Book Review: The January 6 Report

 

This is the official Congressional report of the January 6th domestic terror attack on the US Capitol during the certification of electors for the 2020 Presidential election. If you watched the televised hearings, the report basically follows the same format as the hearings. There is an executive summary at the beginning, spanning a little over 100 pages, that summarizes the information in the rest of the report and lays out the overall findings. Then, each chapter is devoted to different aspects or topics, from planning the gathering to the execution of the attack, and a final chapter with the Committee's recommendation. The second to the last chapter involves what the orange genital wart was and was not doing from the time it spoke at its rally, firing up the already angry crowd until it begrudgingly put out a video telling people to go home hours later. 

Each chapter of the report is anywhere from 50 to 100 pages in length (the entire thing is about 750 pages) and devoted to a specific topic. After each chapter, there are several pages of endnotes (hundreds per chapter). Some of the notes just point to a specific source, and some of them flesh out the sentence or paragraph it is noting. 

At the beginning of the book, there are three forwards. The first will vary, depending on what version of the report you get. The one I have includes a forward by Ari Melber, one of the MSNBC evening anchors. In it, he basically gives a high-level overview of what happened on January 6th, and what crimes could potentially be charged. Then, there is a short forward by Nancy Pelosi, one by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, and one by Vice Chair, Liz Cheney.

The text of the report does include a lot of detail, specifically about the planning leading up to January 6th that was not in the televised hearings. The one area that I think the report is lacking is more detail about how much advanced warning various law enforcement and intelligence agencies had leading up to the attack and what they did or did not do with that information. Some of that information is spread throughout the various chapters, but I think a chapter devoted to that topic was warranted, as well as specific recommendations based on the findings. Overall, however, I think it is something that everyone concerned about preserving our Republic should read.