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“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put 2 1/2 centuries of constitutional democracy at risk,” House Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said in his opening statement last Thursday. “In this moment, when the dangers to our Constitution and our democracy loom large, nothing could be more important.”
Well, nothing except trying to improve the chance of Democrats maintaining control of Congress, apparently.
At the same time that Thompson and his Democratic colleagues are lecturing the nation on the supposed continuing threat that Jan. 6 6 poses to our democracy, Democrats across the country are helping Republicans who supported Jan. 6 win their Republican primaries.
The cynical thinking is that just as former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was able to beat onetime Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) after helping him defeat more centrist candidates, other vulnerable Democrats may win their general elections this year by setting up runs against Jan. 6-supporting Republicans.
In California’s 21st Congressional District, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D) House Majority PAC is running television ads attacking David Valadao (R) for voting with Democrats to impeach former President Donald Trump. “David Valadao claims he’s a Republican — yet David Valadao voted to impeach President Trump,” the Pelosi-funded ad says.
In Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) ran television ads helping state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), who was literally at the Jan. 6 riot, in his primary. Mastriano is so committed to Jan. 6 that he has pledged not to certify the 2024 election unless a Republican wins.
And in Colorado’s GOP Senate race, a Democratic super PAC is running television ads helping state Rep. Ron Hanks in his race against centrist Joe O’Dea. Hanks was also at the Jan. 6 riot and still believes Trump won, and before Biden was sworn in, Hanks claimed that “foreign intelligence agencies” would soon release information proving that Biden had only won by fraud.
What’s the harm in a little promotion of Republicans spreading the “big lie” as long as it helps Democrats win in November?
Normally, such tactics are hardly noteworthy. Politics isn’t Little League. Both parties are known to help the weaker candidate in an opponent’s primary in the hope of setting up an easier general election.
But these are not normal times, at least according to the Jan. 6 committee. Trump and those Republicans who continue to claim the former president won the 2020 election are putting “constitutional democracy at risk,” according to Thompson.
Democrats can’t have it both ways. Either Jan. 6 is an existential threat to our democracy and we should fight the lie that Trump won in 2020 wherever the claim is made — or Jan. 6 is just another political weapon to be wielded or forgotten depending on short-term political calculations.
By supporting Republicans who spread the myth that Trump won in 2020, Democrats have completely undermined the entirety of the Jan. 6 committee’s credibility. It is, and always has been, pure partisan political theater.
This does not mean Jan. 6 should be forgotten. The Justice Department absolutely should continue investigating and prosecuting those who breached the Capitol. Riots undermine the rule of law, and rioters should be severely punished.
But please spare us the fiction that the only thing standing between the United States and tyranny is the supposedly brave members of the Jan. 6 committee.
