Alternatives to the Jan. 6th Commission (Feat. Norman Ornstein)

Objections: With Adam Klasfeld

Despite Senate Republicans voting down the idea of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6th siege of the U.S. Capitol, there remain multiple avenues for a similar probe to take root.

Laying out those alternatives on the podcast, congressional scholar Norman Ornstein notes that any of the remaining options will face unique challenges.

"Every time we've had commissions in the past—whether if you go back to the Kerner Commission set up by a presidential decree, an executive order by Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy, all the way through things like the 9/11 Commission—they've been bipartisan and evenly divided," Ornstein noted on the podcast.

For Ornstein, the fact that Rep. Greg Pence (R-Ind.) voted against a commission to investigate the same pro-Trump mob that chanted for his brother Mike Pence to be hanged shows how impossible such cooperation has become.

On the episode, Ornstein rattles off the drawbacks and benefits of proceeding through a select committee created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an executive order by President Joe Biden, or a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department.

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