Heather Cox Richardson

Summarizing U.S. political news these days sometimes feels like following two entirely different threads. On the one hand, there is the story about what’s happening in the White House and among the Democrats in Congress, who are trying to pass laws that are really quite popular—like the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Build Back Better bill—and to shore up the democratic alliances that have been central to our place in the world since World War II.

On the other hand is the story of the January 6 insurrection and the ongoing attempt of the Trump Republicans to undermine our government and seize power.

Yesterday, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol asked Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) to appear before it voluntarily to explain his role in the attempt to install Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Clark as attorney general. The committee was deferential, recognizing the sensitivity of asking a fellow representative to appear before it. The committee also asked Perry to produce documents.

The plan to replace acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen—who took office when Attorney General William Barr resigned on December 23—was an attempt to use the Justice Department to overthrow the election. Clark wanted the department to tell the public the election was fraudulent, thus giving credence to Trump’s lie that the election was stolen.

Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told Perry that “multiple witnesses,” including Rosen and his deputy attorney general, said Perry had played “an important role.” Thompson also said that the committee knows that Perry texted and otherwise communicated with Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about installing Clark, including communications on the encrypted Signal app.

Perry also asked the Justice Department to look into “things going on in Pennsylvania” in support of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results there.

Today, Perry tweeted that he would not cooperate, calling the committee “illegitimate” and an attempt of “the radical Left” to distract from its failures. Trump made a similar argument in his attempt to block the subpoena requiring the National Archives and Records Administration to hand over the White House records for a period around January 6. When the U.S. District Court for D.C. rejected Trump’s request on December 9, it concluded the committee is legitimate: “[T]here would seem to be few, if any, more imperative interests squarely within Congress’s wheelhouse than ensuring the safe and uninterrupted conduct of its constitutionally assigned business.”

The committee says it will use “other tools” to get the information it seeks from the Pennsylvania congress member.

Perry is not the only one trying to avoid testifying. The committee has also subpoenaed Clark, who says he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. John Eastman, a lawyer who wrote a memo outlining how Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the election, has also taken refuge behind the Fifth Amendment, as has political operative Roger Stone. So, too, has conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who participated in the January 6 rally.

Trump ally Stephen Bannon ignored the committee’s subpoena; Congress voted to hold him in contempt of Congress, and a grand jury indicted him. Congress voted to hold Meadows in contempt as well when he declined to testify; his case is now in front of prosecutors.

This morning, former national security advisor Michael Flynn filed a request for a restraining order in Tampa, Florida, against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and a temporary injunction against the committee’s subpoena, claiming it violates his right to free speech. In November, the committee issued a subpoena to Flynn along with other key figures in the attempt to overturn the election. Flynn, it said, attended a meeting in the Oval Office on December 18 that reports at the time said descended into a shouting match as participants discussed seizing voting machines and Flynn advocated that Trump declare martial law.

It appears that the circle closest to Trump is not going to try to deny involvement in the attempt to overturn the election, but rather is challenging Congress’s authority to ask about their actions. This is an extraordinary position to take: they are declaring that they are not bound by our laws (although they are apparently eager to try to use them to reduce their exposure).

At the same time, there is a rush among Trump supporters in Congress to avoid association with the January 6 insurrection. Representatives Perry, Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) all are denying their involvement.

But there is a noticeable uptick in the culture warrior language and violent rhetoric embraced by those associated with the pro-Trump right, suggesting the need to rally their supporters around them. Last night, a political conference organized by the right-wing college campus organization Turning Points USA featured Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who killed two men and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in summer 2020 when he attended a protest against police brutality; in November he was cleared of all charges. “You’re a hero to millions,” Turning Points USA leader Charlie Kirk told him in front of an audience that gave Rittenhouse a standing ovation. Rittenhouse told the crowd he might sue the media for the way it covered his trial.

Fox News Channel personality Jesse Watters used violent language to urge attendees to ambush infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci to silence him. Watters urged them to use a “kill shot,” for example, although he was ostensibly talking about ambushing him with questions.

Representative Boebert said: “I am tired of having Godless people who hate America run this country! You and I are going to take this country back!” Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) told the audience of college students that they should drop out of school. “I think you should home school. I was home schooled all the way through. I am proudly a college dropout. Unless you are becoming a doctor or lawyer or engineer, I highly encourage you to drop out.”

Today Boebert posted a video of lawmakers calling her out for her Islamophobia; the video ended with her winking as a gunshot rings out.

A piece by The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell yesterday reported that Trump “appears deeply unnerved” as the committee’s work brings it closer and closer to him. More than 300 witnesses have talked voluntarily and the committee has more than 30,000 documents to examine. He is complaining about Meadows’s having given the committee documents; he is unhappy that his aides are taking the Fifth rather than simply ignoring the committee’s subpoenas. As his legal challenges falter, he has taken to issuing statements attacking the committee as ‘highly partisan political hacks.”

Meanwhile, the Republican Party is purging those who don’t support Trump. Senators have been more likely to hold the line against the extremism in the House, but five senators from the “governing wing” of the party—Richard C. Shelby (R-AL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Richard Burr (R-NC), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Patrick J. Toomey (R-PA)—have all announced their retirement. Senator John Thune (R-SD), the number 2 Senate Republican, has indicated he is thinking of retiring (at 60). And Republican-dominated state legislatures are preparing a new wave of voting restrictions before the 2022 midterm elections.

Last night we got the story of the Build Back Better bill, which is stalled in the Senate despite its popularity because Republicans, who represent 40.5 million fewer Americans than the 50 Democrats do, refuse to consider it. Tonight we have the story of the attempts of Trump loyalists to overturn a legitimate election and their refusal to answer to Congress, which represents the American people, to explain what they did. And Republican legislatures intend to cement those loyalists into power.

For all that I don’t have the space to follow both these threads every night, they are really two parts of the same story: who should have a say in our democracy?