Capitol riot probe should expose truth

The United States faces threats aplenty in this tumultuous world, but at the root of so many of them is the worrisome fact that, too often, we no longer share the same reality.

That’s why the first hearing last week of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was so crucial. If we are to move forward, united, we must agree on a common set of facts. And the nation does not enjoy that shared baseline when it comes to Jan. 6.

The committee is tasked with establishing a factual record of exactly what happened on that chaotic day. The record sketching began on Tuesday, with the testimony of four police officers who made clear that the riot was far outside the bounds of normality. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell said that he was more afraid working that day in D.C. than during his entire Army deployment to Iraq. Video footage showed Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone losing consciousness in the brutal fighting. At one point he said to the attackers, "I have kids," trying to appeal to their humanity.

In a close-to-home example of the danger, Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, one of the Democratic members of the committee, talked about being holed up in a room with her colleague, Garden City Democrat Kathleen Rice. They were just short paces from the clash and could hear the struggling and yelling, Murphy said.

This was hardly a "normal tourist visit" by protesters, as one House Republican described some of the less bloody parts of the day.

Far too many Republicans have tried to downplay the violence and significance of Jan. 6. It’s unacceptable, and insulting to these police officers, and it foreshadows a dark future with no accepted understanding of even the outlines of crucial events. While some Republicans were clear about the seriousness of Jan. 6 in the days after, many soon changed their tune, blocking a bill to create an independent investigatory commission this spring, and pulling the bulk of their participation from the Democrat-led select committee after Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two GOP nominees.

The petty politicking is consequential, given the seriousness of the moment. The nation deserves a full reckoning of how this happened and why, including the extent to which the event was organized and in what way, who should be held responsible, and how to prevent its recurrence. The focus here is not on protesters who came to hear a speech and chanted in the direction of police officers. It’s about violent lawbreakers, the lies they believed, and how they endangered institutions that form the core of the American project.