[The Hill] Threats to U.S. democracy highlighted by the House Jan. 6 select committee’s blockbuster hearings are fizzling as a midterm election issue, drowned out by inflation and other economic concerns that appear to be driving voters in the final weeks of the campaign.While the committee examining the 2021 Capitol attack has made a convincing case that the American experiment is a fragile one — and is sounding dire warnings that the foundational threat remains very much alive — the message is being overshadowed by more immediate economic anxieties, according to a series of recent national polls.
The trend threatens to undermine Democratic efforts to make former President Trump — and his ongoing bid to overturn the 2020 election results — a political liability for Republican candidates in races coast to coast. And that, in turn, spells bad news for Democrats fighting to retain razor-thin majorities in both the House and Senate, helping to keep President Biden’s approval rating underwater while lending an eleventh-hour boost to Republicans eyeing a return to power.
The late-cycle dynamics have exasperated Democratic leaders and investigators on the Jan. 6 committee, who are warning of an existential threat to democracy if the same Republicans who voted to keep Trump in power take the reins of Congress. Still, the uphill battle hasn’t stopped those Trump critics from amplifying their case in the home stretch.