Some are glorifying Republicans who are truthfully testifying at Jan 6 commission. Ari Melber slammed that absurdity.
Ari Melber nails it. Testifying Republicans are no heroes.
I have nothing in common ideologically with Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney. But both of them took a risk. Neither knows how supporting the Jan 6 panel will affect their future political careers. But, to use the cliche, they put country over party. They put democracy over fascism. They acknowledged that their party leader attempted a coup on the United States of America.
Recently Donald Trump’s White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, made a rather insidious statement to the Jan 6 commission. He claimed that former Vice President Mike Pence deserved the Medal of Freedom for doing his job and not abiding by the coup Donald Trump and Republicans were in the process of effectuating.
Ironically, Pence sought counsel from George H.W. Bush’s former Vice President Dan Quayle about his ability to hold on to power even as most Americans and the Electoral College showed a sound defeat of the Trump administration. Rolling Stone reported it as follows.
According to an upcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, then-Vice President Mike Pence was struggling to decide whether to honor the votes of the American people or to refuse to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump and set off an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
The authors write that Pence sought advice from Dan Quayle, the only living Republican vice president who had been in the position of certifying an election where his ticket was the losing one. And it was Quayle — the same man who has been something of a national punchline for a decade — who talked Pence off the ledge and into doing the right thing.
MSNBC host Ari Melber presented a definitive case illustrating the absurdity of anyone who attempts to make these Republicans heroes. On Pence getting a Medal of Freedom, he said the following.
“By that standard, hundreds of millions of Americans would warrant the same medal because they did not join this criminal coup,” Ari Melber said. “Pence did what was required by law, and he did so after double checking whether there was any legal cover for maybe trying something else, which is why we had to hear from all his lawyers because they spent a lot of time exploring that.”
Melber then points out what should be obvious.
“So at this moment when so much seems upside down,” Melber said. “It is worth realizing that all of this beltway canonizing of people who did the bare minimum is backward, and it can be dangerous in the way that it normalizes the idea that these are choices to make or tough calls. You are not a hero for declining to join a coup and then wavering and ducking about the details and your own political loyalties to the person who staged the coup while withholding information and testimony.”
Melber then pointed out recipients who truly earned the medal. He highlighted Nelson Mandela, John Lewis, and Mother Teresa.
Melber had a closing message for Cipollone about suggesting Pence deserved the Medal of Freedom.
“You were late,” Melber said. “You were not on the job. And now, having been pressured into testifying under the threat of jail because they subpoenaed you, you don’t get to lecture the nation about who gets the Medal of Freedom, and you’re out of power. So thank goodness for that.”
We have a very short attention span in America. We also believe too easily in redemption for some people. We will not keep our democracy if we do not modify our gullibility index. We must enlighten ourselves. We have an oligarchy in control of too much of our government and the minds of too many. It is the reason we cannot get Medicare for All, the only solution for equitable healthcare. Until we force out the purchased politicians, climate change legislation, family leave, basic income, and more, Americans will never realize the policies they want.
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