On first read, I thought the Times was conceding its obsession and describing its mission. For the editorial began by bewailing yet anew the "horrifying" event, "the very real bloodshed of that awful day," the "once-unthinkable trauma."

Still, a year later, said the Times, "the Republic faces an existential threat," as the "Capitol riot … continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court."

"We should stop underestimating the threat facing the country. … (our) democracy … is in grave danger."

What the Times is saying is that the electoral reforms being enacted democratically in red states — requiring voter IDs, for example, and subject to judicial review — are a Republican continuation of the Capitol riot.

Why cannot our liberal media let it go? Why does the distortion and hysteria about Jan. 6 seem to grow with each retelling?

Now, undeniably, as I wrote in a column the next morning, Jan. 6 was "The Worst of Days for Trump & Trumpists."

"The worst of the day's events for Trump came when a segment of a friendly crowd of 50,000 he just addressed concluded its march down the Mall to the U.S. Capitol by smashing its way into the building and invading and occupying the Senate and House chambers.