The House Jan. 6 hearings offered an opportunity to examine Mr. Trump’s activities carefully. But it didn’t happen. Thursday’s opening statements by Chairman Bennie Johnson and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney were more like prosecutors’ closing arguments than introductions to a fact-finding inquiry. Ms. Cheney read aloud a statement by Mr. Trump that was supposed to implicate him in inciting his followers—but she left out that he told his followers: “Go home.”
The committee members included harsh Trump critics like Rep. Adam Schiff. Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Republican members nominated by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and allowed only Mr. Trump’s outspoken Republican opponents—Ms. Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger—to serve on the committee. As a result, chances for a bipartisan outcome were lost and any minority report will be undertaken outside the committee. There will be no consensus on any findings, only further polarization.
The country is desperate for pragmatic problem solving and at least an attempt by leaders to collaborate across partisan and ideological lines. This applies not only to Jan. 6 but to the economy, national security, immigration, homelessness and crime. That isn’t what we are getting.
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