloyalty to the union,” as well as the impeachment of a Supreme Court judge and the impeachment of former presidents (Trump twice). However, our nation has never before faced such a widespread attempt to overthrow our government and the democratic process.
It is my hope that the January 6th committee will continue its quest for the truth, and that Americans will embrace the facts.