“Me thinks the Lady doth protest too much” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)
“The American people are tired of Democrats’ nonstop investigations and partisan witch hunts. Your letter of December 22, 2021, unfortunately continues this Democrat obsession…The American people deserve better than the Democrats’ incessant focus on partisan investigations. Rampant inflation is hurting American families, an unmitigated crisis at the southern border threatens American communities, the Biden Administration is weaponizing counterterrorism tools against American parents, and President Biden’s weak leadership endangers American service members overseas.”
– Congressman Jordan’s letter to the January 6th Committee.
Jordan
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio refused to appear before the House Committee on January 6th yesterday. The Committee already has multiple communications that link Jordan to the decision-making process at the White House during the hours of the riots and mob invasion of the Capitol Building. In fact, Jordan was in direct contact with the White House Chief of Staff at the time, and may even have communicated with the President himself. They want to know more.
Instead of coming forward and sharing what he knows with the Committee, he’s choosing to fall back on the standby Republican excuse: “It’s a partisan witch hunt”. That’s a case of, what my Mother would say is “…the pot calling the kettle black”. Jordan was a leading figure in the three year, $7 million Benghazi investigations. And when the majority Republican Judiciary Committee dragged FBI Director James Comey to testify during the early years of the Trump Administration, Jordan led the attack on him and his investigation into the Trump campaign contacts with Russian Intelligence. I guess you could say, he should know a witch hunt when he sees one. He’s done enough hunting himself.
Tactics
There seems to be three different tactics taken by Trump “associates” in response to the January 6th investigations. The first, taken by Trump advisor Peter Navarro and others, is to openly admit to their desire to overthrow the legitimate results of the 2020 vote, and explain how they thought they could “legally” do it. Navarro is unrepentant in explaining the plan, “The Green Bay Sweep”. He was perfectly happy that the mob on January 6th was directed to the Capitol, though he quickly adds that the violence and vandalism disrupted “the Sweep”.
The second tactic is to tacitly acknowledge they may have committed a crime. Author of the “Green Bay Sweep” attorney John Eastman, and others are “Taking the Fifth”, claiming that any testimony they gave might incriminate themselves. That is not legally a “confession” to illegal activity, but it surely opens the possibility that such activity occurred.
And the third tactic is to simply try to bluster through the Committees requests and subpoenas. Steve Bannon, the supposed executor of the entire January 6th operation, completely ignored the Committee’s legal summons, and was indicted for criminal contempt. It’s now up to a Judge and jury to determine his guilt.
Mathematics
Jordan is taking a different tack. He’s simply saying he’s “too powerful” as a United States Congressman to be summoned to a committee hearing. And he’s doing everything he can to create a smokescreen of Trumpian rhetoric to go with it. Thus the laundry list of Republican complaints about the Biden Administration in his refusal letter.
It’s a matter of simple math. Over half who identify as Republican (as if party were gender) believe the 2020 election was “stolen”. And many believe that the violence at the Capitol was justified. In total terms, they may only represent 15% of the total voters, but in real numbers that’s still twenty million people. If America is to avoid a “revolution” after every Presidential election, we as a nation must understand what happened on January 6th, and the months that led up to it.
In our present state of absolute polarization, those “true believers” aren’t just going to change their minds. But all of those other millions of voters who are NOT “true believers” need to know the truth of what happened.
American Exceptionalism
America is at a fork in our national journey. It’s easy to think that we are in some temporary historical phase, like the Civil War or the McCarthy Era. Part of “American Exceptionalism” is a firm belief that America will ultimately “win out”, even after dark periods. After all, we always have.
But “winning out” isn’t just a matter of fate. Ending McCarthyism required people to take real risks, like those taken by attorney Joseph Welch (“…have you no humanity?”) and broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. We cannot just “ride out” Trumpism, and hope that the sheer momentum of the American experiment will guarantee success. It is just as likely that our Democratic institutions are permanently altered to maintain the privileges of the few.
Jim Jordan will never testify before a committee. He will continue to be the man who “… doth protest too much”. But America needs to discover what “…game was afoot”, (more Shakespeare), or we will be doomed to repeat it. And the next time, the plotters might be successful.
