Why investigating Trump and the 6 January insurrection still matters

The committee’s official business is moving too slowly and is set to clash with key events during the 2022 midterm elections, writes David Taintor

Are Americans missing the bigger picture as revelations drip out? (EPA)

The 6 January committee – the group tasked with investigating who was responsible for the deadly storming of the US Capitol last year – risks missing the forest for the trees with its slow drip of new information and belated public hearings.

Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the committee who also served as an impeachment manager during the second proceedings against Donald Trump, sketched out a loose outline for the committee’s hearings this week. The main takeaway? We’ll be waiting a while longer.

In an interview with MSNBC, Raskin noted how resistance from Trump-aligned figures had slowed progress. The committee has sent a flurry of subpoenas to everyone from Rudy Giuliani to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to Steve Bannon.

Raskin added that the committee hopes to “get to those hearings quickly in the spring, hoping in April, certainly no later than May.” After that, he said, they would publish a report on the infamous insurrection.

That timeline brings us to about a year and a half from the Capitol riot itself – just as the 2022 midterm campaign begins in earnest.

The committee must act faster. House Democrats have trumpeted the existential threat to democracy that Trump and his sycophantic supporters pose, as the Republican National Committee has sought to downplay the violence by calling the 6 January riot “legitimate political discourse”. It’s time for the Capitol riot committee to bring that same urgency to its own proceedings.

The committee has subpoenaed or requested interviews from nearly 80 people, creating a flurry of headlines along the way as the new information comes to light. It has revealed a number of fascinating text messages made by everyone from Fox News figures to the White House as the violence was unfolding.

But the average American watching the story unfold could be forgiven for missing the full picture. That’s why public hearings that present the facts in an easily digestible format remain so important.

The media’s coverage of the committee’s investigation has matched the drip-drip nature of the probe. It can sometimes feel like political pointillism, with readers left to put the pieces together.

One of the challenges of reporting on the committee’s investigation is that the overall thrust of the story is already known. Trump, desperate to cling to power, sought extraordinary measures to deny the will of the American people and overturn the results of the election.

But how, exactly, the efforts unfolded still matters. And as we barrel towards the November midterm elections, the stakes are high. Democrats shouldn’t waste their opportunity to present their case while they still hold the majority in Congress. The clock is ticking.

Yours,

David Taintor

US news editor