House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised to release more than 44,000 hours of surveillance footage from Jan. 6 to the public, with one major caveat: The faces of some individuals who participated in the storming of the Capitol, a violent attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election, will be blurred out.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson said that “the release of the January 6 tapes is a critical and important exercise, we want transparency … we trust — House Republicans trust — the American people to draw their own conclusions.”
Johnson added that the party is going “through a methodical process of releasing them as quickly as we can” and that they “have to blur some of the faces of the persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ and to have other, you know, concerns and problems.”
I understand your point, and appreciate your respect too. If this were petty crime, e.g. shoplifting by some individuals, then I’d agree on keeping the video sealed until due process has, well, processed.
What do we do with several thousand people attacking the core of our democratic process? How do we keep historical accuracy for the future as well, we need to teach people what happened.
I’m conflicted, personally, because I’m glad our representatives see that they’re not untouchable. Maybe it’ll keep them interested in serving those ordinary citizens outside the vaunted halls of the capitol. On the other hand, I strongly disagree with the reasoning behind the traitors’ attempt, and find both the timing and the method suspiciously well planned, by someone who I generally find despicable on multiple levels.