Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan has now spoken out against those in his political party who have taken to “whitewashing” what happened at the Capitol on January 6, CBS reports. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who, like other members of Congress, was there as the violence unfolded on January 6, even compared what took place to a “normal tourist visit,” although supposed normal tourist visits don’t, in reality, involve violent assaults against law enforcement personnel and chants calling for the execution of the Vice President of the United States. Similarly, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) has repeatedly attempted to downplay what happened, even falsely claiming that the Senate side of the Capitol was free from violence during the riot.
Now, the House has formed a committee to investigate the riot and the circumstances surrounding it after Senate Republicans blocked a proposal to create an independent, non-Congressional commission to examine the incident. Hogan commented as follows:
‘We have to get to the bottom of exactly what happened [on January 6]. And there’s no whitewashing… We need to get all the facts and find out exactly what happened. But there’s no way to just overlook this and say it didn’t happen. The nonsense about ‘these were just peaceful tourists’ is completely absurd.’
Falsely representing what took place at the Capitol in January helps enable something like it to happen again, since lies allow perpetrators to potentially escape accountability, leaving inciting circumstances in place. The basic truth is that over 530 Trump supporters have been criminally charged by federal authorities for their part in an attack on the U.S. Capitol, and over 100 of these Trump supporters have been specifically charged with assaulting law enforcement personnel. Now, just Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is left to represent the Republican Party on the riot investigation committee that the House formed. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two of his selections, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) withdrew all five of his picks for the committee, but Cheney was picked for the panel by Pelosi.
Hogan also expressed support for Cheney. “I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Liz Cheney,” the governor said. “I think she showed a lot of courage when there were not too many examples of profiles of courage… I will try to help her in every way I possibly can… We need people like Liz Cheney in the Republican Party.” Cheney is running for re-election in 2022 against opposition from the Trump-aligned wing of the GOP.
