Be careful about lionizing Jan. 6 committee’s witnesses. They failed to stop the insurrection.

Thanks to the work of the House Jan. 6 committee, both former president Donald Trump’s depravity and the courage of police officers who protected the Capitol, Vice President Mike Pence and others will be indelibly recorded in history. We can be thankful that the coup attempt failed.

But before anyone gets overly impressed with the committee’s cooperating witnesses or with Pence (who still won’t testify in person, apparently), consider all the ways Trump’s allies and supporters could have put an end to the coup plot and spared the country the trauma of Jan. 6:

• Former attorney general Bill Barr could have refused to echo the false claims about mail-in ballots’ susceptibility to fraud. He also could have left out the fawning praise of Trump in his resignation letter and issued a clear statement debunking the “big lie” of a stolen election and warning about Trump’s refusal to accept the results.

• Pence could have promptly conceded the race, even if Trump did not. He could have denounced the “big lie.” He could have gone to the FBI or spoken publicly about Trump’s pressure campaign.

• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., — and congressional Republicans en masse — could have recognized Joe Biden as the legitimately elected president and denounced the “big lie” as soon as the Trump campaign’s last appeal was exhausted. They also could have supported Trump’s second impeachment or voted to disqualify him from ever holding office again.

• Given all the machinations in the White House, Trump’s infamous tweet that Jan. 6 would be “wild” and the ongoing schemes, any lawyer in the administration could have picked up the phone and warned law enforcement that a violent mob was being summoned. Really, with all those legal advisers arguing with Trump about the constitutionality of rejecting electoral votes, no one thought to make certain the FBI and law enforcement understood the gravity of the threat? Not even an anonymous tip?

• All Republican state lawmakers and governors could have affirmed the accuracy of their states’ results and denounced attempts to solicit alternate slates, as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp did. They likewise could have refused to entertain phony, partisan audits.

• Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows could have refused to assist Trump in his attempt to remain in power and definitively told everyone there was “no there there” (instead of saying different things to different people, as Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short said he did). If necessary, he should have quit and gone public.

• Even if Meadows didn’t act responsibly, someone on Trump’s immediate White House staff could have quit, refused to promote the “big lie” and warned the country about the scheme from lawyer John Eastman to overthrow the election and solicit new electoral slates under the false pretext of voter fraud.

So before politicians, the media and the public lionize those who have assisted the committee or marveled at how close the country came to disaster, they might consider the cavalcade of Republicans who could have stopped this well in advance of Jan. 6, 2021, and chose not to. It’s possible such efforts could have failed, but if the GOP as a whole had rejected the “big lie” and recognized Biden as the rightful winner, they could have averted the insurrection.

One purpose of the hearings is to assign accountability for the coup attempt that culminated on Jan. 6. That should start with the long list of Republicans who failed to stop it when they had the chance.