Hearing the truth
Jan. 6 commission hearings need to provide a clear-eyed accounting of facts
The events of Jan. 6, 2021, remain a sickening memory for anyone who loves this country. To see the seat of federal power brazenly attacked — the halls of Congress ransacked by a mob bent on disrupting the certification of a fairly contested presidential election — remains a painful and shameful day in this nation’s history.
Now, the House panel investigating what happened — the organizing, planning and execution of the attack — plans to present its findings in a series of prime-time hearings that begin Thursday night. The question is, will the American public tune in?
So much of what happened is known since it happened as the country’s attention was fixed on Washington and the certification of the Electoral College vote that elevated Joe Biden to the presidency. The attack unfolded on television screens, mobile devices and social media platforms — the perpetrators proudly broadcasting their actions to a national audience.
Four people died, including one of a gunshot as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby outside the U.S. House chamber. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured, some severely and permanently. Hundreds of people have been arrested, charged and convicted for their participation in the violence.
And yet, in some corners, misinformation
about the riot persists.
Claims that the attack was actually perpetrated by leftists. Claims that those inside the Capitol behaved like “a normal tourist visit.” Claims that then President Donald Trump was blameless in sparking the violence.
That these theories proliferate in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is the most powerful argument for the House commission to hold these prime-time hearings.
According to the panel’s announcement of these hearings, commission members — which include Congresswoman Elaine Luria, Democrat from Virginia Beach — “will present previously unseen material documenting January 6th, receive witness testimony, preview additional hearings, and provide the American people a summary of its findings about the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”
That’s vital for the historical record. It’s needed for accountability. And one hopes it will help in the difficult work ahead to discourage any future efforts to undermine the conduct of our most important civic exercise — free and fair elections.
The commission proposed the high-profile hearings as a way to present their evidence to the nation, similar to the way the Watergate hearings revealed the corruption and lawlessness of the Nixon White House five decades ago.
But this is a dramatically different nation. Given the fractured media landscape, a sharply polarized electorate and our relatively short attention span as a country, it’s difficult to believe even the most damning evidence will substantially shift public opinion.
But it would be worse to not make that effort, to not even try to set the record straight.
That’s what House Republicans wanted when they rejected opportunities to conduct a bipartisan investigation. Expect them to smear the commission’s work, to dismiss its evidence, attack the two Republicans who agreed to participate, and to minimize the gravity of its findings. Fox plans to broadcast the hearings on Fox Business, leaving Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity free to do their hatchet work for the larger viewership of Fox News Channel.
But what happened on Jan. 6 wasn’t a mirage or an illusion. Lies about the 2020 election drew people to Washington, including people from here in Hampton Roads, where they attacked police, defiled the Capitol and disgraced themselves and the nation.
And those lies proliferate today, in the form of bogus “election integrity” proposals and even a call, rejected in the General Assembly, to spend $70 million in taxpayer funds to conduct a “forensic audit” of Virginia’s 2020 election results.
That’s why it’s essential that the commission provide the unvarnished facts about how Jan. 6 happened and be clear about who was responsible. Its duty is to the truth, not to any political party. The American public should be eager to hear it.