Staff Reports
The latest investigation led by Chairman Barry Loudermilk exposes what many already suspected: the January 6 Select Committee’s primary focus was not on securing the Capitol but on vilifying former President Donald Trump. The House GOP subcommittee’s interim report reveals that this politically-driven panel was too busy weaving a narrative to observe the glaring security failures that allowed the Capitol riot to unfold.
The Select Committee’s negligence in addressing these security shortcomings is notable. According to Loudermilk’s findings, despite having been formed to enhance Capitol security, the committee squandered its resources on a one-track campaign to attribute personal blame to Trump instead of rectifying the actual vulnerabilities of the Capitol. Astonishingly, the report claims the Capitol remains just as exposed to another incursion as it was when the Select Committee first convened.
Jan. 6 Select Committee's political probe diverted resources from real security failures https://t.co/Irg7xFejA0
— Just the News (@JustTheNews) December 18, 2024
Numerous security lapses have emerged since January 6, 2021. Key leadership within the Capitol ignored prior warnings of potential violence and essentially thumbed their noses at directives from the Pentagon to send in reinforcements when trouble was brewing. Meanwhile, an unidentified person was caught on camera planting explosives that put everyone in the vicinity at risk, including members of Congress. Yet, instead of focusing on these critical issues, the committee paraded figures like Cassidy Hutchinson before the cameras, eager to construct their narrative of Trump’s so-called culpability.
Hutchinson gained fame as a key witness whose modified testimony became the bedrock of the committee’s claims against Trump. However, her shifting narrative raises eyebrows. Changes she made to her original testimony seemed too convenient, especially after changing her legal representation at the behest of the committee’s own Liz Cheney. This murky dance behind the scenes has been described as witness tampering, and it certainly casts a shadow over the committee’s integrity.
The subcommittee’s report points out that serious evidence surrounding the security failures has been mishandled or outright withheld from public scrutiny by the Select Committee. With over a terabyte of data mysteriously deleted after the Republicans regained control of Congress in 2022, questions about the independence and intentions of the committee abound. It is ironic that as the committee sought to make Trump the scapegoat, evidence was left on the cutting room floor—evidence that could have actually pointed to accountability where it truly belongs.
The report also emphasizes that crucial lapses lay at the feet of the Pentagon and the Secret Service, who failed to respond appropriately to the chaos. From the refusal of senior military officials to act on Trump’s order regarding the National Guard to the dangerously lax security for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, these failures cannot simply be brushed aside in favor of politically motivated finger-pointing. The Loudermilk-led inquiry demonstrates that the lowlights of January 6 were, against all odds, a tragic blend of poor leadership decisions and a rich vein of missed opportunities to enhance security—not an unprovoked attack on democracy as the already tarnished narrative would imply.
