Republicans do not have a right to remain silent

In a voice vote (rather than a roll call, where individuals reveal their yeas and nays), the Republican National Committee censured Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for participating in a House of Representatives investigation, led by Democrats, of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that has — to quote the Republican Party — “persecuted ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

The resolution came in the wake of former President Trump’s declaration that he would consider pardons for people who are convicted for their roles in the attack.

A few Republicans blasted the RNC for the censure and the claim (which RNC chair Ronna McDaniel subsequently tried to sanitize by adding language that was not in the resolution) that the rioters were engaging in “legitimate political discourse.”

“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience who seek the truth in the face of vitriol,” declared Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). “It is a sad day for my party and the country,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), “when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.” 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tweeted, “We cannot deny the truth. To suggest that it was ‘legitimate political discourse’ is wrong. What happened on January 6, 2021 was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the Capitol. We must not legitimize those actions which resulted in loss of life, and we must learn from that horrible event so history does not repeat itself.”

Alas, Romney, Hogan and Murkowski are now routinely dissed and dismissed by Trump loyalists.

This time, however, a few more Republican state and federal government officeholders have spoken out. The “censure resolution by the RNC was wrong,” declared Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) asserted, “The minute you entered the Capitol building, it was no longer discourse, it was a riot.” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) described Jan. 6 “as a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election … That’s what it was.”

While the word “former” preceded the titles of most of the 150 Republican “leaders” who issued a statement condemning the RNC resolution, it’s worth noting that mum’s still the word among the vast majority of active GOP politicians — including just about every Republican running in a primary or the general election in 2022, even though in the immediate aftermath of the attack many of them stated that Jan. 6 “was a sickening day” that “all should denounce;” a “direct attack on everything we hold dear in the country, including the rule of law” and that because “violence or rioting of any kind is unacceptable,” the perpetrators “deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

All Americans should agree that Republicans do not have a right to remain silent on this. Their constituents have a right to know where they stand on the most important issue confronting our democracy: acceptance of a peaceful transition of power following a free and fair election.

Their silence has cleared the field for lies.

Their silence helps explain why 45 percent of Republicans believe the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a political protest, protected by the First Amendment.

Doubletalk is serving the same purpose: When asked “Was January 6 legitimate political discourse?”, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — who maintained in January 2021 “there is nothing patriotic about what is happening on Capitol Hill. This is 3^rd world style anti-American anarchy” — squirmed and changed the subject. After affirming what no one denies — that anyone who committed a crime should be prosecuted — Rubio slammed the Jan. 6 committee “as a partisan scam.”

To atone for asserting in January 2021 that President Trump bore responsibility for the insurrection and to enhance his prospects of becoming Speaker if Republicans win a majority of House seats in 2022, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) traveled to Mar-a-Lago in sackcloth and ashes and then rejected a bi-partisan 9/11 style Jan. 6 commission, even though Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) agreed to his demand for equal representation and subpoena powers for Republicans and Democrats and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the negotiator he appointed, deemed the agreement “solid and fair.” McCarthy then supported the ouster of Cheney from her position as the third-ranking House Republican. Last week, McCarthy refused to respond at all to reporters’ questions about the RNC censure resolution and then trotted out a non-sequitur: “Look, there’s a reason why Adam is quitting. There’s a reason why Liz is no longer in leadership and has very low poll rating in Wyoming … I think those two individuals would have a hard time ever coming back to Congress.”

In a Twitter post, Kinzinger described McCarthy as “a standard weak man.” Kinzinger placed images from a pro-Trump riot in a security check frame and asked viewers to “select all squares with legitimate political discourse.” He then asked: “What do you say, Kevin?”

“It’s my responsibility to speak the truth,” Sen. Murkowski declared last Sunday.

Unfortunately for all of us, so many of her Republican colleagues who know that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and the men and women who broke into the Capitol were not “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” do not share her view.

The ballot box in 2022 and 2024 is the best place to hold these enablers accountable.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”