Word comes from the New York Times that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy wants to embrace transparency on the question of the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol in the wake of Joe Biden's election. What was supposed to happen that day was the certification of the election. Instead, a whole army of wacks, felons in waiting, Proud Boys and what not, broke into the capitol, caused havoc and tried unsuccessfully to interrupt the Congressional approval of Biden's election.
All this was the violent chunk of former President Donald Trump's outrageous claim that he actually won the election, an assertion embraced by his acolytes and myrmidons but disproved by every actual measure anyone took of the election outcome. Even the courts at many levels rejected Trump's claim across the country.
That being the case, why would the House Speaker release to Sean Hannity, the Fox news radio and television personality, thousands of hours of security camera footage of the event? Evening watching when the right right movies are not available?
I don't think so. I think he is expecting Hannity, one of the biggest election deniers in media, to use the footage to disprove claims that Republicans gave some of the raiders a Congressional tour so they could scout out the territory and prepare for the onslaught. Or maybe he just wants to aruge that the rioters were just simple Congressional tourists.
Sure, tourists with bear spray, clubs, whatever they could grab in pursuit of Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence and anyone else delivering on their Constitutional duty.
I think this tactic is going to backfire, just like all the other scams aimed at denying reality have backfired to date. Showing those tapes on Hannity, or wherever, is just going to draw more attention to a horrible day on which President Trump played a central role.
The Republicans on the Right, the true believers who are going to show up at the Trump rallies and cheer his next bid for election, have already shown themselves to be a delusional army of the spiteful. I don't think they have a chance next time around, and McCarthy's liberation of all those violent tapes will not help them one bit.
(Note to readers: The Rambling Gleaner, which has been on hiatus since Mr. Madigan left his job at The Chicago Tribune in what now seems like a lost era, is coming back in the public interest!)
