Democrats continue to irritate their Republican colleagues who supported Trump’s efforts to discredit the election and blame them for contributing to the atmosphere that inspired the crowd. Republicans avoided this debate, but as Democrats began to devise tactics to marginalize the 138 House Republicans who voted to reject some of the 2020 results, some are beginning to be more openly irritated. And at Thursday’s hearing, the dam burst.
Representative Mike Johnson (R-La.) Accused Democrats of an “outrageous abuse of power”, of “unleashing a political war” and trying to “criminalize” Republican dissent. He compared the relations between the parties in the Chamber to a “Cold War” that would lead to “mutually assured destruction”.
When his turn came, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) Scoffed at the “waterfall of counterfeit outrage and outrage”, noting that no lawmaker was really punished for his words or votes, but that certainly sparked a violent uprising was different from make questionable comments.
Raskin went on to characterize the modern Republican Party as a distorted “religious cult” in the service of Trump, whom he called “snowflake” for trying to “cancel” the 2020 election, while his Republican Party allies shouted “cancel the culture “.
“You invented the culture of cancellation,” he said. “This culture of cancellation on the right has run amok.”
Johnson responded by asking Raskin to withdraw his attacks on Trump, particularly the snowflake turn.
“The cursing of the ex-president … obviously violates the rules,” said Johnson.
The exchanges were emblematic of the entire audience, where the testimony of four witnesses was largely an afterthought. Witnesses widely agreed that the House has the power to punish and even expel its own members under the terms of the Constitution, but that the process should only be implemented in extremely rare and clear cases when a super majority – and not just a political faction – considers it is necessary.
Republicans, however, saw the audience itself as part of an increasingly clear effort by Democrats to start looking for ways to punish those they hold responsible for the January 6 uprising. That effort, they said, began a few days ago when Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Posted a 2,000-page dossier of tweets from Republican lawmakers that questioned the integrity of the 2020 election. Johnson accused Lofgren, who is part of the Judiciary Committee, but not from the subcommittee that met on Thursday, for “outrageous abuse of power” and said that this may have violated House rules, as it commissioned its staff to make the effort.
“This is a Rubicon that is being crossed here,” he said.
He and other Republicans on the panel also argued that Democrats appeared to be intent on punishing Republicans who voted to challenge results in certain states, although many of them, including Raskin, did the same in 2017.
Democrats vehemently rejected this argument.
“No reasonable person can, in good faith, compare what happened on January 6, 2017 with what happened on January 6, 2021, when the president of the United States of America, assisted and complicit in congressmen, incited an insurrection that resulted in an armed attack on the United States Congress that resulted in the death of 6 people, ”said Dep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). “On January 6, 2021, many of us here today personally experience how fragile our democracy is. However, here we are sitting today, some of us acting as if what happened on January 6, 2021 never happened. “
Hank Johnson then read a definition of “seditious conspiracy”, a federal crime, and asked if a member of Congress who was found out for committing the crime should be expelled from the House.
One of the most tense exchanges took place when Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hit the panel chairman, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), For accusing Congressman Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) During an interview with CNN to be in league with the Capitol hooligans and potentially helping some of them explore the tunnels. Cohen intervened to say that he never said he was sure he had seen Boebert with some of the alleged rebels, but he saw her in a tunnel with a group of people in the days leading up to January 6. Boebert vehemently denied having led any potential protesters through the Capitol complex.
Jordan refused to accept Cohen’s explanation.
“You know what you did, Mr. President,” he said.
Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), A progressive freshman lawmaker who drew some of the Republicans’ most violent attacks, accused some of her colleagues of fomenting death threats against her.
“I realized very early on that not all members are united to do the work of the people at home,” she said. “Many are here to distract, depreciate and disturb.”
As the hearing drew to a close, Cohen returned to Mike Johnson’s complaint that Raskin had violated the rules by attacking Trump. He noted that while Trump was president, this rule could still be applied.
“When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet to the end,” he said, citing jargon “West Side Story”. But now that he’s stepped down, Cohen added, Trump is a fair target for Raskin’s harshest comments.
This theatrical side, ironically, attracted one of the only signs of good humor among the parties in the audience.
“I don’t want to mess up the audience,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach, a freshman Republican from Minnesota, “but I just want to say how much I appreciated your ‘West Side Story’ reference.”
The comment drew a laugh from Cohen, who then ended the hearing by using a mini Louisville Slugger baseball bat as a hammer.