I’ve never had a security detail of any kind let alone one of unsmiling men and women who surveyed every crowd I walked through and set up perimeters around my home and whom I knew were carrying semi-automatics they would use to kill to protect me. Liz Cheney and other members of the January 6 Committee have such Details because of the work they have been doing to uncover the dense, multi-pronged conspiracy to destroy American democracy. They receive hourly death threats, some of them extending to their families. Trump, his Brown Shirts and his propaganda ministers (Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and a score of other fascisti) have attacked them and their witnesses at every turn.
The members of the Committee remain unintimidated and undeterred. The January 6 hearings have been models of concision and clarity. In methodical, dramatic fashion they have exposed for tens of millions, the rot within Trump, his unalloyed desire for absolute power, his endless lies, and his cruelty. They have used the sworn testimony of die-hard Trump Republicans to show how the Republican Party has become a cult and thus the direst enemy of the Republic.
None of Trump’s fellow travelers have made a serious attempt to refute their findings.
I have a personal stake in this. My father was a Pennsylvania State Police Officer, and in his 35-year career was involved in any number of situations where he placed his own life in danger to uphold the law. So … my heart grows full when, after each session, every member of the Committee spends time with the row of Capitol Police Officers who fought in hand-to-hand combat on January 6 to keep Trump’s scum from doing even more damage.
In a moment of great confusion and of cowardice on so many fronts, the Committee has demonstrated the power of moral courage and the effectiveness of clarity of expression.
