We’ve seen how Democrats are ramping up Jan. 6 Committee stuff to try to attack Republicans with it as we approach the midterms. They know they are about to get crushed in the elections, and this is about all they have left — given they are bereft of good policies and Joe Biden has made such a mess of things.

As I noted earlier, not only is it about the midterms this year, it’s about doing anything they can to stop President Donald Trump from being able to run again. Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-WY) said the quiet part out loud in an interview Sunday with CBS News, revealing that was the “single most important thing.”

But there may be another purpose out there that the chair of the Committee Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) alluded to today during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” Thompson said that the Committee was going to recommend new legislation.

Thompson said they needed to increase their “intelligence-gathering components.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of House Jan. 6 committee, says the panel will recommend new legislation to boost intelligence gathering to prevent future attacks on U.S. Capitol.

"It was clear that we were not apprised that something would happen." https://t.co/eAuVOrCAJr pic.twitter.com/pfLDPTNjiL

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 2, 2022

“As you know, it was clear that we were not apprised that something would happen,” Thompson said. But, for the most part, it was the worst kept secret in America that people were coming to Washington, and the potential for coordination and what we saw was there. So, we want to make sure that never happens again.”

Intelligence gathering? What are they talking about here, and who are they planning on directing it against, as if we didn’t know? When he starts tossing around terms like that, it makes people wonder just what are they going to try to pull here.

At this point, they have done all they can to warp a three-hour riot into something it wasn’t, to try to use it to go after their political opponents. Would anyone doubt that they’d use “intelligence gathering” to do the same? It’s a very dicey proposition to direct “intelligence-gathering” against political opponents.

If you’re pursuing criminal actions, that’s one thing. But if you’re pursuing people based on political belief, then you are going to trip over all kinds of Constitutional violations, plus go even further down this road of becoming a banana republic and violating our basic beliefs to spy on your political opponents. This is the party that had the campaign of its 2016 candidate behind spreading a false smear of Russia collusion with information that was given to the FBI and the media to be used against her political opponent.

While people certainly knew there was going to be a rally, that’s fully allowable under the Constitution. But we see on the left and from Never Trumpers, a conflating of the two things — the rally and the riot. If what they’re talking about is spying on any rally organizing, that could be exceedingly problematic. Meanwhile, as I said, they aren’t doing anything to look at the criminal organizing of Antifa, for example, to attack ICE facilities or other federal and local law enforcement facilities.

This is an extremely troubling issue and one that should be raising all kinds of red flags, if this is what they are going to be pursuing. This is another reason that cries for Democrats to be turned out of office in the midterms, when Democrats go in these directions.

The @January6thCmte is working on a bill to enhance the federal government’s ability to surveil American citizens and engage in domestic intelligence gathering.

This is dangerous and I fear would be used to target political opponents. We must protect Americans’ right to privacy! https://t.co/gWYnF8R7nt

— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) January 2, 2022

Intelligence gathering in a domestic civil society context is already a massive problem thanks ro the misnamed PATRIOT Act and the already too expansive AG Guidelines, FBI “Assessments” etc. 🚨on this proposal. https://t.co/arRAtQcnAx

— Patrick Eddington (@PGEddington) January 2, 2022