In an interview on” The View” Wednesday, former Secretary of State and former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said she “cried” on January 6th— the day right-wing rioters besieged the Capitol— but that “it’s time to move on.”
“I’m one who believes that the American people are now concerned about their…kitchen table issues— the price of gasoline, inflation, what’s happening to their kids in school.”
Her comments follow Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments that it was time for lawmakers “to be talking about the future and not the past.”
The January 6 insurrection was famously launched by people who could not move on from Trump’s defeat months after the presidential election results rolled in. With Trump launching his own social media platform and streaming service, and with hints that he’s running again in 2024, the attitudes that led to January 6th will likely persist, if not be amplified.
Americans are absolutely facing multiple crises— from evictions and limits to affordable housing, to the paucity of living wages, and, of course, an ongoing pandemic.
But as co-host Sunny Hostin retorted, “I think it’s really politically expedient for Mitch McConnell to say, ‘Let’s move on, let’s move on,’ especially when the former, twice-impeached, disgraced president enjoys attacking Mitch McConnell, but the problem is, the past will become prologue if we don’t find out exactly what happened on Jan. 6.”
Not to mention that the various kitchen table issues up for major federal investments are being whittled down thanks to resistance from McConnell, his fellow Republicans, and some conservative Democrats, who’ve made it clear that they wouldn’t support a $3.5 trillion social safety net bill.
This debate over the insurrection comes as Congress is engaged in hearings investigating the attack, which have brought renewed scrutiny to former Trump officials and prominent right-wingers.
Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President, is now facing a House vote to decide whether to charge him with criminal contempt of Congress. He hasn’t complied with a subpoena to produce records for the committee investing the insurrection.
Eighteen other officials and Trump associates have been subpoenaed by the committee, including Katrina Pierson, who was Trump’s 2016 national campaign spokesperson.
Rice’s remarks on these developments led to a heated exchange with Hostin.
“But when you have 80 percent of Republicans wanting to see Trump run in 2024,” Hostin started before Rice interrupted her.
“You know what, you know what. I’m a political scientist and unless I can see the questions that were actually in that poll, unless I can see the assumptions that were actually in that poll, I’m not going to take for granted that poll was great.”
“So Quinnipiac, you don’t believe in the poll…,” Hostin started again before another interruption.
“I said I’m a political scientist. I understand polls.”
See the exchange here: