Xinhua News Agency, Washington, June 10 (international observation) Capitol Hill riot hearings start the US partisan drama again
Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Ding
The U.S. House of Representatives committee responsible for investigating the riots on Capitol Hill at the beginning of last year held a high-profile public hearing on the 9th and broadcast it live in prime time that night, becoming the hottest political topic in the United States.
US media and experts believe that Democrats want to strengthen the connection between the Capitol Hill riots and then-US President, Republican Trump through public hearings, and at the same time boost their own midterm elections, but Republicans will not give up, the two parties The struggle ushered in a new “drama” in the “bubble drama”, and the tear in American society continued to deepen.
Partisan “big drama”
At this public hearing, the chairman of the investigative committee, Democratic Congressman Benny Thompson and vice-chairman, Republican Congressman Liz Cheney made opening remarks successively, and displayed images and testimony that had not been made public before. the contents of the investigation. In addition, the Committee in its entirety heard testimony from two witnesses.
Thompson said the riots on Capitol Hill were a blatant attempt to overthrow the government and were “the pinnacle” of an attempted coup. Cheney directly blamed Trump for the Capitol Hill unrest, accusing him of calling in “thugs” to incite violence. Trump has consistently denied responsibility and described members of the investigative committee as “political villains.” The overwhelming majority of Republicans support Trump’s position. Cheney was previously stripped of his position in the House Republican leadership for his repeated criticism of Trump.
The “Wall Street Journal” article pointed out that, at present, the public hearing of the investigative committee is not to release “hard material”, but to connect the known information about Trump’s behavior before the Capitol Hill riots and during the investigation process, and at the same time Clarify that Trump is the focus of the investigation.
The inquiry committee plans to hold five more public hearings over the next two weeks. According to Cheney, the hearings will focus on how Trump prevented Congress from certifying then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as Trump’s words and deeds on the day of the riots on Capitol Hill. The investigation will continue, and the committee may disclose more information in its final report.
Michael Waldman, chairman of the Brennan Center for Judicial Studies at New York University School of Law, said that this may be the most important series of hearings in the United States in decades, or have far-reaching consequences, but because of the current polarized media environment in the United States, what will the final result be? It is currently unknown.
stains are hard to remove
Many political scientists and media in the United States believe that the 2020 US presidential election is the most torn election in the United States in decades. After Biden declared victory, Trump refused to concede defeat and repeatedly claimed that there was large-scale electoral fraud, laying the groundwork for the riots on Capitol Hill.
The riots on January 6, 2021, which lasted for hours, left five people dead, about 140 police officers injured, and damaged inside and outside the Capitol. The then US Vice President and Republican Mike Pence, who returned to the Congress Chamber after the riots subsided that day, bluntly said that this was a “dark day” in the history of the US Capitol. Biden also said that the Capitol Hill riots are a major stain on American history. The New York Times article wrote that the riot was “a blow to the image of the beacon of American democracy.”
After the unrest, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives quickly launched a second impeachment against Trump, accusing him of “sedition”, but the article of impeachment did not win enough votes in the Senate. In the summer of 2021, Democrats led the establishment of a “special committee to investigate the riots on Capitol Hill” in the House of Representatives, but none of the nine members were nominated by Republicans. The “one-sided” composition has drawn strong criticism from Republicans, while a lack of Republican approval and support has made it difficult for the committee’s investigation.
Analysts pointed out that the Capitol Hill riots have become a concentrated outbreak of social contradictions in the United States, marking that the division of American society from top to bottom has reached a greater degree. At present, more than a year after Biden took office, this polarization and tearing has not only not eased, but has been further intensified.
Tear deepens
Before the hearing on the 9th, Democratic members of the investigative committee made publicity. CNN and other major liberal media outlets have “taken orders” to broadcast live and in-depth interpretations of the hearing. The American conservative media Fox News refused to broadcast the hearing live, and broadcast a hedge speech program at the same time.
During the hearing, the Republicans were not idle either. They posted on social media one after another, making articles on negative topics such as soaring oil prices in the United States and shortage of milk powder, accusing Democrats of using the topic of the riots on Capitol Hill to divert attention from the domestic and foreign dilemmas of the United States in order to seek Improve your own midterm election prospects and help Biden, whose approval rating is hovering at a low level, to clear the siege.
The investigation into the riots on Capitol Hill has not only caused the two parties to fight endlessly, but also deepened the split in public opinion. A new NBC News poll found that 45 percent of respondents believe Trump is “totally” or “primarily” responsible for the unrest on Capitol Hill, and that Trump is “only partly” or “” No responsibility” was 55%. In another recent poll by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, respondents were almost evenly split between those who wanted to know more about the “Capitol Hill riots” and those who thought it was a “turnaround.”
Keith Norton, a Republican political consultant in the United States, judged that these hearings may allow more Democratic voters to vote in the mid-term elections in November, but they cannot fundamentally change the direction of the mid-term elections, because people are still more concerned about people’s livelihood issues. Some analysts believe that a thorough investigation into the riots on Capitol Hill, which has seriously damaged the international image of the United States, was originally beneficial to the national interests of the United States, but the investigation, which was full of strong partisanship from the beginning, was destined to be difficult to be objective and impartial, and instead further highlighted the differences between the two parties. and confrontation, exacerbating the tearing of American politics and society.
(Editor in charge: Ma Changyan)