The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was of too much historical significance and legal importance to go without a formal investigation by a fact-based congressional commission. Americans deserve to know how the insurrection was planned and executed, and why Capitol security failed so dismally. Blind partisanship has no place when the goal is getting to the bottom of an attack on the seat of American democracy and an attempt to obstruct the election-confirmation process.

Republicans seem to hope that the insurrection by their own party faithful might fall into some vast memory black hole, never to be brought up again. That's pure fantasy. Americans deserve to be reminded again and again of the fact that a mob, including white supremacists and deluded QAnon conspiracy nuts, seized the Capitol by force and threatened to put the vice president and top congressional leaders on trial.

On the 100th day since the insurrection, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a draft bill calling on Congress to establish a national commission to investigate the attack, similar to the 9/11 Commission. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately slammed her proposal as "partisan by design."

The attack itself was partisan by design. Any findings, regardless of partisan balance, would be remiss if they failed to acknowledge that the insurrection was entirely spawned and supported by then-President Donald Trump to serve his political agenda. To grant equal voice to those seeking to whitewash what happened would be to deny historical fact.

"We do not owe delusional deniers a role or a platform in a commission designed to try to ferret out extremism and violence to prevent its recurrence," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, told The Hill. "They're denying that the Trump mob was the Trump mob."

A coalition of 140 former national security and military leaders and elected officials who served under Democratic and Republican administrations submitted a letter to Congress seeking such a commission to investigate the causes and to recommend ways to prevent future assaults.

Congressional Republicans have objected to the scope of the commission.

McConnell seeks to broaden it to include instances of left-wing violence that took place last summer, even though they had nothing to do with the Capitol attack.

Due to the country's intense political polarization, the commission's findings must be perceived as unbiased. But that doesn't mean it should sugar-coat the facts. Pelosi said she's willing to include a rule that subpoenas could not be issued without bipartisan support.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a nonviolent protest or was the work of left-wing activists trying to make Trump look bad. (Five people died in the violence.) The Republican leadership seems perfectly happy to let such misinformed notions persist. The more they maneuver to water-down the commission's functions, the more Americans should be asking: What are the Republicans trying to hide?

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