by Julie Kelly
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the events of January 6, 2021. Thirty-five Republicans, including the ten who voted to impeach Donald Trump for “inciting” the violence that day, joined Democrats to advance the bill to the U.S. Senate where its fate is unclear.
The vote, ironically, came almost four years to the day that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, at the behest of many Republicans, appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate the concocted crime of Trump-Russia election collusion. The January 6 commission, if passed, would be yet another extension of Crossfire Hurricane, the illicit probe launched by the FBI in 2016 in an effort to destroy one of Barack Obama’s most despised political enemies.
One special counsel investigation, numerous congressional and senate inquisitions, and two impeachment trials later, the Left’s insatiable lust to take down Donald Trump remains unsatisfied. But now, rather than just targeting the president and his family, millions of Americans must be punished for defying the ruling regime—which only partially includes the federal agencies, political leaders of both parties, the news media, and Big Tech. This dangerous crusade is accelerating at an alarming pace at the highest levels of government; apparently, it is of no concern to nearly three dozen Republican members of Congress who are helping Joe Biden and the Democrats exact their revenge on Trump supporters.
Prior to the vote, Democrats and Republicans promised the January 6 commission would expose the truth. The American public, the lawmakers admonished, deserve a full accounting of who was involved, who was responsible, and how to prevent another “attack” in the future.
“Make no mistake about it . . . this is about facts, it’s not partisan,” Representative John Katko, the New York Republican congressmen who worked with Democrats to draft the legislation, preached from the floor. “We must never forget that the truth trumps politics and if the truth is what we seek, we have nothing to fear from bringing the clarity that only the truth can bring to the chaos and confusion of January 6,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) lectured.
“This is truth time,” shouted Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). “Can we stand for the truth?”
The dramatic rhetoric about truth and facts comes amid a rapidly disintegrating narrative related to the Capitol breach—it wasn’t “armed,” it wasn’t an “insurrection,” it didn’t result in the deaths of five people, and it wasn’t orchestrated by “domestic violent extremists”; a new video obtained by American Greatness shows Capitol Police allowing protesters into the building. A handful of House Republicans finally are pushing back on dubious parts of the storyline and demanding to know who killed Ashli Babbitt, the unarmed veteran who was the only fatality that day.
The Sicknick Lie Persists
But the most heinous lie about January 6, by far, is the one surrounding what happened to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who passed away at the age of 42 on January 7. In an effort to provoke heightened outrage across the country, the Capitol Police issued a press release shortly after Sicknick died claiming he was killed in the line of duty. “Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” the statement read. “He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
The news of Sicknick’s murder triggered widespread anger and grief, which was amplified the next day when the New York Times reported Sicknick had been bludgeoned to death by Trump loyalists using a fire extinguisher. “Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials,” the Times reported on January 8.
That sketchy account was picked up without question by news outlets and commentary sites on both the Left and the Right. Blood was now on the hands of President Trump and every lawmaker who planned to object to the certification of the election by the Electoral College on January 6, the public was told.
Joe Biden extended his condolences to Sicknick’s family. “The people responsible should be held accountable—and they will be,” Biden pledged the same day.
Heartbreaking optics soon followed, including a solemn police procession through Washington, D.C. on January 10. His remains lay in honor in the Capitol rotunda, a rare honor, for a memorial service attended by Republican and Democratic congressional leaders as well as Joe Biden and his wife. Another procession delivered Sicknick’s remains to Arlington National Cemetery.
But on February 12, the Times quietly retracted its original account. And after a long delay, the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office finally admitted Sicknick died of a stroke caused by blood clots; the autopsy also did not find he died from a reaction to chemical spray, another lie created in the aftermath of the murder-by-fire-extinguisher myth.
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick did not die of anything related to the mayhem at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. His employer, the New York Times, Democratic House impeachment managers, the entirety of the national press corps, Joe Biden, and politicians from both parties, just to name a few, peddled the lie for months. Most major news organizations still haven’t retracted their initial reporting sourced by the Times’ false article.
Repeating the Same Phony Mantra
So why are the very same people now vowing to get to the truth about January 6 after continuing to lie about Brian Sicknick? Nearly every Democratic congressman and a few Republicans on the House floor Wednesday repeated the falsehood that Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters in the line of duty. Here are just a few examples:
Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Democratic sponsor of the bill: “At least one Capitol Police officer died because of the violence.”
Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) “I rise today on behalf of . . . the Capitol Police and the late Brian Sicknick. The seat of our democracy [was] breached and invaded by a mob of incensed bloodthirsty individuals, sycophants all.”
Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) “On January 6, the world witnessed an attempted insurrection against our government. The mob that stormed our Capitol resulting in the death of a Capitol Police officer . . . desecrated the seat of our democracy.”
Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) “We owe it to the men and women in uniform who fought . . . for hours to protect our lives. Three of them lost their lives.” (Democrats also attributed two suicides to the total death toll.)
Val Demings (D-Fla.) “The violent mob beat down the police officers who protect us every day. Some have died and they deserve better.”
And, of course, Katko felt compelled to add: “Capitol Police officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, as well as D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith, all lost their lives in the wake of the January 6 attack. They deserve better and we’re gonna deliver this. We’re gonna deliver this on behalf of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.”
You get the drift. On the bright side, it was refreshing to see Democrats find a police department they could support instead of demean and defund.
If January 6 was indeed the worst attack on the country since the Civil War, as Joe Biden preposterously claims, or comparable to 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Oklahoma City bombing, why do politicians and the media have to lie about what happened? After all, no one fabricated stories about dead sailors in December 1941 or dead babies in April 1995 or dead airline passengers and office workers in September 2001. The facts were horrific enough—no embellishment needed.
Trump haters hit a new low with the twisted exploitation of Sicknick’s untimely death to score political points. But now, even after the truth is well known, they continue to leverage his passing as a weapon against Trump and his supporters. The January 6 commission, to that end, isn’t about truth—only revenge.
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Julie Kelly is a political commentator and senior contributor to American Greatness. She is the author of Disloyal Opposition: How the NeverTrump Right Tried―And Failed―To Take Down the President. Her past work can be found at The Federalist and National Review. She also has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and Genetic Literacy Project. After college graduation, she served as a policy and communications consultant for several Republican candidates and elected officials in suburban Chicago. She also volunteered for her local GOP organization. After staying home for more than 10 years to raise her two daughters, Julie began teaching cooking classes out of her home. She then started writing about food policy, agriculture, and biotechnology, as well as climate change and other scientific issues. She graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1990 with a degree in communications and minor degrees in political science and journalism. Julie lives in suburban Chicago with her husband, two daughters, and (unfortunately) three dogs.
Photo “Jan. 6 Capitol Riot” by Tyler Merbler CC 2.0.
Spot on opinion. We should have a commission on the insurrection by the Democrat party.