There’s little question that our nation remains to be extremely divided after the lethal Capitol rebel on Jan. 6, 2021. However congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump have made it tough for our nation to heal by persevering with to gasoline the “massive lie” that led the rioters to storm the Capitol.
On Tuesday, the disdain for Republican leaders and their silence in condemning the violence was on full show on the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony. Recipients had been the heroic regulation enforcement officers of the U.S. Capitol Police and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Division who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6.
It was a much-needed dramatic and unscripted second throughout a ceremony that’s normally something however.
As some refused to shake fingers with Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy, it was a much-needed dramatic and unscripted second throughout a ceremony that’s normally something however. McConnell and McCarthy shouldn’t be allowed to only go on as if these moments are simply enterprise as traditional. These leaders and some other elected official who has been both vocal about supporting the unfounded claims of a stolen election or stood in the way in which of holding these accountable accountable need to be snubbed.
Amongst those that refused to acknowledge McConnell and McCarthy was the household of fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died of pure causes the day after the assault.
After the ceremony, Sicknick’s mom instructed CNN that they’d refused to shake McConnell and McCarthy’s fingers as a result of she views them as “two-faced” for claiming assist for regulation enforcement but on the similar time singing Trump’s praises and “kissing his ring.”
And certainly, that’s what’s been taking place. Through the ceremony, McConnell touted the bravery of the officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6. “Due to your bravery and professionalism, Congress completed our job that very evening,” he stated. “Since you honored your oaths to assist and defend the Structure, we had been capable of honor ours. That may be a actuality that was made particularly clear 23 months in the past. However it’s true each single day.” And McCarthy stated, “Too many individuals take that with no consideration, however days like right this moment pressure us to understand how a lot we owe the skinny blue line.”
But it surely’s not onerous to see how the emotions are perceived as disingenuous when McCarthy has walked again his preliminary statements calling on Trump to take accountability for what occurred on Jan. 6 and has refused to cooperate along with his colleagues on the Home choose committee investigating what occurred that day. When he was requested by the committee in January to voluntarily present details about his communication with the White Home, he responded by describing the committee’s work as an “abuse of energy that stains this establishment right this moment and can hurt it going ahead.”
Moreover, in a quest to win the speakership, McCarthy has signaled that after the GOP takes management of the Home subsequent month, it would examine the dealings of the Jan. 6 choose committee investigating the assault. He and plenty of of his GOP colleagues have made it abundantly clear that they imagine the investigation was purely a political automobile to assault Trump. Relatively than acknowledge the bipartisan nature of the committee and the clear work it has executed to find out why and the way our democracy got here underneath assault, McCarthy and different Home Republicans would quite play politics.
Whereas McConnell has condemned Trump for his actions, he nonetheless didn’t lend his assist to an investigation. By means of a filibuster in Might 2021, he blocked the creation of an impartial fee to analyze the assault and made clear to his GOP Senate colleagues forward of the vote that he didn’t assist the fee.
Attending to the underside of what occurred on Jan. 6 and ensuring everybody accountable is held accountable has fallen on the shoulders of Home Democrats with the assist and participation of simply two Republicans, Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming — each of whom had been censured by the RNC, won’t be serving within the subsequent Congress and have been outspoken critics of Trump.
Even deciding to acknowledge the courageous officers who fought towards the rioters grew to become a divisive challenge. Regardless of the intense struggling confronted by officers and their acts of heroism that day, there have been 21 Home Republicans who voted towards awarding all the primary responders with Congressional Gold Medals — Congress’ highest honor — throughout a June 2021 ground vote. The explanation? Properly, it included being against calling the assault an “rebel” and the Capitol a “temple.”
Lots of the regulation enforcement officers who risked their lives to defend the Capitol and members of Congress who had been inside had been injured by the violent rioters, and the trauma even brought on some officers to take their very own lives within the days and weeks following the violent assault. The Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Tuesday was a second for these heroes to be acknowledged for his or her service and sacrifice, and it served as an necessary reminder that Republican leaders aren’t going to have the ability to boast that their social gathering has a platform that helps regulation enforcement and the Structure when their actions present the precise reverse.
