The people who stormed the Capitol are facing the music. It’s up to us to make sure that the people who incited them do, too.
“Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? I think in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal, a great mercy.” —Abraham Lincoln
According to CBS News, “federal prosecutors have charged at least 205 people for their alleged roles in the riot and opened over 400 investigations into possible criminals.”
Charges include assault on law enforcement officials, theft of government property, and “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.” If convicted, many rioters will likely face years in prison.
But what of the elected officials whose months of lies agitated and radicalized the crowd, even before it was incited to insurrection?
Former president Donald Trump will face his second impeachment trial this week for “incitement of insurrection.” But without 17 Senate Republicans joining Democrats to vote for a conviction, he will evade meaningful accountability. (Again.)
Finding 17 Republican senators to convict Trump is a Herculean task, not least because many of them joined him in feeding the lie that brought these people to the Capitol in the first place. In that regard, this trial is unique for having members of the jury who are not just not impartial, but are both witnesses and accomplices to the crime.
Remember: Prior to the attack, more than a quarter of Senate Republicans had publicly announced plans to object to certifying the election results. Many of them are now trying to retcon these objections as “just asking questions” and not an attempt to overturn the election itself. But their calls for investigations into voter fraud and irregularities—despite dozens of court losses and then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s assurances that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud—were nothing less than hype-man interjections meant to bolster Trump’s claims that he “won in a landslide” and that the election was being stolen.
Sens. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, and Lindsey Graham were happy to jump in front of every available television camera to discuss the “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud,” no matter how discredited those allegations were.
Graham reportedly even called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who told CBS that “Graham implied for us to audit the envelopes, and then throw out the ballots for counties who had the highest frequency error of signatures”—i.e. throw out all legal votes because a few of their neighbors might have voted illegally, but might not have. Better safe than sorry?
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on November 5, “President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert suggested that “violence in the streets” was the only option remaining to keep Joe Biden from becoming president after a federal judge rejected his lawsuit trying to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election.
Newly elected North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn told a Turning Point USA crowd that they should call their congressman and “lightly threaten” them in the name of “election integrity.” Representative Mo Brooks, also a major promoter of the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen, said in a fiery speech just prior to the attack on the Capitol, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”
A few hours later, the rioters beat Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick to death.