While it was a disappointment that the Democrats didn’t take the opportunity to call witnesses in person, it doesn’t mean we will never hear from them. Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast reminds us that there are other processes that can get to that:
[T]o the extent that there is a hunger to get to the bottom of everything that happened on Jan. 6—and I hope that extent is considerable across the nation—there is a far better venue for doing so than an impeachment trial.
[…]
All of which brings us to the superior venue through which the nation can get to the bottom of this. It’s the 9/11-style commission that Pelosi has promoted. That would be a commission of experts, with a large and top-drawer staff and subpoena power, that would get to the bottom of everything. It could and should take months and do hundreds of interviews and subpoena resistant witnesses and tell the whole story.
That, to me, is the right venue for understanding what happened on Jan. 6. You’ll remember if you’re of a certain age that the 9/11 commission was co-chaired by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, who were two elder statesmen of their parties. So today, equivalents might be, oh, Tom Daschle and Trent Lott, something like that. They oversaw a comparatively civil impeachment trial of Bill Clinton in 1999.
That’s where Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) should be made to talk, under oath, about his phone chat with Trump at 2:20-ish p.m. on Jan. 6. That’s where everyone in Trump’s retinue can be subpoenaed to talk about what they knew and when they knew it, and then jailed if they duck their subpoenas and refuse to talk. It’s where even Trump himself can be made to talk (George W. Bush testified, but not under oath; an oath won’t matter with Trump since he will lie with impunity regardless). The Mikes, Lee and Pence, will have to talk to such a commission. We’ll get to the bottom of what Trump knew about Pence’s fate and when he knew it.
And we’ll discover the entire extent of the coordination. How many local Republican elected officials were involved? How many party officials, national and local? How many police officers were in on it? Was Rudy involved, or Flynn, or the Trump kids? These questions must be answered for the sakes of both closure and history. An impeachment trial won’t answer them.
Regular readers know that I’ve been pushing for commissions and investigations in this congress for a long time. I thought that before January 6th. The insurrection just made it even more imperative.
So yes. There should be a commission. There must be a commission and a report. This trial’s outcome was foreordained and it actually was better than I expected with 7 Republicans voting against Trump. But there is more to be discovered about this and the congress — or a blue ribbon commission — will have the ability to do it, taking the time to delve into the case wherever it leads.
And yes, if there’s a prosecutable crime, the DOJ should prosecute. I’ll be very surprised if that happens. Unfortunately.