Andrew Prokop: ‘Any Bipartisan January 6 Commission Is Probably Doomed’

 

From Vox:

Days after the chaotic storming of the Capitol on January 6, some Republican members of Congress had an idea.

What the country needed, Reps. John Katko (R-NY), Rodney Davis (R-IL), and others decided, was a bipartisan commission, akin to the one established after 9/11, to sort through the facts and determine just how such a terrible breach of government security happened.

Now, though, the chances for such a commission are imperiled. A bill to establish it passed the House last Wednesday [May 19, 2021] with support from every Democrat and 35 Republicans. But most others in the GOP, including party leaders, have come out strongly against the bill, with the party’s senators planning a filibuster.

Republicans have evidently calculated that such a commission’s findings would likely hurt their party’s electoral prospects. Some even admit this: “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election, I think, is a day lost on being able to draw contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune told reporters last week.

But even if a deal does somehow come together, there are real reasons to doubt whether such a commission would achieve anything substantial.

Read the full article.