GOP does its best to show us how to normalize an insurrection

Well, it took long enough. House Speaker Mike Johnson has finally started releasing 44,000 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault that many, including me, hoped would shed more light on what really happened on that chaotic day.

- Clarence Page

Unfortunately, it took barely more than a nanosecond for former President Donald Trump and his allies to pounce on the new evidence and touch off a new wave of conspiracy theories, most of which appear to be a rehash of the old evidence in a feeble attempt to promote an alternative history.

For example, Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, have called for an investigation into the earlier House committee's investigation.

They cite footage of Trump supporters walking peacefully past Capitol Police officers, which sounds like the security video that conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, then of Fox News, cited in a selectively edited attempt to recast the riot as a peaceful protestor, as Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia famously described the insurrectionists, "a normal tourist visit."

One wonders what capital he was in. Five people were fatally injured during the riot, and more than 100 officers were injured, including a Capitol Police officer who was assaulted with bear spray, suffered multiple strokes, and died a day later- of natural causes, as it turned out.