It’s clear that one more task for the Democratic majority will be to investigate the putsch on Wednesday. There were just too many security failures and some serious questions about who was involved and why. Todd Gitlin has some good ideas about how to go about that:
Congress must quickly convene an investigative commission to get answers to questions including the following:
► Which officials in the FBI, Homeland Security, and other agencies were aware of violent preparations in the run-up to the congressional vote yesterday to count and affirm the states’ election results?
► Which white supremacist groups were under surveillance after the FBI and Homeland Security warned of “high lethality”? What precautions were taken against paramilitary preparations?
► When the FBI and DHS learned of these threats, did they relay them to the Capitol Police, who by law are charged with protecting federal property in the District of Columbia? If they did notify law enforcement officials, which ones precisely, and when?
► When the president repeatedly called for demonstrations to overturn the election, which officials of which law enforcement agencies were and were not notified?Get the Opinion newsletter in your inbox.
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► After Trump “angrily vowed” Wednesday, before a large crowd at the White House, never to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, groundlessly asserted that the election results were fraudulent, and said, “We will never give up. We will never concede. You don’t concede when there is theft involved,” what did law enforcement agencies do?
► Who in the Capitol Police decided Wednesday to let demonstrators breach the guarded periphery around the Capitol without conducting weapons searches, as video evidence of such flagrant malpractice shows?
► At least two improvised explosive devices were found in the Capitol by the FBI, while two more were seized at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee. In recent weeks, was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on alert for such developments? If so, what did they do?
► Have there been internal investigations of pro-Trump paramilitary infiltration of law enforcement? If so, what do they report? If not, why not?
► Given ample evidence of malfeasance and rank incompetence throughout law enforcement ranks, in the face of widespread and widely reported instances of violations of federal, state, and local law, has there been connivance between intelligence agencies and law enforcement to permit insurrectionary demonstrators to threaten violence and otherwise violate the law with impunity?
► If the rioters breaking into the Capitol had been supporters of the Movement for Black Lives, how would they have been treated? Have standing orders been issued by law enforcement authorities in case of security breaches of government buildings by Black Lives Matter demonstrators?
A republic whose institutions cannot answer these questions is no republic at all.
The committees are going to have to initiate many investigations. The assault on democracy by Trump and his henchmen must be at the top of the list. This one requires a commission with subpoena power. The lies that were told about the election by Trump, right wing media and his Republican collaborators need to be documented and rebutted in an official proceeding.
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