Op-Ed: Condemn the Capitol Invaders, Not Trump

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says that Democrats want a 9/11-type of congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol building in order to politicize the issue and further attempt to discredit former President 👤Donald Trump as he clearly remains the Republican Party’s most influential voice.

McConnell is absolutely right, but that doesn’t mean the investigation shouldn’t take place.

Some things are more important than political expediency, such as getting to the bottom of how on earth an angry mob was able to infiltrate the seat of government of the most powerful nation on the planet.

On display for the entire world to witness were throngs of protesters, most civilized and law-abiding, legally remaining on the National Mall, questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election as is their constitutional right to do, but also hundreds unlawfully breaking into and entering the Capitol, dressed in all sorts of attention-getting garb from colonial hats to Viking horns, with Confederate and Trump banners in hand, as they invaded the offices of congressional leaders, some even calling for the lynching of Mike Pence, the then-incumbent vice president and an eminent Trump loyalist, because he refused to singlehandedly decertify the electoral votes.

Jan. 6 was not the most devastating day in American history — 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the 1814 British invasion of Washington, D.C., are more fitting to warrant that distinction — but it was arguably the most embarrassing. After all, the attackers on those other infamous occasions were not Americans; this time, we were raided by our own.

In one fell swoop, those who spent the previous five years (dating back to Trump’s famous 2015 escalator ride announcing his presidential run) convincing those who were hoodwinked by media malpractice