On Sunday the White House announced that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will speak at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to commemorate the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol Hill riot. As I previously reported, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had also released a list of events for that day, despite Congress not actually being in session.
President Biden has repeatedly spoken about the riot, including how he considers it "the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War."
Press Secretary Jen Psaki also mentioned during a December 14 press conference that "the President — to the President, January 6th was one of the darkest days in our democracy. It was a day that our Capitol — our nation’s Capitol was under attack. And I think there’s no question you’ll see us commemorate that day."
Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media have been particularly focused with January 6, which also means to them tying the rioters to election integrity Republicans are trying to pass in most states around the country.
Republicans have taken a different approach when it comes to their concerns with January 6, which is to highlight the "Capitol complex's security vulnerabilities," something Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) wrote to Speaker Pelosi about in a Monday letter.
New letter from @RodneyDavis and @HouseAdmnGOP. Give it a read. pic.twitter.com/6zVW0lE0Ni
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 3, 2022
In that letter, which Davis wrote in his capacity as the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, he demanded Pelosi "instruct all House officers to immediately cease obstructing our oversight of the Capitol complex's security vulnerabilities."
Davis also issued a letter to his Republican colleagues, explaining how "One Year Later, Little Has Changed." His memo, with original emphasis, questions "why was the Capitol so unprepared?"
Also included in the memo are alarming details further detailing that unpreparedness, such as how "As of January 6, 2022, Democrats and the Select Committee are no closer to finding out what led to the catastrophic security failure on January 6, 2021. Their singular focus has been to attack President Trump and punish anyone associated with him."
Another detail points out that "The Capitol Police Inspector General has issued 104 recommendations for changes the department should implement post-January 6th. Most have not been implemented."
Davis in the additional memo included also highlighted how on December 14 he "urge[d] the majority to work with him to make important security reforms that are long overdue."
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN), two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) picks for the January 6 select committee, who were vetoed by Speaker Pelosi, also appeared on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" to discuss the vulnerabilities.
Both congressmen have highlighted and condemned how Pelosi's move to not allow them on the committee was "unprecedented" and warned of a "cover-up" from the speaker.
On air, host Laura Ingraham read a statement from Rep. Davis' office, further detailing how the speaker's office has stymied Republican efforts. "The House Sergeant at Arms, at the direction of the speaker, has refused to provide us their communication surrounding January 6th. I believe those records will show there was a lot of communications and coordination between the speaker's office and law enforcement officials leading up to and on January 6th."
During the segment, Rep. Banks assured viewers that Republicans "are still at work conducting interviews with Capitol police officers and other to try to get to the truth and we will expose the truth along the way that shows that Nancy Pelosi and Democrats were involved in the negligence that led to the disaster a year ago on January 6 and if we are serious about making sure that January 6 never happens again, then we need to answer these important questions about systemic breakdown of security at the top ranks of the capitol police that report to speaker Nancy Pelosi."
