Separate columns on three different aspects of the Capitol riots of last Jan. 6. Full columns available by following links embedded in each headline…..

Mike Pence showed character and courage (Dec. 13):  As more evidence emerges about the dangerous lengths some people in Trumpworld considered going in order to keep the former president in office last January, former Vice President Mike Pence looks more like a hero for resisting.

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Everyone already knows that some of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were chanting for Pence’s execution, and everyone knows that Trump put untoward pressure on Pence to comply with Trump’s efforts to override Joe Biden’s legitimate victory. Everyone also knows that Pence rightly resisted Trump’s pressure and that he refused to leave the Capitol complex entirely when the incursion occurred, instead insisting that he must perform his constitutional duty as soon as the attackers were expelled.

Still, new reporting, combined with newly highlighted reports that may have been in circulation (but not prominently), shows that Pence’s obedience to constitutional principle took even more fortitude than most people gave him credit for.

Pence actually fought off numerous schemes to prevent the peaceful transfer of power….

How can Hannity, Ingraham, and Liz Cheney all be correct? (Dec. 16): Fox News stars Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Brian Kilmeade were right to try using what influence they had to stop the Jan. 6 incursion into the U.S. Capitol. And, despite conservative complaints, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was right to publicize their efforts.

Serving as vice chairwoman of the special House committee investigating the Capitol riot, Cheney released texts from all three Fox stars, as well as from Donald Trump Jr. The texts, sent as the Jan. 6 riot unfolded, urged White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to persuade President Donald Trump to publicly, unequivocally call off the Capitol invaders. Meadows had provided those messages, along with thousands of others, to the committee….

On riots, staff chief Meadows should testify (Dec. 13): Some dangerously crazy notions floated around the Trump White House a year ago, and its chief of staff, Mark Meadows, should testify about them. However, some of the substance of Meadows’s actions was not necessarily sinister.

A House panel is set to vote Monday evening to recommend to the full House to hold Meadows in “contempt of Congress” (a potential criminal charge) for withholding some documents and direct testimony from its investigation into the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. The panel has a point: Meadows’s assertion that he is protecting former President Donald Trump’s “executive privilege” claims are almost entirely spurious legally while also morally obtuse….

 

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