Chronic. Even defeated, prosecuted for tax evasion, confined in his Hispano-Moorish mansion in Florida, deprived of Twitter and other social hysterization networks, Donald Trump continues to rot democracy in America. The day of May 28 in Washington bears the mark. It may be a date, a dark day, in the American epic.
At least since the end of World War II, Democrats and Republicans have reacted together to every bad blow to the country. It was a matter of almost existential defense. From the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, to the investigation of the September 11, 2001 attacks, through the so-called Watergate scandal in 1974, there has always been a bipartisan majority to invest Congress of a fact-finding mission. In one way or another, alongside the work of the police and the judiciary, national representation played its part in establishing the truth – with varying degrees of success.
Sign of the “illiberal” gust of wind blowing through the ranks of the Republican Party, this tradition has just suffered a serious hitch. Transformed into grumblers of Trumpism, a majority of elected Republicans in the Senate opposed the formation of a bipartisan parliamentary commission of inquiry into the events of January 6 (see the article by Gilles Paris in The world May 29).
“Sedition enterprise”
On that day, Trump, widely defeated in his reelection attempt on November 3, 2020, harangued his supporters and urged them to march on Capitol Hill. Objective: to stop the certification by Congress of the election of Democrat Joe Biden. Reason: the fraud which would have massively marred the ballot – big big lie dismantled by all the local and federal authorities which had to control the voting operations. We know the turn taken by this “march”: riot, assault, chaos, five deaths. “An enterprise of sedition (…), an insurrection against the rule of law which will remain as an indelible stain in the history of the country ”, says George Will, one of the pundits of conservative thought in the United States.
The FBI has already charged 400 people. There is also an internal congressional investigation into the failings of Capitol Hill security services. But it was a question, with this bipartisan commission project, to clarify the political foundations of January 6, and in particular the role of the ultra-right in its preparation. Many questions remain unanswered, starting with this one: What was Trump doing during the assault?
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