Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell regained his voice this past week to forcefully condemn the violent uprising that occurred at the nation’s capital a year ago.
His strong words were a welcome development.
In the hours and days after the failed insurrection, the Republican from Kentucky was one of the first on the GOP side to call the riot what it was and to blame Donald Trump for helping to spur it on. He knew this was an orchestrated effort, encouraged by the defeated president, to try to illegitimately stay in office, even if it meant breaking this nation’s fundamental tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.
But later McConnell softened, not as much as the apologists for the president, but enough that it helped feed into the narrative that the worst domestic attack ever on the Capitol was really not all that bad. Even though he continued to call Trump out for inciting the riot, McConnell voted against convicting him at Trump’s post-departure impeachment trial. McConnell refused to participate in forming a bipartisan panel to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. He, like most Republicans in Congress, shunned the one-year anniversary commemorations of the event last month.
But a dumb move of the Republican National Committee stirred McConnell to once again speak out forcefully. He rebuked the RNC for censuring two House Republicans who have been participating in that chamber’s investigation of the attack. He accurately called the Jan. 6 riot an “insurrection” — a word that the deniers in McConnell’s party refuse to use. The Senate leader’s choice of words was also a stark and probably intended contrast to the language in the RNC resolution, which seemed to suggest the violent protest was “legitimate political discourse,” although its chairman later denied that interpretation.
The only way to get past what transpired on Jan. 6 is for the GOP leadership to be honest about it and own up to it. Although Trump was the main instigator, he had plenty of encouragement, and still does, within the Republican Party. It is up to McConnell and others of his stature to recognize this failing and do their part to fix it.
Contact Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of the Greenwood Commonwealth, at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
