Republican politicians can't duck the implications of Jan. 6

Voters deserve leaders who aren't afraid of the truth

An elephant.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Donald Trump has spent the past year trying to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol. He's forcing Republican politicians and their media allies to choose between the expedient option — defending or ignoring Trump — and the patriotic one — denouncing him.

Earlier this week, Trump canceled a promised news conference at his Mar-a-Lago home, which would have marked the one-year anniversary of the riots, after a small handful of GOP senators said it was time to move on. But the critics didn't fully rein him in: Trump used his cancellation announcement to say he instead would hold a rally in Arizona on Jan. 15 to "discuss many of those important topics," including ones the "Lame Stream Media" refuses to report. There, he'll likely repeat charges that the 2020 election was stolen, and claim that any actual "insurrection" took place on Election Day, when he was "fraudulently" denied a second term.

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Rick Henderson

Rick Henderson is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Reason, The Dispatch, and many other publications. He and his family live in North Carolina. He's also the social director of the Raleigh Uke Jam.