What no one is saying about the ‘legitimate political discourse’ of January 6
On February 4, 2022, at a meeting in Salt Lake City, the Republican National Committee (RNC) passed a resolution censuring Representatives Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for taking part in the House investigation of the assault on our nation’s Capitol January 6, 2021. The RNC statement condemned the two representatives and the House select committee for the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
Anticipating the subsequent shit storm, RNC leaders quickly tried to walk that back. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released a statement saying that “Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line. They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
Wait…what? For understandable reasons, the parsing had little effect. Outrage ensued. But of all the anchors, bloggers, pundits, and desk pounders who were streamed, beamed, or printed over the past few days, few have noted what actually is happening regarding the legal prosecution of those warm bodies in and around the Capitol that day. Which represents a quantifiable distinction between prosecution and persecution.
More than 700 individuals have been charged, although it’s difficult to keep up with the count. (Two intrepid souls who try are Marcy Wheeler in her emptywheel blog and NBC’s Ryan Reilly, whose Twitter account tweets them out individually and in their deplorable groups.) Those charges run the gamut from minor to significant. Criticism, when it’s levelled, typically relates to sentences that are too light and not the other way around. The judges involved seem more likely to chastise prosecutors for the lenience of their sentencing recommendations, and often levy punishment exceeding the recommended maximum. But no warm body who joined the masses in or around the Capitol that day but did not enter the building or physically connect with law enforcement officers (or participate in the planning to enter the building) has been charged with anything.
Many of the charges seem to involve people who otherwise might have spent the day participating in legitimate political discourse but decided to enter the building. These charges often relate to trespassing or parading, and a common defense for these people seems to be that they were just following the crowd, caught up in the moment, or didn’t realize they were doing anything wrong. Good luck to those who go to trial and have to explain how they didn’t know they were doing something wrong after climbing through a broken window. Others face more serious charges, whether or not they entered the building, if they’ve been identified in charging documents that include words such as shove, punch, throw, poke, stab, spray, crush, or beat. Discourse is not among them.
In fact, of course, the House select committee is prosecuting no one. And their investigation, which appears to be going deep and wide, proceeds without any Republicans except for Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger only because the Republicans wanted it that way.
And finally, what has seldom been explicitly stated and may become more widely understood over the course of the next few months, is that no one is persecuting — or prosecuting — legitimate political discourse. Those who exercised it on January 6, 2021, have long returned home without repercussions. Perhaps the events of that day will make them a little more reluctant than they would be otherwise to share their exciting Washington adventure or upload photos to their Facebook page. But somehow, I doubt it.
Originally published at http://kcroes.wordpress.com on February 7, 2022.
