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Tuesday, hearings in the Capitol on last month’s storming of the Capitol revealed two depressing truths: The breakdown of communication that rendered law enforcement utterly unprepared for the siege was worse than previously known, and Trump apologists engaged in instant revisionism continue to go to great lengths to minimize the severity of what occurred.

As became known shortly after the Jan. 6 assault, an FBI report circulated on the eve of the attack. Based on an analysis of online activity, it said extremists were preparing to commit violence and wage “war.” Turns out, according to then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, this absolutely critical warning did in fact arrive at Capitol Police headquarters. But the intel didn’t make its way to Sund, or to then-House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving.

If there is an armed police force charged with protecting the U.S. legislature, it needs to function professionally. A top-to-bottom overhaul of the Capitol Police is overdue.

As for continued Republican delusion, it was exemplified by Sen. Ron Johnson, a Trump toadie who has repeatedly tried to cast the events of that day not as an intentional, armed insurrection powered by extremists and white supremacists, but as a peaceful protest that got a little out of hand thanks to a few no-goodniks. To push this particular line of fake news, Johnson yesterday read excerpts of a piece that appeared in The Federalist, a right-wing website. It claimed “a small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack,” calling these rabble-rousers “agents-provocateurs” who were not Trump supporters.

Anyone who spends a few minutes watching video taken on the ground that day knows this is unadulterated drivel.

If Republicans and Democrats have any hope of conducting a fruitful bipartisan inquiry into an American abomination that left five people dead, it must start with an agreement that it was indeed an abomination.