Consciousness of Guilt

I thought of the incident when I read years ago about Texas Governor Rick Perry. He had been too lazy to glance through a report proving the innocence of a man on death row. He allowed that innocent man to be executed. He blocked a later report about the fatal miscarriage of justice.

I thought about it again after President Obama, in a ceremony with the Prime Minister of Japan, made a few innocuous remarks about respect for human diversity. Donald Trump, just elected, not yet President, reacted with anger at what he called Obama’s “inflammatory comments.” Trump apologists were apoplectic. How dare he attack the incoming President!

And I’ve been thinking about it a lot this month.

The incident itself happened decades ago, when I was much younger.

My beloved elderly relative was distraught. She had been checking her mailbox every day. Her Social Security check wasn’t there. She needed it to pay basic bills.

Her husband was not a popular character within the family. He was pompous, preening, and had a tendency toward self serving untruth. He enjoyed spending money and forgetting to mention it to his wife. He also had a reputation of having sticky fingers.

He was sullen as I reassured her. The check was probably late. But if it was lost or stolen, she only had to report it. These things happened, and there were procedures.

The only people who had anything to worry about would be anyone who might have taken the check from her mailbox. Stolen government checks are always traced, I said, and thieves are dealt with harshly. If the check was lost a replacement check would be issued. If the check had been stolen, a replacement check would be issued and someone would later be caught and go to jail. She could count on it.

Her hard-to-take husband jumped to his feet in anger.
How dare I threaten him with jail!!!

The money, by coincidence, showed up later that day.

Consciousness of guilt is sometimes used by prosecutors as evidence. That guilt is why a coverup is sometimes counter-productive. It is why the outburst of the thieving husband was a confession.

That consciousness came to mind after a Democratic member of Congress was asked whether the Capitol Hill rioters had had help from other members:

Nicolle Wallace (Interviewing):

So I just want to burrow into this fact, it’s so startling. Is it a Member or Member staff who gave tours to insurrectionists the day before the riot on Wednesday?

Rep Sean Maloney:

Again, I don’t have all the specifics on that. My understanding is that there was a Member showing people around. And that was the reason that when the person who relayed that story to me objected, the answer comes, “well, they’re with a Member of Congress.”

Adding:

We can’t be sure a member of this body wouldn’t be bringing people around the night before who the next day may have been participating in the murder of a Capitol Police Officer. I can’t believe I’m saying these things, but this is where we find ourselves and we don’t plan to be caught off guard again.

Within hours, an unexpected burst of anger came from Republican Representative Lauren Boebert. She posted an open letter:

During a live interview yesterday, you said you could “confirm” a Member of Congress gave Capitol tours to “insurrectionists” and implied that I was that Member of Congress.

She insisted she could disprove Maloney’s accusations and, strangely, included this:

During the riots, my mother was locked in a secure location, not in the U.S. Capitol, with my staff and never left their sight.

Why an innocent person who had no advance notice that violence was planned would arrange for her mom to be locked in a secure location, not in the U.S. Capitol remains a mystery to this day.

Maloney told her to read the transcript. He had mentioned no names. She later backtracked her indignation, thanking him for his “clarification.”

Then there was more.

During President Biden’s inaugural address he spoke these words:

And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.

It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:

Unity.

Unity.

That night, Senator Rand Paul appeared on the Fox network.

Also, if you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book, calling us people who don’t tell the truth.

That same evening, Tucker Carlson elaborated:

Now that we’re waging war on White supremacists, can somebody tell us in very clear language what a White supremacist is?

I would have thought the context of the phrase used by our new President would have been made clear two weeks before. Political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism strikes me as an accurate description of those who killed and injured Police Officers, tried to assassinate Senators and Members of Congress, after storming through security lines into Senate and House chambers.

It is interesting to me that noted conservatives can see that description as aimed at them.

President Biden: Racism is wrong.
Tucker Carlson: What the hell do you mean by that?
Rand Paul: How dare you attack conservatives!

It is worth noting that a Republican Representative would see a comment about lending support to rioters as directed at her.

Rep Sean Maloney: I hear that some Member of Congress might have given a reconnaissance tour to insurgents.
Lauren Boebert: How dare you accuse me! I had my mother put into a secure location before the attack!

And, of course,
An innocent husband: How dare you threaten me with prison!!!

Consciousness of accuracy.