'Legitimate Political Discourse' Declaration Widens GOP Rifts
Resolution could throw party bosses into legal jeopardy
The official Republican Party declaration late last week which asserts that Donald Trump's attempts at a coup to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — including the deadly January 6, 2021, attack against the US Capitol Building — are nothing more than “legitimate political discourse” has become just the latest flashpoint in the ongoing civil war within the GOP.
Furthermore, that official party declaration could spell legal trouble for every one of the Republican party bosses who put their names to that document.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) voted Friday to censure Republican Reps. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, and Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, for their participation in the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol carried out by the supporters of then-President Donald Trump. In the process, it also attempted to reframe the events of that day as “legitimate political discourse.”
That extraordinary statement has only served to touch off a fresh round of intraparty fighting between the bulk of the Republican Party which supports Trump almost unquestioningly, and those more traditional party stalwarts who oppose Trump, his falsehoods and his authoritarianism.
Sen Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, who long has been an independent voice within the Republican Party sternly rebuked the efforts of her party leadership to normalize the January 6, 2021 insurrection and associated events which tried to prevent the legal and legitimate certification of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.
“What happened on January 6, 2021 was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the Capitol. We must not legitimize those actions which resulted in loss of life and we must learn from that horrible event so history does not repeat itself,” Murkowski wrote in what was the first of series of Saturday tweets on the matter. “As Americans we must acknowledge those tragic events, and we cannot allow a false narrative to be created. We cannot deny the truth—to suggest it was 'legitimate political discourse' is just wrong.”
However, a retired attorney called out Murkowski for her tweets, arguing that if she believes in her position as strongly as she maintains, she should be doing more to support legislation in the Senate against state-level voter suppression laws being promulgated by many Republicans largely loyal to Trump.
“If that is truly your concern, senator, then you need to stand up against the nationwide Republican efforts at voter suppression. These bills which have proliferated nationwide are what fascist parties do when they can't win at the ballot box; they make that box more inaccessible,” Michael B Lehrhoff tweeted.
However, Murkowski was hardly the only Republican incensed by the Friday declaration.
The prominent conservative publication, National Review, took RNC leadership to task.
“The action of the mob on Jan 6 was an indefensible disgrace. It is deserving of both political accountability and criminal prosecution. It is wrong to minimize or excuse what happened that day,” the publication opined.
The fallout from the resolution could well extend beyond politics, however.
Legal implications
The hundreds of alleged rioters who will be facing trial and sentencing for the parts they played in the riot could well try to use the RNC declaration in their defense, according to Glenn Kirschner, a retired 24-year career prosecutor at the Justice Department in Washington DC who today is a legal analyst for MSNBC and host of his own legal YouTube channel.
“Those defendants might very well try to introduce evidence at their trial that what they did was not criminal. Why? Well, because they will try to introduce evidence that an entire political party has concluded and announced that what they did on January 6 was 'legitimate political discourse,’” Kirshner told viewers of his YouTube channel. “So, in a very real sense, the GOP just attempted to deliver a huge assist to the insurrectionists.
“And there's a term for that. It's called ‘giving aid and comfort to the insurrection.’ And there's a law for that.”
Kirschner cited a specific law in the US Code which applies, saying that, if found guilty, those Republican leaders responsible for the resolution could face up to 10 years in prison, and “shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
“So every member of the Republican Party who put their name to that official party announcement that what the defendants did on January 6 at the Capitol was not criminal — it was 'legitimate political discourse’ — every last one of them, gave aid and comfort to the insurrection,” Kirschner said. “And if we're still a country of laws, every last one of them should 1) be held accountable, and 2) prohibited from ever holding federal office in the future.”
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