How the Capitol Riot Commission Died

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4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

After the Capitol riot on January 6th, Republicans proposed a bipartisan commission to investigate what took place as an alternative to impeaching then-President Trump. But last Friday, Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell killed the bill to establish that commission. Why was the bipartisan commission dead on arrival? And is there a way for an investigation to move forward without one? Guest: Jim Newell, senior politics writer at Slate. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you ask Slade's Jim Newell, what happened last week with that vote to establish a bipartisan
0:10.4	commission to investigate the January 6th riot?
0:13.8	He's got two words for you.
0:15.8	Mitch McConnell.
0:17.7	Making sure there weren't 10 Republicans willing to vote for this, I think took a lot of
0:23.1	effort from Mitch McConnell in a way he really hasn't had to exert himself in a while.
0:31.2	How did you know that?
0:32.2	How did you see that?
0:33.8	So there were some reporting that Mitch McConnell had to call in a few personal favors with
0:39.1	Republicans to get them to actually vote against this.
0:42.1	So I think if McConnell wasn't trying to stop this, it very easily could have gotten
0:48.9	10 Republican senators.
0:53.8	In the end, the commission got six Republican votes.
0:58.3	That's for sure of what it needed to overcome a legislative filibuster and overcome the Senate
1:03.5	minority leader.
1:05.5	For a while, it seemed like the commission had real momentum behind it.
1:09.8	35 Republicans voted for it in the House.
1:12.4	Swing senators like Susan Collins and Mitt Romney started signaling their support.
1:17.6	These who responded on January 6th and relatives of one officer who died began knocking on
1:23.1	Republican doors, asking for votes.
1:26.1	We want answers.
1:27.6	Nobody has the answers.
	...

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