Senate Republicans Vote To Block Bill To Form Bipartisan Commission
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s be very straight about the once formidable Republican Party and its members: it is now the ReTrumplican Party. Judge for yourself:
Senate Republicans blocked the House-passed bill creating a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Although most Republicans were unified in their opposition to the bill, worrying that a commission would drag into next year and potentially affect GOP chances of retaking Congress in the 2022 midterms, six voted to advance the bill.
The vote to advance the bill failed by 54 to 35, well short of the 60 votes needed. Republican Senators Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Ben Sasse supported advancing the bill. All but Portman voted to convict former President Trump on the impeachment charge of incitement of insurrection in February. GOP Senator Patrick Toomey was not present for the vote due to a family commitment but said in a statement that he would have supported advancing the bill.
Earlier this week, Mitch McConnell, the same GOP leader who said after the insurrection of Jan. 6: “former President Trump’s actions that preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty. Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” poo-pooed the bill for a bipartisan inquiry into the events of Jan. 6. Instead, McConnell made a cynically political calculation :
McConnell told reporters Tuesday when asked if he would support any changes to the commission, “I think that this is purely political exercise that adds nothing to the subtotal of information. It doesn’t allow anyone to get away with anything. All of these aspects of it are being dealt with it one way or another already.”
The minority leader also accused Democrats of continuing to “litigate the former president into the future.”
It would add nothing to the subtotal of information?? How can he be certain of that?? Clearly, McConnell doesn’t want to see Trump held accountable for his involvement in the events of Jan. 6, nor does he want to see the ReTrumplican Party members further exposed for the corrupt and mendacious lot of loathsome lickspittles they are. But mostly, he doesn’t want to risk a GOP loss in 2022, let alone 2024. And remember, McConnell already said back in February that if Trump were the nominee, he would “absolutely” support him.
mcconnell thinks a divided party can’t win whereas a party that covers for trump and insurrectionists maybe can, so he’s acting accordingly
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) May 28, 2021
Anyway, while I very rarely agree with Chuck Schumer, he is spot-on here:
“Shame on the Republican Party for trying to sweep the horrors of that day under the rug because they’re afraid of Donald Trump,” Schumer said, noting that many Republicans continued to embrace Mr. Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen. “Senate Republicans chose to defend the ‘big lie’ because they believe anything that might upset Donald Trump could hurt them politically.”
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (fd537d) — 5/28/2021 @ 12:20 pmAs I recall one of the Republican arguments against the second impeachment is that it was a rushed job and that there should have been a more thorough and neutral investigation. But maybe I am remembering wrong. It was a long time ago and 1/6 is practically ancient history.
Victor (4959fb) — 5/28/2021 @ 12:38 pmWWG1WGA
Dave (1542be) — 5/28/2021 @ 12:44 pmWe know what happened. This is the democrats benghazi and is being investigated my numerous committees in congress. Also the perpetrators are in jail many with out bail for misdemeanors.
asset (af517b) — 5/28/2021 @ 1:11 pmNancy Pelosi brought in the mother of the late Capitol Police Office Brian Sicknick to lobby for the commission.
But the only question related to him is how did the story of him being killed because he was hit over the head by a fire extinguisher get started, and why did it take so long to make it clear he probably had an unrelated stroke? (not unrelated to Covid, maybe)
I think the bill could have passed the Sebate if the membership of the commission was agreed to in advance as well as who would hire the staff.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/28/2021 @ 1:37 pmEvery separate investigation can add something.
The interesting thing is, if you want to say this was demonstration that got but of control, you might blame Trump; if you want to say that it was a planned “insurrection” then Trump’s speech at the Ellipse had virtually nothing to do with it – although you might want to go into his contacts with the organizers of the rallies.
And when and how and if a planned speech by Trump at the Capitol on Jan. 6 2021 got cancelled.
Of course Trump created an needless crucial vote, based on false claims, but we have high profile votes from time to time anyway, like about whether or not to go to war, so that’s not the key factor.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/28/2021 @ 1:45 pmAdam Kinzinger points out that this is why we need the Commission:
Dana (fd537d) — 5/28/2021 @ 1:47 pmI think most of the people who voted either way on this bill were posturing.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/28/2021 @ 1:52 pm“… bin Laden questioned the need for the commission and said it was clear that it would be used as a political weapon against him …”
Dave (1542be) — 5/28/2021 @ 2:04 pm@7 we certainly don’t want a repeat of years ago when sarah palin shot gabby giffords
the point of all this, as it was then, is to silence conservative republicans
JF (e1156d) — 5/28/2021 @ 2:09 pmWho do you think is a conservative republican?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/28/2021 @ 2:13 pmthis is like how the nazis treated the joos
JF (e1156d) — 5/28/2021 @ 2:13 pmAh, Godwin’s law, you lose.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/28/2021 @ 2:52 pm@asset@4 we do not, in fact, know what happened. Something caused the royal goat roping of a near total security response failure and I, for one, would like to know what it was.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:36 pmSo, put Trump and his posse on trial and let a court figure it out. It’s a better forum for finding truth anyway; ALL Congress can do is politics.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:39 pmMaybe they’ll let Patterico join the prosecution team. While unlikely, it would be a pleasure for almost all concerned.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:40 pmIt was a long time ago and 1/6 is practically ancient history.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:42 pm14. Nic (896fdf) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:36 pm
It’s been attributed to a policy change following the Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, D.C., which were implemented on an impartial basis. How true any of that is, I wouldn’t know.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/28/2021 @ 3:55 pmHow surprising. The traitors were:
1) The RINO sisters.
2) Mittens
3) Sasse and Cassidy – who aren’t up for re-election for quite a while
3) Portman and Toomey who are retiring.
IOW, the same gang that loves Biden and his pork barrel spending.
rcocean (fcc23e) — 5/28/2021 @ 4:01 pmOn deck; water fluoridation.
And Ike was a pinko!
Glorious.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/28/2021 @ 4:15 pmGood. Now let’s start working on getting people back to work and getting rid of the state controlling whether we can go out and live our lives.
NJRob (49e664) — 5/28/2021 @ 4:43 pmMeanwhile, Biden floats a budget with a 35% increase in spending over pre-Covid numbers. The WaPo seems skeptical, calling it happily-ever-after economics.
But what do we care when we can go on some more about Trump, a subject that ought to rank with gun control and abortion among useless argument.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/28/2021 @ 5:37 pmIf Reagan offered “voodoo economics”, Biden offers “fairy-tale economics.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/28/2021 @ 5:39 pmA large chunk of the GOP is denying what happened. Many are still saying it was a false flag designed to “make Trump look bad.” Some are claiming that there was no forced entry because one police officer opened a door somewhere. Many are denying the clear video evidence of assaults on the Capitol police. Most are denying the open calls for executing “traitors.” Trumpers are claiming that Capitol police are lying about what they experienced. And most are denying that their hero did anything at all to incite an attack on the legislature.
And we don’t really know what Donald J. Trump was doing while it all unfolded. Wouldn’t it be important to know that, and what conversations he had with legislators, and why there was such a long delay in sending more security, and what communication some legislators may have had with the attackers?
Why do most Republicans not want us to know all that?
Radegunda (5296a6) — 5/28/2021 @ 6:12 pmIs this the tip-off that JF is actually a parody?
Radegunda (5296a6) — 5/28/2021 @ 6:13 pmNew definition of traitor: People who refuse to put the interests of Donald Trump before the good of the country.
Radegunda (5296a6) — 5/28/2021 @ 6:15 pmI’m torn. On the one hand I begrudge Trump the victory, on the other I begrudge the money the taxpayers pay to these mopes*, both Republican and Democrats, to put on horse and pony shows.
*Mopery, BTW, is the common law crime of exposing oneself to a blind person. (Think about it.)
nk (1d9030) — 5/28/2021 @ 7:20 pm“IOW, the same gang that loves Biden and his pork barrel spending.”
It boggles my mind how shameless some folks are, pretending to care about the debt after 4 years of Trumps budgets.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/28/2021 @ 9:59 pmKevin, for our readers, please identify exactly what “it” is in the above sentence and what Hillary was referring to. Be as specific as possible. Then compare “it” with 1/6.
Thanks!
Victor (4959fb) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:17 amIn Context: Hillary Clinton’s ‘What difference does it make’ comment
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:41 amNew definition of traitor: People who refuse to put the interests of Donald Trump before the good of the country.
Or even before the good of the party.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:23 amplease identify exactly what “it” is in the above sentence
The Obama administration’s feckless, incompetent and dishonest response to the attack on the Benghazi consulate, of course. Both the temporizing that failed to send relief in time, and the lies and political posturing that followed. They even arrested someone and threw him in jail to make their lies good.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:30 am“The Obama administration’s feckless, incompetent and dishonest response to the attack on the Benghazi consulate, of course.”
How many investigations did it take to establish this?
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/29/2021 @ 9:27 am@33. “What difference does it make?”
😉
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/29/2021 @ 9:56 amWhat do you think actually happened in Benghazi? I mean the movie had some cool action scenes, but even that didn’t show what you seem to be implying. Either you didn’t bother to learn, or you did, the latter is worse…marginally. Are you MTG or Ted Cruz, AOC is always an option?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:02 amIn the House two bills passed with bipartisan support: One, a bill to establish a commission to
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:55 aminvestigate the origin of the coronovirus, and the other to allow people to sue the Chinese
government for responsibility for the pandemic spreading.
“What do you think actually happened in Benghazi?”
steveg (ebe7c1) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:02 pmOur Ambassador was killed on the anniversary of 9/11?
I know I’d think twice before taking an Ambassadorship in some potential hotspot with that lot in charge.
Simple self preservation instinct. Politics aside