GOP Must Promise Inquisitions, Not Meaningless Task Forces
Using the pretext of the so-called insurrection on January 6, 2021, the long knives are out for Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Post-election text exchanges between Mrs. Thomas and Mark Meadows, President Trump’s chief-of-staff, recently were leaked by the January 6 select committee to none other than the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who darkly described the communications as proof that “Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election result.”
The small cache of texts—29 total—shows Thomas expressing frustration at the election’s outcome. There is nothing sinister, and certainly nothing criminal, about the messages.
But like everything related to the events of January 6, the truth doesn’t matter. Doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election is considered a thoughtcrime and handled as such by Joe Biden’s Justice Department and Congress; CNN reported Monday afternoon that the January 6 select committee led by U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) now wants to interview Thomas. If she refuses—as she should—it’s highly likely the committee will issue a subpoena to compel her testimony, which it has done in numerous cases.
The poisonous tree of Thompson’s committee is yielding a bumper crop of political fruit for House Democrats and their useful idiots in the Republican Party such as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). With little else to run on and a White House in freefall, Democrats think they can sustain enough outrage over January 6 to stem major electoral losses in November.
Staffed with former federal prosecutors and a limitless budget, the select committee is unleashing a scorched-earth rampage against Trump and his allies; no one, including the wife of the longest-serving Supreme Court justice, is off-limits. For the first time in history, a sitting president repeatedly denied his predecessor executive privilege protections, allowing the committee to obtain an unprecedented tranche of presidential records years before what is typically allowed under the law.
Federal courts provide no oversight; to the contrary, judges sanction the illicit witch hunt with their legal imprimatur.
In an unhinged ruling handed down Monday, Judge David O. Carter demanded that John Eastman, one of Trump’s election attorneys, immediately hand over more than 100 emails to the committee.
Carter, a Clinton appointee serving on a California district court, suggested Trump may have committed a crime—obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony that the Justice Department has slapped against more than 240 January 6 defendants—in his attempts to uncover election fraud. “Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history,” Carter wrote. “Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.” (No police officers died on January 6 or of anything related to that day.)
Given its unfettered mandate, the committee undoubtedly will accelerate its crusade in advance of the midterm elections.
So, how are Republicans planning to retaliate? Poised to take control of Congress in early 2023, GOP leaders are threatening to unload the most feared weapon on Capitol Hill, one the mere mention of which sends shivers down the spines of every credentialed congressional staffer and strikes panic in the heart of every vulnerable incumbent: the dreaded task force.
Excavating some of the party’s best talking points from the 1980s, Republicans will “rein in spending and look to improve American energy independence,” GOP Conference Chairman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) vowed last week in an equally alarming “fact sheet.” Other areas of intense task force focus will include “Big Tech censorship and data; future of American freedoms; energy, climate and conservation; American security; healthy future; and competition with China,” Roll Call reported.
Now, in a normal political climate—say any time before the year 2016—perhaps sincere promises to wield the mighty “task force” would energize the Republican base. Campaign pledges to tackle any number of real crises caused by an inept president of the opposite party might be accepted as a forward-thinking approach.
But that’s not where we are, and we may never be there again if Republicans don’t find some spine.
The Biden regime is using every lever of power to systematically destroy their political opponents including citizens merely exercising their constitutional rights on January 6. Nearly 800 Americans and counting have been arrested for their involvement in the Capitol protest that day; although most face petty charges, their lives are nonetheless destroyed—homes raided by armed FBI agents, families split apart and bankrupted as defendants are alienated by their communities, fired by their employers, and harassed by local and national news reporters. At least two men have committed suicide in the face of unrelenting torment by Biden’s Justice Department and judges on the D.C. District Court, who continue to refuse to hold the government responsible for repeated delays.
The January 6 committee voted Monday night to send criminal referrals to the House for Peter Navarro and Daniel Scavino, two Trump associates, for contempt of Congress. The hope is that Attorney General Merrick Garland will comply. All of this is to justify the committee asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to charge Trump with obstruction or conspiracy—or both—before November.
Talking about policy goals, no matter how important and pressing the issue, is a waste of time for Republicans right now. And it’s not what the base, fed up with empty promises and an infuriating double standard of justice, wants to hear. From now until Election Day, Republicans should do nothing but campaign on a long list of inquisitions that will begin the moment they take power. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) already promised to investigate at least seven scandals such as the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, the southern border, and the origins of COVID.
But that’s not enough. Public hearings on FBI corruption—from FISAgate to the alleged plot to “kidnap” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the department’s role in the events of January 6—should be at the top of the list.
The FBI has burned the trust of the American people; Republicans need to assume responsibility for overhauling or dismantling the agency that now acts as the enforcement arm of the Democratic Party. Witnesses should include not just current and former officials but the journalists who do their dirty work—and the victims left in their wake.
Ditto for the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. Who is responsible for so much bad advice during the pandemic? Who profited? Who suffered? And who will pay for their destructive, essentially unscientific approach to public health?
Republican lawmakers don’t want to touch the Hunter Biden scandal, but they have no choice. The collaborative effort to quash any coverage of Biden’s laptop in the fall of 2020 amounted to election interference; there are plenty of accomplices, including former intelligence officials and social media platforms. A full-scale investigation, complete with public, sworn testimony by Hunter Biden himself, is vital.
And speaking of the 2020 election, the airing of election fraud evidence in key states that was scheduled to happen during the joint session on January 6, 2021—an intentionally overlooked detail from that day—must resume. The overwhelming majority of Republicans still believe the election was stolen, and election integrity is a top issue for Republican voters. Fear of being labeled an “insurrectionist” has cowed many congressional Republicans; time to get over it.
Going after Ginni Thomas is a new low for House Democrats—they are attempting not just to destroy her but also the Right’s most dependable figure on the Supreme Court. The January 6 committee has crossed a massive line in the sand with its attack on the Thomases; Republicans need to respond and act accordingly. Policy task forces won’t cut it.
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