Dem
47
GOP
53
Actually, the entire quote from George Orwell is: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past" but that is too long for a headline. House Republicans are about to give it a shot. They want to hold hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt to rewrite history to blame it on the Democrats, the FBI, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), or anyone except Donald Trump. It is an incredible attempt to take events that millions of people saw live and rewrite them to make Trump the victim, rather than the perpetrator. Will it succeed? Possibly with some of Trump's supporters. Will it enrage Democrats and get some of them to mark Nov. 3, 2026, on their calendars to make sure they don't forget to vote? Also possible. Of course, both could come to pass.
In service of this goal, the House is going to set up a new Jan. 6 committee to redo the investigation the previous
one did. Only unlike the previous one, which just tried to get at the facts, this one has a clear mission: exonerate
Trump. The panel will be chaired by vigorous Trump supporter Rep. Barry Loudermouth Loudermilk (R-GA). It may
even question some members of the earlier panel. Another member of the new panel, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), has pushed a
crazy theory that FBI agents helped coordinate the rioters. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) seems pleased so far. He told
CNN yesterday that the previous effort "was rigged."
The previous committee concluded that it was Trump's incendiary rhetoric and months of lies about the 2020 election results that caused the riot. That's the part where Loudermilk will try to hit the UNDO button, and put the blame elsewhere.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who served on the original committee and will serve on the new one, wants to know which conspiracy theory Loudermilk has settled on. Was it Antifa? Did the riot not happen at all? How about paid actors? The issue is a raw one on Capitol Hill because the members were the ones under attack. Recasting the story as peaceful tourists who just wanted a tour of the Capitol may not go over with members who actually felt threatened by the mob.
Other members of the committee are some fire-breathing partisans on both sides of the aisle. The Republicans are Loudermilk, Higgins, Morgan Griffith (VA), Troy Nehls (TX), and Harriet Hageman (WY). The Democrats are Eric Swalwell (CA), Jasmine Crockett (TX) and Jared Moskowitz (FL). The chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Raskin, are ex-officio members.
Our first thought is that Johnson is not aware of the Streisand Effect. Bringing the Jan. 6 riots to the fore and reminding everyone what they saw that day can't possibly help the Republicans with anyone except devoted supporters who would walk over broken glass barefoot to get to the polls in 2026. But it will undoubtedly play badly with independents who saw what happened that day, didn't like it one bit, and may have forgotten about it. The new hearings will remind them. With people like Loudermilk, Jordan, and Crockett on the committee, it will certainly have fireworks. (V)