Capitol riot committee should not immunize Democrats from hard questions

To inspire greater confidence in its investigation, the House select committee on the Capitol riot should do far more publicly to investigate the security breakdown at the Capitol and Congress’s own responsibility for it.

Soon after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, allies of former President Donald Trump began suggesting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself had rejected the request, made days earlier by Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, for a National Guard deployment on the day of Congress’s electoral vote count. They continue, wrongly, to do so. As multiple fact checks agree, this narrative is false. The House speaker has neither a direct nor a significant, indirect role in managing Capitol security.