Both Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell oppose creation of a bi-partisan committee to investigate  the Jan 6th attack on the United States. McConnell says that the attack has been sufficiently investigated, but many believe that investigation of Jan 6 has only begun. We must know far more than the names of mob members and what each did in the Capitol. The organization of the mob, the planning of its assault, the timid and tardy response of the Capitol Police and National Guard, and the complicity of federal officials are all only partially known. So why do Republicans oppose creation of an investigative committee?

The behavior of congressional Republicans suggests that they know or suspect complicity in the attack by Republicans in both the executive and legislative branches. They know, or even a are part of the conspiratorial effort at damage control for the Party and its Leader. While the trauma of the attack was fresh, a few Republicans denounced the attack and Trump’s instigation of it. But after recovering from the shock, they have striven to draw attention away from the attack (“Let’s move on …” etc), to rewrite the story of the attack by floating various false narratives (antifas, tourists, Jesuits, etc.), and to minimize the threat that it posed to the our Democracy.

The reputation of the current Republican Party has been severely damaged by the large number of weirdos, liars, hustlers, and other sorts of scoundrels it has placed in national and state legislatures. The Party can never outlive the disgrace of its collaboration with the neo-fascist Trump administration. So if I were a card-carrying Republican, I too would be trying to block an investigation of Jan 6. Our Capitol has not been attacked since the British came in 1814. Domestic attempts at sedition and secession never went this far. No one has ever attempted to control a national election by force or the threat of force. How did this attempted banana-republic coup come about? America urgently needs to know, in detail, who was responsible for what. Those who attempt to obstruct this necessary investigation are only increasing the awful burden of shame they already bear.