I’ve been defending Sen. Mitch McConnell even since Donald Trump started slamming him upon leaving office.
I had my reasons. I felt that Trump was unfairly targeting McConnell. As far as I was concerned, Trump and McConnell successfully reshaped the judiciary in four short years. With McConnell’s help, Trump filled more vacancies in one term than any president since Jimmy Carter. With McConnell’s help, Trump got three Supreme Court picks confirmed, despite unprecedented attacks from the left, which was determined to thwart each of them. Whether it was nuking the Democrats’ filibuster against Neil Gorsuch, the pressing on with Kavanaugh’s nomination despite the bogus claims of sexual assault, or even proceeding with Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination despite the short window before the 2020 election, McConnell got things done.
Heck, that he managed to save the nation from having Merrick Garland on the court was enough for him to earn my praise. I said last year that McConnell was still okay in my book because of these efforts, especially those that were made against incredible odds and at significant political risk.
But now I find myself unwilling to defend him after what he said on Tuesday, when he suggested that the Jan. 6 capital was an “insurrection.”
“Let me give you my view of what happened Jan. 6,” he told reporters. “We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
It was not. Despite all the efforts of the J6 Committee, they’ve never been able to prove it was an insurrection. As PJM’s Robert Spencer reported at the time, in December, texts released by the committee proved the opposite.
As the Washington Examiner reported on the anniversary of the riot, “more than 225 defendants had been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers; at least 275 defendants have been charged with obstructing a congressional proceeding; and about 40 defendants have been charged with some sort of conspiracy charge,” but none had been charged with seditious insurrection. Conspicuously, days later, the Justice Department did charge 11 defendants with “seditious conspiracy” who were part of the Oath Keepers, a militia group, for having organized an effort “to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power.”
Related: Liz Cheney, Daily Beast Tout ‘Bombshell’ Texts That Actually Prove There Was No Insurrection
So, that’s 11 out of more than 700 people.
Sorry, Mitch, the math just doesn’t add up to insurrection. You’re playing right into the Democrats’ hands.
McConnell calls Jan. 6 a "violent insurrection" and says the RNC shouldn't have censured Cheney and Kinzinger pic.twitter.com/wcE1EQRH9y
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) February 8, 2022
McConnell also criticized the Republican National Committee for censuring Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger by saying that the party should not be “picking and choosing among Republicans who ought to be supported.”
“We support all members of our party,” McConnell insisted, “regardless of their positions on some issues.”
While it’s generally easy to understand this point of view, it’s hard to see how it applies to Cheney and Kinzinger, who are aiding and abetting the Democrats’ sham investigation of the Capitol riot, which has nothing to do with the riot itself, and more to do with helping justify Democrats overhauling elections and preventing Trump from running for president again.
Meanwhile, the committee has proven it doesn’t care about the facts. They’ve lied about Trump’s actions and doctored evidence. Newt Gingrich has accused them of violating the law and suggested that committee members risk potential jail time.
So, why is McConnell defending this? Why is he defending the so-called Republicans whose presence on the committee is being exploited by Democrats to legitimize their lynch mob?
Sorry, Mitch, you’ve lost me.
