In one of the most chilling scenes from the Jan. 6 insurrection, a violent mob surged through the halls of the U.S. Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence.” But when the House moved this week to create an independent commission to investigate the tragedy, the former vice president’s brother voted no.
Pressed to explain his decision, Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana praised his brother as a “hero” and turned his ire on Democrats, calling the commission a “coverup about the failed Biden administration.” He was even more aggressive in a baseless statement labeling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “hanging judge” who “is hellbent on pushing her version of partisan justice complete with a hand-picked jury that will carry out her predetermined political execution of Donald Trump.”
Pence’s swift pivot to attacking Democrats and defending the former president about a riot that threatened his brother’s life is a stark measure of how the horror of Jan. 6 has been reduced from a violent assault on American democracy to a purely political fight.
Rather than uniting behind a bipartisan investigation like the ones that followed the 9/11 terror attacks, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or Pearl Harbor, Republicans are calculating they can regain at least partial control of Congress if they put the issue behind them as quickly as possible without antagonizing Trump or his supporters.
