The Senate Is Hopelessly Compromised.

Yet we expect them to vote on whether to create a 9/11 style truth commission around the January 6 insurrection.

Photos by Julio Cortez/AP; Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/AP; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

Something extraordinary will take place soon in the U.S. Senate. The body is being asked as early as next week to consider a bill to create an independent, bipartisan Commission to study and issue findings on the insurrection of January 6th. While this seems like a straightforward ask—and the majority of Americans including a plurality of Republicans favor an independent commission over a continuation of the internal investigations, according to a recent Monmouth Poll—the bill faces an uphill battle to overcome a GOP filibuster in the Senate. The reason for this is simple: The Senate is hopelessly compromised around January 6, and for two big reasons.

First, many of the Senators are themselves key witnesses. Any Commission set up to conduct inquiries and interview people or subpoena testimony would soon discover that critical information about the events of that day passed among the ex-president, the former vice-president, and members of Congress, including many senators. This includes Mitch McConnell, who spoke repeatedly to Mike Pence throughout the day as he orchestrated the administration’s response from a secure location within the Capitol. It also includes dozens of lawmakers who attempted to reach the White House to get Trump to issue a public statement. For example, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke with Ivanka Trump, a then-senior White House adviser, who purportedly said she was doing everything she could. Graham also spoke with Trump within 48 hours of the attack as well as the night of January 5, according to reports.

The witness list further includes Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), whom Trump accidentally called while trying to reach Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). Trump spoke to Tuberville briefly as they were evacuating Mike Pence, but there is also evidence that Tuberville may have attended an organizing meeting the day before the riot and insurrection, an allegation Tuberville denies. The Commission would want to get the real story here.

Then there is Senator Ted Cruz, who was a key amplifier of the Big Lie over the stolen election and rose to object to the electoral count, a move his fellow GOP Senator Mitt Romney said made him complicit in the attack. The Commission would likely look into any premeditated coordination by government officials as well as the effects of the Big Lie on protestors and who its main amplifiers were, even within Congress.

Second, besides being witnesses, GOP senators potentially have much to lose from an investigation and any findings of the Commission, and they are therefore already biased as a bloc against its creation. The GOP Senate leadership isn’t even trying to hide its concerns about the electoral implications of the Commission. “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election, I think, is a day lost on being able to draw contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda,” said Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the minority whip. 

Other GOP senators have already come out as a clean-up crew, intending to sanitize and rewrite what actually happened. As the New York Times reported, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said on Fox News, “The fact of the matter is even calling it insurrection, it wasn’t.” He continued, “By and large, it was peaceful protests, except for there were a number of people, basically agitators, that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol.” The Commission’s findings, however, would likely directly contradict this rather absurd statement, and it would become political fodder for his opponent should Johnson choose to run again in 2022 in Wisconsin.

Then there is the ex-president, whose views on the matter were decidedly and very publicly negative, and whose public statements likely caused the abrupt about-face on the Commission by GOP Congressional Leadership. Calling the bipartisan proposal a “Democratic trap,” Trump once again forced members of his party to bend to his will or become targets of his ire. On Thursday, Trump released another statement condemning the “35 wayward Republicans” in the House who voted for the Commission. “Democrats stick together, the Republicans don’t. They don't have the Romney's [sic], Little Ben Sasse's [sic], and Cheney's [sic] of the world. Unfortunately, we do,” he said, referring to Republicans who have been critical of him, while mischaracterizing badly the true state of Democratic unity. “Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak,” he continued. “The voters understand!” This was akin to a mob boss making his displeasure public and clear—and then expecting any witnesses no longer to wish to cooperate.

In sum, the Senate is hopelessly compromised on the very question it must resolve. Asking potential witnesses to vote on whether a Commission should be created, especially one that likely will interview or subpoena them, introduces a profound and irreconcilable conflict of interest. And seeking the approval of those with a reputational and political stake in the outcome of the Commission’s findings is like asking the Saudi Royal Family whether there should have been a 9/11 Commission.

Were the Senate a corporate board of directors, a panel of judges, or even a city commission, there would be ethical rules guiding the process, and the witnesses or stakeholders would be asked and expected to recuse themselves. That won’t be happening here. So if the Senate as expected upholds the filibuster by 40 votes or more, we should all remember who got to have a say in that outcome when they really shouldn’t have.