Senate Republicans acknowledged that politics was the reason they voted to kill a bipartisan commission to probe the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The question is whether it was smart politics.
Displaying unusual candor, several top Republicans said a commission could hurt them in the 2022 election. Republican senators fear it would “become a political weapon in the hands of the Democrats,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the minority whip.
That suggests concern over what such a panel would uncover about President Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection: why he delayed urging demonstrators to desist and what he did to instigate a protest on the day Congress counted the electoral votes that sealed his defeat.
But the lack of a bipartisan commission won’t keep Trump’s actions out of the 2022 campaign, and it will encourage his efforts to dominate the GOP between now and the 2024 election. Indeed, the longer the former president is able to spout lies about his 2020 defeat and its aftermath, the more of a problem he will remain for the GOP.
Already, he has persuaded a majority of Republicans – 56% in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll – that illegal voting or election rigging decided the 2020 election. But support for that is narrowly partisan; only 25% overall share his view.