On Monday, Donald Trump will visit the scene of a crime, place his hand on a Bible and vow to preserve and protect the Constitution as he did swears a formal oath to become the nation's 47th president.
The bloodstains of the January 6 uprising have long since been washed away. The Capitol's broken windows will be repaired and the broken doors will be replaced. One would never know the terrible chaos that reigned at the seat of our national government or how our country and our democracy were sullied that pitch-black day.
And that's exactly what some people would like.
Trump and his supporters have spent years rewriting history and burying the inconvenient truth — the lies about a stolen 2020 election, the violent attempt to overturn the result — under a fetid blanket of deception, misinformation and falsehood.
The cover-up attempt is so extensive that it even extends to the physical premises where House Speaker Mike Johnson single-handedly defeated a bill calling for the installation of a plaque honoring police officers who fought pro-Trump rioters have fought to protect the Capitol building and its residents – including one Mike Johnson.
“Disgraceful” doesn’t even begin to describe the affront to their bravery and sacrifice.
“What they went through was just terrible,” California Rep. Zoe Lofgren said of the men and women who threw their bodies into the breach to protect lawmakers, staffers and reporters covering Congress. “Honestly, they saved us. They saved my life and they saved democracy.”
Trump has said he plans to pardon some of the rioters shortly after he takes his hand off the Bible and takes office. In his “Ignorance is strength” mindset, these lawbreakers are the real victims of the violent attack on our country and its founding principles.
So it's worth remembering how, on that “Day of Love,” as Trump described it, police were attacked by thugs carrying baseball bats, flagpoles, Tasers, pepper spray and iron pipes. More than 140 officers were injured. Several died subsequently.
The “normal tourist visit,” as a Republican House member described the Capitol breach, caused about $3 million in damages led to criminal charges against more than 1,500 people.
Try acting like it at Disneyland.
A Expenditure bill The law, passed and signed in March 2022, called for the creation of the plaque and its placement within a year on the West Front of the Capitol, where some of the worst violence took place. Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who served on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and Trump's efforts to reverse his 2020 defeat, led the House Administration Committee when the bill passed.
After more than two years of inaction, she sent Johnson “a polite letter” pointing out that the deadline had long passed and asking the reason for the delay. “I look forward to any information you can share to this end and to what will be done to address the issue,” Lofgren wrote.
To date she has not received a response from the speaker. “Crickets,” Lofgren said in an interview.
Last week, dozens of lawmakers – all Democrats – co-signed another letter to Johnson, reiterating calls for action and demanding a timeline for its implementation.
“I haven’t even looked at it,” he said lazily to reporters when asked about the plaque. “I’ll have to check that out.”
The speaker, who owes his weak office solely to Trump, appears to be the only obstacle to the monument's legitimate implementation. Both House and Senate Democratic leaders agreed, as did then-Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has since vacated his leadership post and is expected to retire rather than seek re-election to his post next year to seek the Senate seat.
Johnson's motive is as obvious as the Capitol dome against a blue sky: He is kowtowing to Trump so he doesn't damage his eggshell ego or prick the new president's paper-thin skin.
Michael Fanone, a former Metropolitan Police officer who was injured in the January 6 attack, put it bluntly. The heinous events of that day were “so politically inconvenient” that Johnson and his fellow Republicans “are basically willing to put up with the Capitol Police and the other agencies that stood by them,” he told Capitol Hill -Roll Call newspaper.
Why should anyone care? Washington is full of statues, markers, monuments, and plaques that, with a few notable exceptions, are easy to walk past every day without taking a look at.
“Imagine how you would feel if your police officer son died as a result of the attack and the people he protected said it was just a 'peaceful protest,'” Lofgren said. “How would you feel about that? For some of these officers, it's meaningful to have some recognition for the victim, and so it's meaningful for me, too.”
Furthermore, it is important not to sugarcoat history simply because it upsets some people or undermines a party's political agenda.
Deleting is a step toward forgetting. Forgetting is a step toward abolition. Repeal is a step towards repeating a despicable event.
“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who courageously protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021,” the plaque reads beneath a depiction of the U.S. Capitol. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
It shouldn't be.