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Speeches this week at the Republican National Convention didn’t inspire confidence in Republicans’ ability to lead a trustworthy investigation into last weekend’s shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
House Republicans have begun their probe, but initial responses from many GOP officials suggest that no small number have already concluded that this is a story of anti-Trump violence inspired by liberals. A theory for which, of course, there’s no evidence.
In fact, about all we know so far is that the 20-year-old shooter was a registered Republican who apparently made a $15 donation to a progressive cause in 2021 and that he recently made internet searches related to Trump and the Democratic National Convention.
Prominent Republicans, nonetheless, sought immediately in the aftermath to frame the shooting as a consequence of liberals’ rhetoric. That includes the vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, as well as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who said: “The Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today. For years and years, they’ve demonized him [Trump] and his supporters.”
The finger-pointing and blame-casting continued at the RNC and its adjacent events, from speakers who were given top billing like Tucker Carlson and Greene, to state legislators like Arizona state Rep. Alexander Kolodin and even run-of-the-mill Republican attendees, like these who spoke with CNN. There was a palpable sense of victimhood at this convention, with many trying to pin the shooting on liberals.
So the consensus that’s building on the right points to one potentially insurmountable hurdle for House Republicans’ investigation: their own lack of credibility in leading investigations.
With their handling of their dead-end probe into President Joe Biden, House Republicans have already shown that they’re willing to use outright lies from unscrupulous figures when those lies help to bolster their preconceived and politically opportune conclusions. With their bogus hearings on the purported weaponization of government against conservatives, they’ve demonstrated that they have no qualms about using their official positions to spread right-wing propaganda.
None of their behavior thus far suggests they wouldn’t attempt something similar in the case of the Trump rally shooting, particularly since so many of them are already on the record with their preconceived conclusion.
When it comes to a matter as serious as an assassination attempt, it’s important that Americans broadly feel they’re receiving information from unbiased, credible sources. But in this case, multiple influential Republicans are already behaving like judges who’ve reached a verdict without hearing the actual case.
We’ll know in short order whether the cart is again before the horse. The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who ran point on the empty-handed Biden impeachment probe, issued a statement with ranking committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., demanding that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testify on Monday. Cheatle has accepted the invitation.