It’s also hard to ignore the political theater surrounding the committee’s work. Take several instances from my state of Michigan, which was ground zero for some of Trump’s “stolen election” claims.
On Thursday morning, ahead of the first big hearing, it hardly seems coincidental that the FBI chose that same day to arrest Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Ironically, Kelley’s arrest is likely to raise his profile and boost his standing among the Trump wing of the state GOP.
Similarly, Laura Cox, who was chair of the Michigan Republican Party during the 2020 election, has expressed her frustrations with the House committee and how it publicly announced in February it had issued a subpoena to depose her – even after Cox had months before willingly agreed to participate in questioning. She has argued that the Jan. 6 committee is more focused on intimidation than finding the truth.
Conservative commentators such as The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel have noted that the way the committee chose to conduct its depositions differed from most, with no minority counsel present to push back against questioning. This made for a one-sided process.
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