Congressman Eric Swalwell‘s main point wasn’t about the January 6, 2021 insurrection as he raged this week about the audacity of the House Judiciary Committee, but January 6 sits like the elephant in every DC room these days, especially at the Capitol, as the MAGA insurgency that attacked the House that day is now — as Democrats see it — continuing its mission through cells planted inside the House.
Swalwell (D-CA), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was busy excoriating the committee’s proceedings on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of congress — and savaging what he characterized as the outlandish hypocrisy of the Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
That hypocrisy is driven home by Jordan’s insistence that Biden comply with a congressional subpoena, when he himself would not do the same when called to testify about January 6.
In making comparisons, and drawing differences, between the Jordan and Biden situations, Swalwell almost incidentally described January 6 as “the greatest crime ever committed in America.”
Swalwell to Jordan: How dumb do you think the American people are that you would seek to hold someone in contempt when you are 608 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes, and 47 seconds out of compliance of your own subpoena pic.twitter.com/Y5TuNPH0wu
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 10, 2024
Underscoring Jordan’s own failure to comply with a subpoena, Swalwell says: “On May 31, 2022, as the January 6 Committee was investigating the greatest crime ever committed in America — with the most arrests, the most convictions. A crime against our Congress, our Constitution, our Democracy.”
NBC news reports that “more than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol…Nearly 900 people have been convicted so far.”
Ways of measuring crime vary — with metrics including number of victims, public resonance, catalytic effects for lasting change and much more.
Other candidates for “greatest crime committed in America” according to search engine results include — but are hardly limited to — Lincoln’s assassination, Kennedy’s assassination, Watergate, various serial killer rampages, Manson family murders, various school shootings, 9/11 and slavery.
[NOTE: Hunter Biden has asked to testify publicly rather than behind closed doors to avoid what he sees as the potential for damaging MAGA-spun misinterpretations of his testimony by hostile committee members. His request to testify in the open air was rejected.]
