MEMPHIS, Tenn. — All indications are that Republicans are poised to regain control of Congress in the upcoming midterm election. So why would the GOP waste time on a ridiculous censure vote against two of its members – for sitting on a House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6th insurrection at the Capitol?
And yes, it was an insurrection. It played out live on national TV as thousands of supporters of Donald Trump, urged on by the now former president, stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote that correctly gave the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden.
But the Republican National Committee last weekend unanimously censured GOP House members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in what the RNC calls a persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse. Only a handful of Republicans in Congress have condemned the RNC – virtually all of them in the Senate. They include minority leader Mitch McConnell, who did not mince words. He called the attack a violent insurrection meant to overturn a legitimate election.
So far, I have not heard a response one way or the other from Tennessee’s Republican congressional delegation. And we probably won’t – since all of them remain beholden to Trump. But we all saw what happened, and no amount of election year gaslighting by the Republican Party will stop the House committee from getting to the truth.