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It was nearly a week ago when House Speaker Mike Johnson explained at a Capitol Hill press conference why, as his office releases security footage from Jan. 6, officials are blurring faces. “We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters.
In his latest column, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank summarized the significance of the GOP leader’s position:
It was as clear a statement as there could be on where the new speaker’s allegiance lies: protecting those who sacked the Capitol from being brought to justice for their crimes. Johnson (La.) was openly siding with the insurrectionists and against the United States government he swore an oath to defend. ... After all the yammering from the right about transparency, Johnson is manipulating the footage — not to protect the Capitol’s security but to protect the attackers.
But as unsettling as the House speaker’s position was, it’s worth appreciating the degree to which Johnson has plenty of company within his party. Consider some of what we’ve seen over the last week or so:
Dec. 2: On the campaign trail in Iowa, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis complained that Donald Trump didn’t do more to “help the people that got caught up in the Capitol stuff that, he told to go there.”
Dec. 5: Johnson said he wants to protect Jan. 6 participants from law enforcement.
Dec. 5: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced an investigation into whether the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee “cooperated” with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (It’s still not clear why it would matter if the select panel cooperated with law enforcement.)
Dec. 6: GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy asked rhetorically at a primary debate, “Why am I the only person on this stage, at least, who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?”
Dec. 7: Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who’s helping lead an investigation into the Jan. 6 investigation, told a conservative media outlet that the blurring of faces in Jan. 6 footage is meant to protect those who marched on the Capitol from “insurrection hunters.”
These developments unfolded over the course of five days. If we go back just a little further, on Nov. 30, Donald Trump apparently thought it’d be a good idea to amplify a message calling for the prosecution of Capitol Police officers who helped protect our seat of government during the Jan. 6 violence.
A week earlier, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana lent his support to the idea that the FBI used “ghost buses” as part of a secret plot to orchestrate the assault on the Capitol.
It seemed unlikely that the Republican Party’s line on Jan. 6 would take a turn for the worse. Then last week happened.