Analysis: Jan. 6 show trial sought to banish Trump, silence his supporters, deter future dissent

Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, July 8, 2022

It is known officially as the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As (a scant few) Americans and every leftist media pundit in the country watched the one-sided show with bated breath, it was obvious to observers who think rationally that what was happening was, as The American Spectator’s Jeffrey Lord put it, “a corrupt congressional committee running a Stalin-esque show trial unrecognizable in a constitutional republic.”

The Select Committee on Jan. 6

The Washington Times editorial board, noting that the committee had degenerated into a “racket,” summed up what the so-called “investigation” is all about:

“Wednesday’s (June 29) hearing made clear the committee has been about three things all along. First, it wanted to disqualify Mr.Trump from running for public office again.

“More disturbingly, it wanted to marginalize those voters who supported and support Mr. Trump and make sure that they are disqualified from participating in the political life of the Republican Party specifically, and the United States more generally. The presence on the committee of legacy Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger makes it clear that part of the mob that has organized against Mr. Trump’s supporters includes the sad and decayed remnants of your father’s Republican Party.

“Third, the committee is designed to send an unequivocal message to any future aspirants to public life that transgression of policy norms — not behavioral norms — will be met with the harshest possible measures. If it were about behavioral norms, phenomena like Black Lives Matter riots, attempted assassinations of Supreme Court justices, and firebombing churches and pregnancy centers would be under the microscope.”

Following the highly questionable testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump-hating media rushed out headlines like these:

Newsweek: Trump’s Odds of Being Prosecuted ‘Significantly’ Higher Now: Ex-Prosecutor

Deseret News: The question floating over the Jan. 6 hearings: Should Donald Trump be prosecuted?

Foreign Policy: Should Trump Be Prosecuted?

“All of this begs the question, of course. Prosecuted for what? Telling his supporters to ‘peacefully and patriotically’ march to the Capitol to protest? That not only is a constitutional right, but it has also been done over and over and over again in the course of American history,” Lord noted in a July 4 op-ed for The American Spectator.

In January of 2017, more than 50 House Democrats targeted the inauguration of President Donald Trump by boycotting it and attacking Trump as an “illegitimate president.”

And what happened next? This, as headlined by CNN: Police injured, more than 200 arrested at Trump inauguration protests in DC

The CNN story noted: Six police officers were injured and 217 protesters arrested Friday after a morning of peaceful protests and coordinated disruptions of Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony gave way to ugly street clashes in downtown Washington. At least two D.C. police officers and one other person were taken to the hospital after run-ins with protesters, D.C. Fire Spokesman Vito Maggiolo told CNN. Acting D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the officers’ injuries were considered minor and not life threatening. Bursts of chaos erupted on 12th and K streets as black-clad “antifascist” protesters smashed storefronts and bus stops, hammered out the windows of a limousine and eventually launched rocks at a phalanx of police lined up in an eastbound crosswalk. Officers responded by launching smoke and flash-bang devices, which could be heard from blocks away, into the street to disperse the crowds.

Lord noted: “And which of those over-50 House Democrats who urged on these violent protests against a so-called “illegitimate president” were arrested and prosecuted? Zero. Exactly zero.”

What about the coming of age saga of some of the “Boomer” generation? As the Washington Post reported in 1967 about an anti-Vietnam War march on the Pentagon:

“We will dye the Potomac red, burn the cherry trees, panhandle embassies, attack with water pistols, marbles, bubble gum wrappers, bazookas, girls will run naked and piss on the Pentagon walls, sorcerers, swamis, witches, voodoo, warlocks, medicine men and speed freaks will hurl their magic at the faded brown walls,” promised Abbie Hoffman, one of the organizers and a co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies). “We shall raise the flag of nothingness over the Pentagon and a mighty cheer of liberation will echo through the land.”

As many as 100,000 people, mostly young, mostly white, flooded the capital for the demonstration, anticipating an injection of counterculture flair into the antiwar movement. An estimated 35,000 to 50,000 demonstrators descended on the Pentagon. And by dawn the next day, nearly 700 had been arrested for various acts of civil disobedience, including trying to get inside the building.

“And, for this, were the anti-war politicians of the day threatened with prosecution for encouraging the protests,?” Lord asked. “Politicians with names like Democratic Sens. Eugene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy and George McGovern? Of course not.”

Then there is Wyoming “Republican” Rep. Liz Cheney. In a conversation with ABC’s Jonathan Karl on why she should win her primary election fight — a fight which the polls say she is losing badly — Cheney said:

“Well, I think it’s important because I will be the best representative that the people of Wyoming can have. The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump. And I think that that matters to us as Americans more than anything else and that’s why my work on the Committee is so important and why it’s so important to not just brush this past, I think it’s very important that people know the truth and that there are consequences.”

Cheney “should be defeated,” Lord noted, “and never allowed by any electorate to be anywhere near any public office again.”

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway characterized Cheney’s remarks as follows:

Action . . . . Intelligence . . . . Publish

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