January Sixth Lies: A True Threat to Democracy
2022 may be remembered for many things, but not as a milestone of honesty.
In fact, 2022 may have displayed more dishonesty than the norm. We saw a billionaire arrested for securities fraud following the collapse of his billion-dollar crypto-currency firm; a chess grandmaster accused of cheating by the reigning chess world champion; and our FBI denying — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — that it colluded with social media companies to suppress conservative views. These are just a few of the big stories about lying and cheating that we have seen.
Perhaps the most over-reported story of the last few weeks of 2022 is a continuation of this theme, as it was focused on the deceptive resume of George Santos, congressman-elect of New York’s 3rd district.
Granted, a politician lying about his or her qualifications is significant, but it is nothing new.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pretended to be a Bronx around-the-way girl but actually, as the daughter of a successful architect, “grew up mostly in wealthy Westchester County”
Our Vice-President, a serial liar, claims she “listened to rap artists like Tupac and Snoop Dogg as she smoked [marijuana] in college,” though neither released an album until after she graduated.
Two of the most famous lies, among many, told by Hillary Clinton, another serial liar, are that she was in a helicopter that was shot down over Bosnia, and that the over 30,000 emails deleted after being subpoenaed by Congress were only about stuff like yoga and her daughter’s wedding.
Of course, the biggest resume-padder and serial liar in politics today is President Joe Biden. Biden lies about his accomplishments so often that one suspects that if he was not elected — supposedly in a “free and fair election” — he would eventually claim to have been president anyway.
One Twitter user did a good job listing some of Joe’s greatest hits:
So, Santos is not unique, but I will concede that he is interesting.
Among his fabrications:
Claimed to have graduated from Barach but is not a college graduate.
Lied about working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Lied about being Jewish. He now says he is “Jew-ish,” because his “maternal family had a Jewish background.”
Says he is gay although he was previously married to a woman.
Said he had a real estate portfolio but he owns no properties and lives with his sister.
Whatever significance beyond salaciousness one places on Santos’ embellishments, at a minimum they underscore the dishonest nature of a government which sees honesty as a tax to be avoided whenever possible.
For example, Representative Adam Kinzinger has dedicated his political career to crusading for an indictment against Donald Trump for the January 6th riot. Nevermind that Trump did nothing criminal in asking his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard . . . a request dishonestly and deliberately removed from a video disseminated by Democrats, by the way. Yet Kinzinger, like much of the media, is an ardent supporter of Ray Epps, someone with ties to the Oath Keepers, a group Kinzinger says is “all about the overthrow of the federal government,” and who, unlike Trump, told a mob “we need to go into the Capitol” on January 6th.
A better defender Epps could never find. When Senator Ted Cruz pointed out in a newsletter that a senior FBI official refused to answer, “Who is Ray Epps? Was Ray Epps a federal agent or informant?” Kinzinger angrily took to Twitter:
Later, when he saw a tweet saying “[i]n terms of culpability, Ray Epps is on video encouraging a crowd to riot and admitted such in a sworn statement (I also orchestrated it). House GOP has an obligation to find out his role, who he was communicating with, and who in power helped setup the events of January 6th,” Kinzinger responded with “Literally completely untrue.”
Huh?
Epps has admitted in a text that he helped orchestrate the Capitol Building breach. He said the same to the NY Times and in testimony to the January 6th Commission. Videos of him “orchestrating” the Capitol riot have been widely seen Kinzinger cannot be unaware of this. He was present during Epp’s deposition.
So what exactly is “Literally completely untrue?” That the House has an obligation to investigate Epp’s role?
Not only does the House have an obligation to reveal Epps’ role in what some Democrats call “the darkest day in the history of our democracy,” it has an obligation to investigate Speaker Pelosi’s role as well.
According to Just the News:
House Republicans gathered a trove of text and email messages showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was directly involved in the creation and editing of the Capitol security plan that failed during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot and that security officials later declared they had been “denied again and again” the resources needed to protect one of the nation’s most important homes of democracy.
…
The report concludes the Capitol was left vulnerable on Jan. 6 as a result of failures by the Democratic leadership in the House and law enforcement leaders in the Capitol Police who allowed concerns about the “optics” of having armed officers and National Guardsmen visible to the public to override the need for enhanced security.
...
It also corroborated prior reporting by Just the News that Capitol Police began receiving specific warnings in mid-December that there could be significant violence planned against the Capitol and lawmakers by protesters planning to attend the certification of the 2020 election results.
Why did Pelosi, who has been praised for her leadership during the riot, and who conveniently and suspiciously had a camera crew in her office to record her threatening to assault President Trump, deny security officials their requested resources to protect the Capitol Building, despite weeks of warnings about potential violence?
In contrast, President Trump is said to have offered and authorized 10,000 - 20,000 National Guard ahead of January 6th. This offer was reportedly rejected.
So, why is Trump facing indictment while Ray Epps and Nancy Pelosi are not?
We are generally inured to dishonesty from our government. The lies surrounding January 6th riot however feels heavier and more dangerous than a congressman-elect falsely claiming he graduated from college.
To borrow a line frequently used by Democrats and their media allies whenever there is a possibility that Republicans might win an election, the lies that surround January 6th are “an existential threat to our democracy.”
—DK