Why the January 6th Mob Wasn’t Stopped in Time
Plus, Perils to Free Speech from Woke and Anti-Woke.
Recently in The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: James Carville and Bill Kristol Walk Into a Bar...
ZANDY HARTIG: The Devastating Portrait of Postpartum Depression in ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’
JUST BETWEEN US🎧: The Greatest Gift to TFG 🔐
You can support The Bulwark by subscribing to Bulwark+ or just by sharing this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
AMANDA CARPENTER: Why the January 6th Mob Wasn’t Stopped in Time.
The House January 6th Committee did an excellent job in its final report of proving that former President Donald Trump incited the insurrectionist mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol. What the report did not do is make any concentrated attempt to explain why the vast law enforcement and national security apparatus based in Washington failed to stop the attack.
While Trump deserves ultimate blame for the attack, many others deserve a share as well for not having prevented the attack and for the fact that it went on as long as it did. In order to prevent something similar from happening again, it’s important to study January 6th not only through a political lens but also as a massive law enforcement and security failure. After all, it is shocking how easy it was for random Trump rallygoers, who mobilized on foot as part of a widely publicized event that was broadcast live by national news media, to breach the Capitol—thought to be one of the most protected buildings in one of the most policed cities in the country—and throw Congress into complete and total disarray. How could this have happened?
THEODORE R. JOHNSON: What the Cori Bush-Byron Donalds Clash Tells Us About Black American Politics.
After fifteen attempts over several days, Kevin McCarthy finally secured enough votes to become speaker of the House, as was expected. But the fifteen minutes of fame enjoyed by congressional newcomer Byron Donalds, one of just eleven Black Republicans to serve in the House in the last 120 years, was rather unexpected. For eight successive rounds of voting, Donalds was the anti-McCarthy choice of as many as twenty MAGA Republican hardliners who held the process hostage as they extracted concessions from their speaker-to-be.
This was a major moment—not just because it was the most contested speaker election since before the Civil War, but because for the first time in American history, each party had nominated a black American to be Speaker. (Hakeem Jeffries, who succeeded Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democratic Caucus, was his party’s unanimous choice in every round of the speakership balloting.) Donalds’s ethnicity was a point of pride for the anti-McCarthy contingent, with Republican Chip Roy accompanying his nomination of Donalds by noting its historic nature before quickly pivoting to point out race had nothing to do with it. His colleague Scott Perry offered a pedantic history lesson a few rounds later to help justify his support for Donalds, noting that the Republican party of the mid-eighteenth century was the party of Frederick Douglass and the nation’s first black congressional members.
Without his secret pact, Kevin McCarthy likely would not be Speaker. Now, the American public — and members of Congress — are in the dark about the terms of McCarthy’s agreement. Plus, will Joe Biden’s classified documents sink a prosecution of Trump? Aaron Blake joins Charlie Sykes today.
Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice. Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
CATHY YOUNG: Perils to Free Speech from Woke and Anti-Woke.
Another day, another battle in America’s free speech wars: This time it’s at Hamline University, a private liberal arts school in Minnesota with about 1,800 undergraduates where an adjunct professor has lost her job for showing a fourteenth-century Persian painting of the prophet Muhammad in an art class after she gave ample warnings that it could be offensive to Muslims. Granted, it’s one incident at an obscure private school. But it also points to bigger issues of the effects of identity-focused social justice politics on intellectual freedom, in an era when many believe that criticizing the left is a diversion from far more serious threats on the right.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Wednesday. Don’t worry, your gas stove is safe, and so is Snoopy, who just got back from the moon. If you’re having a bad hump day, it could be worse, you could have been stuck on the Auto Train (which goes from my neck of the woods to Florida.) I’ve never understood the appeal of the auto train, but I do understand the appeal of this train ride.
A profile… Of Mayor Holt, who remains wildly popular, despite being an anti-Trump Republican. (Read his Bulwark item here.)
The nationwide FAA ground stop… Explained by a pilot.
Take a flight… Through the amazing City Museum in Saint Louis.
A poem, by Jeffrey Sachs:
And that, said Jeffrey on Twitter that day
Is the stupidest thing I've heard anyone say.
Should teachers need parents to give their consent
Before any second of class time is spent
On answering students with questions on race?
My God. How'd we ever wind up in this place?
But to understand why the poem is so good, you have to start at the top of this thread about a school in Ohio.
HOV lanes and Pregnancy… Has become again become a political issue, this time in Virginia. Redditors debate what could go wrong.
No more sleeping in the office… As members can get housing reimbursements for their time in D.C.
The boring journey… Of Matthew Yglesias.
Does it come with free hats? House Dems weigh in on the “Tin Foil Committee.”
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
—30—
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.