The Republican National Committee on Friday officially declared the 6 January 2021 riot which left multiple police officers and civilians dead, more than 100 law enforcement officers injured, and more than 600 Americans facing criminal charges for their roles in the violence to be “legitimate political discourse”.

       The party issued the declaration in support of the pro-Trump mob which perpetrated the worst attack on the Capitol since British troops under Major General Robert Ross set it ablaze in 1814 during its annual winter meeting in a censure resolution which condemned Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger and Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney for serving on the House select committee which is investigating the root causes of that day’s violence.

       The resolution, which passed by voice vote, condemned the select committee’s efforts as “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens” and accused Mr Kinzinger and Ms Cheney of “utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes”.

       It further condemns their participation in the only congressional inquiry into the events which led to the violence — including former president Donald Trump’s efforts to install himself in the White House for a second term against the wishes of voters — as “destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives” and to the GOP as a whole.

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       The adoption of the censure resolution makes support for the violent mob and opposition to any attempt to bring about accountability for the violence the official position of the Republican Party, a political party which traces its history to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.