Headline Roundup • December 20th, 2022
What Did the January 6 Committee Accomplish?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The January 6 committee's hearings culminated Monday in a symbolic criminal referral of former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. What will be the committee's legacy?
What the Right Said: Right-rated voices often framed the criminal referrals as irrelevant and proof of the panel's partisan bias. National Review's (Right bias) Andrew C. McCarthy wrote that the referrals would only act as "Exhibit A in Trump’s defense that any indictment is sheer partisan politics." Trump wrote on his Truth Social profile that "people who love freedom rally around me" when Democrats "come after me." Fox News (Right bias) highlighted "legal experts" who said the referrals "will likely be ignored by the DOJ, and they could possibly have a counterproductive effect should the DOJ decide to bring charges."
What the Left Said: Left-rated voices often praised the committee as courageous and essential in the wake of Jan. 6. The Washington Post's Editorial Board said the panel "secured its legacy" by "providing a searing picture of what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, and exhibiting the cowardice of those who, out of fear of Mr. Trump, refused to help it reckon with that dark day." One CNN (Left bias) opinion writer called the referrals "devastating" for Trump. One Boston Globe (Left bias) columnist called on the DOJ to indict Trump, or else "this nation’s unhealed wounds, steeped in history’s sorrows, will continue to fester and weep."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack approached the end of its work Monday with a dramatic recommendation that the Justice Department charge former president Donald Trump with four crimes, including inciting or assisting an insurrection. This criminal referral is symbolic; the Justice Department is responsible for making a tough call on whether such charges would stick — and whether it would be prudent to indict a former president and current presidential candidate.
The committee has secured its legacy in different ways, providing a searing picture of what...
The House committee investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol is going out with guns blazing, using its final appearance on the public stage to recommend severe criminal charges against former President Trump and accuse four sitting GOP lawmakers — including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) — of ethical lapses for their refusal to cooperate with the probe.
In their 10th public forum, panel members on Monday laid out the final findings of their marathon probe, which center on charges that Trump orchestrated a coup to remain in power despite his 2020 election defeat.
...
Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via Reuters
There is a danger in repeating the same script ad nauseam, as the House January 6 committee has done in its not one but two final performances.
Recall that the last one, in October, featured the dramatic proclamation that the committee was issuing a subpoena for Donald Trump’s testimony . . . under circumstances where it knew it would never get such testimony. Monday’s theater — apparently the finale, with Republicans poised to take control of the House and shutter the production — featured the dramatic proclamation that the committee is referring the...
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