12 Leaders The Economist June 11th 2022
T
he essenceofwhathappenedonJanuary6th 2021 iswell
known, if still shocking to recall. A mob stormed the Capitol
in Washington, dc, in an effort to prevent Congress from certify
ing Joe Biden’s election victory. Four people in the crowd died
that day, and five police officers in its aftermath. Members of
Congress had to be rushed to a secure location in a basement. Ri
oters erected a mock gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence”.
And the man who inspired all this was the president himself,
who had urged his followers to help overturn his election defeat.
As the Republicans’ leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, told
the Senate a few weeks later, Donald Trump was “practically and
morally responsible” for these events: “The people who stormed
this building believed they were acting on the wishes and in
structions of their president.”
So what is the point of the public hearings of
the House committee probing the insurrection
due to start on June 9th (see United States sec
tion)? From Thursday’s primetime political
theatre to half a dozen sessions that will follow
before a final report in September, the coverage
will be viewed very differently on either side of
a polarised country. Commentators on the right
will belittle it all as a witch hunt. And after November’s mid
term elections, in which the Republicans look likely to win con
trol of the House, they can be counted on to bury the matter.
Yet that ticking clock gives an urgency to the proceedings,
which matter profoundly, for three reasons. One flows from the
basic workings of democracy: institutions must do their job. It is
the task of Congress to probe how an assault on the Capitol hap
pened and conclude what lessons can be learned. Its ninemem
ber committee—seven Democrats and two principled Republi
cans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger—has gone about it in a
commendably thorough, bipartisan way, despite much resis
tance. On June 3rd the Department of Justice charged Peter Na
varro, a former economic adviser to Mr Trump, for refusing tocooperatewiththecommittee(thoughitstrangely decided not
to act against Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at
the time of the riot, despite similar obstructionism).
Second, though the core of the story is known, many vital de
tails are not—especially concerning the extent of the coup’s
planning and how directly the president was involved. Some re
vealing details, such as text messages from Mr Trump’s family to
Mr Meadows urging him to persuade his boss to stop the riot,
have dribbled out in the course of the committee’s work so far.
More can be expected in the public hearings, given that they will
draw on information gleaned from more than 1,000 depositions
and interviews and over 140,000 documents.
A flow of fresh facts about the depth of plotting would rein
force the third reason why these hearings are
important: the threat is not over. True, Amer
ica’s democracy prevailed despite the attack.
Members of Congress were eventually able to go
back into the chamber and they duly certified
the election (albeit that, despite the violence
that had occurred that day, 138 Republican
House members still voted to reject the results
in Pennsylvania). Mr Biden became president.
But even now 60% of Republicans believe Mr Trump’s lie that the
election was stolen. And the party has decided that the insurrec
tion was not serious enough to break with Mr Trump, leaving
him the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. If
Republicans select him, Mr McConnell says he will back him.
Astonishing as it may seem, given what is already known
about his efforts to thwart the will of the electorate, let alone
what may be discovered, Mr Trump could well win back the pres
idency legitimately. In case he does not, his supporters are striv
ing to put in place officials who may make a future challenge to
the voters’ verdict succeed. The committee’s work, including the
public hearings, is a vital part of the eternal vigilancethat, more
than ever, is needed to defend American democracy.nWhy America’s probe into the attempted coup last year is needed, before it’s too lateHigh time for prime time
The Capitol-riot hearingsM
ore than100 days into the war in Ukraine, the biggest
sanctions programme ever imposed on a major economy
is still being tightened. America and Europe have frozen Russia’s
currency reserves held in Western banks. On June 3rd the Euro
pean Union joined America and Britain in placing a partial em
bargo on Russia’s oil exports, and also cut off Sberbank, its larg
est lender, from the swift interbank messaging system. A mot
ley crew of oligarchs and their toys have been sanctioned. In Fiji
the Amadea, a 100metre superyacht with a helipad and pool, is
the subject of Western actions, as are private planes in Dubai and
Chelsea football club in England. Sanctions have caused serious disruption to Russia’s econ
omy and if kept in place will impair its performance for years.
Even so, their limitations are clear. Owing to high energy pric
es—Brent crude costs about $120 a barrel—Vladimir Putin’s re
gime is enjoying bumper revenues. Because only Western coun
tries and a handful of Asian allies are enforcing sanctions, many
customers continue to buy Russian oil. As a result, by the end of
2023 its crude production is expected to be only about 20% be
low its prewar level. Kremlinlinked tycoons are still free to tra
vel much of the world. Russian missiles continue to slaughter
civilians in Ukraine and devastate its economic capacity.Permanently grabbing Russian assets is a seductive idea. It would also be a mistakeSeizing the moment
Sanctions and Russia