Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) at Monday’s hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
Robert Frost famously defined a liberal as the fellow who is so open-minded that he won’t take his own side in an argument. I was reminded of this yesterday, when Bennie Thompson, chair of the January 6th Committee, told reporters that the committee had no plans to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Say what? The whole point of the committee’s carefully constructed prosecutorial brief is to foam the runway for indictments. The pushback was instant, beginning with vice chair Liz Cheney, who put out a statement flatly contradicting Thompson: “The January 6th Select Committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time.”
So, the committee’s lead Republican is tougher on Trump than its Democratic chair. And this came after a witness parade of former senior Trump aides, loyal Republicans all, testifying that they had warned their boss that his claims of election fraud were, as Bill Barr delicately put it, “bullshit.”
Barr, let’s recall, is one of history’s great opportunists. In volunteering to serve Trump as AG, he more than anyone else deliberately destroyed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s impeachment report. Barr and the others either concluded in late 2020 that Trump was hopelessly delusional and they had a belated outbreak of honor. Or they decided not to go down with a sinking ship; or some combination of both.
So where does this leave us, as the committee takes an unplanned halftime break to get its ducks in a row?
First, as any constitutional lawyer can explain, it doesn’t take a criminal referral from Congress for the attorney general to proceed with an indictment. Thompson’s feeble statement stepped on the committee’s carefully constructed narrative, but it won’t influence the Justice Department.
Second, the bill of particulars on Trump seems to be having a salutary impact on public opinion. It reinforces findings by the pollster Celinda Lake that only about one-third of voters are hardcore Trump defenders, and that 60 percent are less likely to vote for a candidate who defends the January 6th insurrection.
Third, however, even if more Republicans desert Trump, $5-a-gallon gasoline and Trump’s attempted theft of the Constitution operate in different political universes. And even if most voters agree that Trump is a criminally delusional liar, that will not cause them to view Democrats as their champions on pocketbook issues—unless Democrats do a far better job of earning that support. And here is the connection between Thompson’s blunder and the larger weakness of the Democratic Party.
Extensive research by our friend Stan Greenberg shows that Biden’s effort to take a victory lap for successes like record job creation only backfires. People don’t want to hear how good the economy is when they know their own economy is lousy. It only undermines the president’s credibility.
What enhances the Democrats’ credibility on pocketbook issues, according to the findings of pollsters such as Greenberg and Lake, is to go after the corporate interests that have been undermining working families for decades. On these issues, Biden and the Democrats need to be both more resolute and more radical.
There are two great issues of our time that should divide the parties, to the advantage of Democrats. One is the attempted theft by Republicans of our constitutional democracy. The other is the theft by hyper-capitalists of the livelihoods of ordinary people, also enabled by Republicans.
Democrats need to connect these dots. They need the courage of their convictions. It would help if they began with convictions.
