Washington Post
May 29, 2021
Led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), all but a handful of Republican senators joined to scuttle creation of a commission that would have been given the authority and resources to probe more fully what happened and why on that terrible day in January. Absent the use of a filibuster, there were enough votes to let the commission go forward.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on May 19 said that he will oppose legislation to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. (U.S. Senate)
Republicans had their reasons, or so they said, for doing what they did. There were, for example, aspects of the bipartisan agreement that led to the legislation to create the commission that they didn’t like. But the most important reason was their fear that Democrats would use the independent commission’s work against Republican candidates in next year’s elections by keeping alive President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attacks and his misdeeds ahead of it.