'Bring it on': Defiant Raskin responds to GOP threats of retaliation for J6 investigation

WASHINGTON — In this new Congress, the Republican Party’s newly empowered ranks of far-right members are set on changing the conversation surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Besides calling on incoming President Donald Trump to pardon those imprisoned for violently storming the Capitol — which Trump has promised to do the day he re-enters the White House — some Republicans are preparing to go after their colleagues who served on the bipartisan select Jan. 6 committee that disbanded in 2023.

“You had some really weird stuff going on in that J6 committee,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Raw Story at the Capitol. “And, if it's true, then there was a massive abuse of power.”

Even if unfounded, the GOP rhetoric is now a reality to many on the right that has those who served on the select committee saying, 'bring it on."

“We welcome any further investigation of Jan. 6 that they want to engage in,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Raw Story while walking through the Capitol recently. “I've not seen an attack on even the smallest detail, so if they could come forward with a couple of those, then I might be able to accept what they're saying is something other than just idle political rhetoric.”

“It's really a sad thing”

At the end of this last year, House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chair Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) dropped a 128-page report charging former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) with witness tampering and calling for the FBI to investigate the former House Republican leader. Cheney dismisses the allegations as baseless politics, even as Trump and many rank-and-file Republicans are using them as their springboard to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021.

“For instance, Liz Cheney was essentially engaged in something which might be perceived as suborning perjury — you know, that type of thing with contacting a witness outside, persuading them to change their story,” Biggs — who refused to testify in spite of being one of five Republicans subpoenaed by the select committee — said. “I don't know if that's [true] — we don't know.”

While Republicans “don’t know,” you wouldn’t know that listening to their rhetoric, including asking questions that have already been dismissed and disproven.

“I think those are certainly fair questions to ask,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Raw Story.

Democrats beg to differ.

“It's really a sad thing,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Raw Story as she and her security detail were hopping a Capitol elevator.

Alumni of the select Jan. 6 committee are also brushing aside the GOP’s latest attempt to tarnish their work.

“I did my job. I stand by the work that the committee produced,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) — the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus — told Raw Story Friday. “I'm not too concerned about it. Donald Trump’s a bully — he’s always been — he's always tried to bully people. I'm not scared, I did my job.”

While the Biden White House initially withheld some transcripts from House Republicans, they eventually handed over transcripts with sensitive and personal data redacted, which Republicans protested. But Democrats say the GOP’s purposely distracting from the horrors of that day.

Before the Jan. 6 select committee disbanded, members dropped an 814-page report summarizing their findings after interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses, conducting 10 hearings and obtaining upwards of a million pages worth of documents.

“This was the most transparent committee, probably, in the history of Congress,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — another appointee to the nine-member J6 panel — told Raw Story while riding an elevator in the Capitol. “Everything's out there.”

With Biggs and four other Republicans — including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — rebuffing the select committee’s subpoenas, Lofgren suggests she and other committee members are prepared to follow the GOP’s lead.

“I do know they set the standard for responding to subpoenas,” Lofgren said.

Raskin, a constitutional lawyer by trade, agrees, and he adds that he’s still waiting for the GOP to produce any evidence to back up their unfounded rhetoric.

“There have been multiple documentaries, hundreds of articles and a definitive, exhaustive report done on it. They have not contradicted a single fact in the Jan. 6 select committee's report,” Raskin said.

“Really? They're saying that publicly?”

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the failed insurrection, only two remain in Congress, Reps. David Valadao (R-CA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA).

When Raw Story asked Newhouse about his fellow Republicans' plan to go after select committee members, the five-term congressman was stunned.

“Really?” Newhouse asked Raw Story recently. “They're saying that publicly?”

“Yeah,” Raw Story replied. “Do you worry that your party might be going too far in the other direction as J6 fades into our rearview?”

“We've got so many challenges facing this country. I really think we need to look forward and address those things instead of being distracted,” Newhouse said. “I'm not sure it's the party going that way, but I guess you could argue that Trump is the leader of the party today.”

While an outlier in today’s GOP, Newhouse hopes his party wakes up and works to protect democracy, not undermine it as the world witnessed four years ago on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I don't want to diminish the seriousness of that day in any way,” Newhouse told Raw Story. “We’ve got to make sure that — this is becoming trite and I hate to say it — but we’ve got to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

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