Given that the GOP has known since the evening of January 6th, 2021, that there was no defending Trump’s conspiracy, GOP Trump-loyalists have had to come up with some sort of false equivalency to avoid having to acknowledge the horrors of that day. The task is impossible because it’s just factually wrong and must be called out as such, as it was on CNN this morning as GOP consultant and Mitch McConnell aide Scott Jennings began to argue that both sides resort to violence in response to what they see as illegitimate government action.
Jennings launched himself into a sanctimonious, fact-free, humiliating argument:
“I don’t think people who have lost all faith in institutions fully exist on the right. it is clearly also existing on the left, and I know ight now, I mean, for as much as Donald Trump’s people want to smash Congress and do what they want to do on January 6th, there are people right now who would, I’m sure would love to do that to the United States Supreme Court and urging Joe biden to bypass the Supreme Court and bypass Congress and essentially rule by executive –“
First, Donald Trump himself and “his people,” didn’t “want” to smash Congress to accomplish their goals on January 6th. Trump and his army DID smash Congress and do what they wanted to do on January 6th. Second, though the Left might wish that the SCOTUS would reverse itself and wish that there was a way to reform the SCOTUS, there is no movement on the left to lawlessly bypass the SCOTUS or Congress and essentially rule by executive anything.
Jennings was cut off by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eliott Williams: “I don’t think it is a fair argument to sort of both sides insurrection.”
But Jennings went even lower:
“You think it is not a fair argument to point out that someone tried to go kill Brett Kavanaugh or threatened to burn down the Supreme Court? These people have the same –.”
ONE person threatened to kill Brett Kavanaugh and was caught by the federal government, led by Joe Biden, long before the possible assailant got close to Kavanaugh. Moreover, Biden’s DOJ has aggressively charged that person with attempted murder. That is hardly some Biden-led movement or a movement of any kind. Nor is there a movement to “burn down the Supreme Court.”
And at that point that Kayyem had had enough:
“That wasn’t led by Biden, that wasn’t led by Biden. Come on!”
Jennings tried to wiggle out somehow:
“I’m not — I’m not saying it was led by Biden. They coddled it.”
What? DOJ arrested the man going after Kavanaugh, who acted alone and threatened to kill himself, and charged him with attempted murder! “Coddling?”
Kayyem had an easier time putting this in context for Jennings:
“Whatever you believe, Scott, about what the Democrats are doing, just give us a break here on this one, that Trump actually directed the violence — you don’t think he directed the violence?”
Jennings just descended into gibberish:
Yes, of course, I do. I said it many times, but I’m telling you, David’s [ Axelrod] point is correct. There is a whole group of Americans who have given up on our process and institutions, and they don’t fully exist on the right, which I think you think they do, but I don’t believe they do. “
If Jennings is trying to say that some on the left have all but given up on the process and institutions, he is absolutely correct. There are many Democrats who believe the system is entirely broken. The difference is that Democrats are trying to fix the problem with more democracy, expanding voting rights, doing away with the filibuster, and possible changes to the SCOTUS such as mandatory retirement or expansion, but all done by law.
But it is bizarre to act as though the sickness in this country is balanced out on both sides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAzxiE2BxJY
@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.