Win McNamee // Getty Images Presidents may linger in the collective American consciousness for many reasons. Perhaps they were embroiled in controversies like Nixon, Clinton, or Trump. Maybe, like Kennedy, their time in office was defined by the trage.
<p>Historians of the Civil War era including Manisha Sinha and Joanne Freeman, suggest that the Jan. 6 Committee has assembled a documentary record of events that can support a definitive understanding of events. But what politicians and voters make of the information will determine what history is written. </p>
The Jan. 6 committee seems to have aimed its work at history, rather than the political cycle. On Monday, it made some of its own, for the first time recommending that a former president be prosecuted on criminal charges.