The strongest case for the work of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and for that committee to move quickly to public hearings, is that former President Donald Trump continues to make it clear that he set out to undermine democracy, that he sees nothing wrong with having done so, and that he would do it again if given a chance.
I’d prefer to ignore what Trump is saying, but that’s not really an option. He’s acting like a presidential candidate — he is, as the political scientist Josh Putnam puts it, running for 2024, although we won’t know for some time whether he’ll be running in 2024 — so he can’t just be ignored.
Over the weekend, Trump told a rally audience in Texas that if he was returned to the presidency he would pardon — well, “consider” pardoning, but the message was pretty clear — those who invaded the Capitol on his behalf. There’s nothing new about Trump’s abuse of the presidential pardon power as a partisan and personal weapon. He was also explicit when in office about his desire to use the power of prosecution the same way, and resented being unable to persuade the Justice Department to go along. Still, we should not stop being shocked by a former president, and perhaps a future president, so dismissive of the rule of law.
