They Seem To Get It

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) at a hearing about “worldwide threats to the homeland” on September 17, 2020. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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The topline news is that the House select committee on Jan. 6 is targeting the Trump administration in a series of sweeping new records requests as part of its probe. But the more reassuring aspect of this is that they seem to be looking for records beyond the events of Jan. 6 that encompass the entire Big Lie. From our latest piece:

The panel wants records encompassing Trump’s activities, movements, and meetings on Jan. 6, as well as documents and communications from April 1, 2020 until the end of Trump’s term having to do with attempts to contest the 2020 election results and to “delay or impede” the electoral count.

We’ve been banging the drum on this since shortly after Jan 6: It was a broad and ongoing conspiracy to subvert the election. It began months before the election and continued for weeks afterwards. The events of Jan. 6 were but a part of the larger effort to discredit, undermine and ultimately overturn a free and fair election.

Even the shorthand for the House committee (the Jan. 6 committee) seems to unduly narrow its scope. We asked last month: Does The Jan. 6 Committee Have What It Takes To Investigate The Big Lie?

Today’s news is a sign that it just might.

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