GOP lawmakers are acting like the Capitol riot never happened to protect Trump: Ex-RNC official

According to the former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, GOP lawmakers are trying to bury the attack on the Capitol last week that left five dead behind them in an effort to protect Donald Trump during his last days in office.

Writing for the conservative Bulkwark, Tim Miller pointed out that -- with the exception of boilerplate statements deploring the violence that occurred when followers of Donald Trump stormed the halls of Congress -- Republicans have not been rushing to the press to demand hearings on what went wrong.

In fact, he suggested, they appear to want the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden to have to deal with it as a distraction during his first one hundred days.

According to Miller, by sitting on the sidelines, Republicans are giving a nod and a wink for far-right extremists to keep harassing and attacking the Democratic lawmakers.

"A responsible government—and let's be frank here, a responsible political party—would be acting in concert to stamp out this threat using every tool necessary and making the transition to a stable successor government as smooth as possible," Miller wrote. "Instead what we have is the Republican party doing everything in its power to avoid addressing the threat, making the succession to the Biden administration as challenging as possible, and desperately trying to protect Donald Trump from consequences under the insane rubric of 'national unity.'"

Calling it a "dangerous moment," Miller wrote that Republicans have been lying to the public when they claimed that they were "humoring" Trump when he threatened violence, saying that it would never happen.

"That was a lie, a wish that they were hoping to get away with, since they were too timorous to tackle the threat that was bubbling up before our eyes, " he wrote. "They are running the same play again, right now: Asking that America turn the page, hope for the best, and run out the clock of the Trump presidency. And pray that nothing else bad happens."

He then warned, "The attacks on our country that Donald Trump has agitated for are ongoing. And democracy doesn't just defend itself."

You can read the whole piece here.