One of the biggest news stories out right now is coming from Washington, where the House Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol building has been taking place. There was about 12 minutes of never before released footage showing the violence behavior of those taking part in what frankly can be called an insurrection.
It should be noted that there have been plenty of attempted coups in other countries which also failed, of course. In some cases, they were dismissed and largely seen as a joke, much like this one is by some. However, this was no joke. And this was no foreign country. This happened on American soil, where many Americans like to brag, at least traditionally, about how stable our democracy is. Ever since January 6th, it is looking a whole lot less stable.
On that day, Donald Trump was still the sitting president. He had sent out tweets before the event urging his supporters to come, that it was going to be huge. This, specifically, was what he tweeted on December 19, 2020, just weeks before the day when his supporters stormed the Capitol:
"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"
It was Trump who delivered a speech, claiming that he would be right there alongside his supporters as they went to the Capitol building, even though he made no effort to actually be there. He directed them to the Capitol building, urging the crowd to be strong, "because you'll never take back your country with weakness," in Trump's own words. "You have to show strength and you have to be strong."
No, Trump was not actually there as he promised, yet Trump's name and stated cause nevertheless were very present on flags and on the clothing of those who participated in the riot, and there were no shortage of MAGA hats clearly visible in almost all footage of any significant length of the event.
The Committee seems to have made clear that this was Trump's last ditch effort to retain power, even though he had clearly lost the 2020 election. Even members of Trump's own staff confirmed, under oath, that they made clear to President Trump that there was nothing substantive to allegations of a big election fraud that effectively stole the election away from Trump. Former Attorney General William Barr in particular can be seen saying that he made it very clear that he did not agree that the election was stolen from Trump. Even Trump's own daughter, Ivanka, agreed with Barr's assessment that the election was not stolen from Trump.
Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney, is the leading voice against the former president, despite being a Republican. She is one of the rare Republicans who has actively and consistently opposed Trump and blatantly criticized his actions. In what seems to me to be an act of bravery that much of the rest of her party can learn from, she is calling a spade a spade, and laying down exactly what happened on that day, and who is responsible. In short, of course, Donald Trump. Here is how she summed it up:
"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack."
She then reminded everyone of Trump's own words when he learned of his supporters apparent deisre to hang Trump's own Vice-President Mike Pence:
"Maybe our supporters have the right idea." She said, and then went on that Trump suggest that Mike Pence, "deserves it."
Cheney warned members of her Republican party who have remained blindly loyal to Trump, despite all of the ridiculous crap that he has pulled:
"There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."
And of course, there was new footage released, showing the extent of the violence on that day, just weeks before Joe Biden was to be sworn in as the new president, because he won the election fair and square, whether or not Trump and his mass of blindly loyal supporters want to believe it or not. Again, if there was actual proof of some kind of massive voter fraud, do you think somebody with as big a mouth as Donald Trump would actually have held back on the specifics? Why didn't his legal team argue any of this supposedly damning evidence when they had their multiple days in court?
Because it's all bullshit, of course. Trump lost, and my guess is that nobody knows this better than Trump himself. Listening to him, you would never known that his poll numbers were never strong, and that he never went above 49 percent approval ratings, which were the very highest support numbers he ever achieved. You would never know, if you only listened to him, that it would even be possible, let alone probable, that he was such a polarizing figure that he brought out masses of people to come out and vote against him in the 2020 election. And you would never know that he was warned by several members of his own administration that there was no real evidence of any massive voter fraud that stole the election from him.
Given all of this, it seems clear that Trump was indeed largely responsible for what happened on January 6th in the Capitol building. He deserves to be barred from ever running for public office again, because his menace to American democracy itself is very real. Frankly, I think almost everything that he did while in office should be scrutinized, and much of it should be undone.
However, the political climate in the United States presently feels so ridiculous, so divisive, and so skewed that it feels like Trump will succeed in what he has always specialized in, and that is getting away with frankly criminal behavior. Obviously, this is not what I want to happen, but what I suspect might very well happen. And if it does turn out that this is what happens, then this country will, once again, have dismantled yet another of the pillars of what sure feels like a democracy crumbling, as our country itself too often feels like it is falling apart at the seams. And I can damn well say with certainty that it is not Trump's lies and self-serving claims of greatness that are not going to reverse this downward spiral.
Nevertheless, for what it's worth, I applaud those lawmakers - most notably the Republican Liz Cheney - for standing up to this tyrannical mindset by Trump and his supporters and exposing the danger that the cult of King Con Don poses to American democracy.
Trump tweeted "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" and thousands of insurrectionists heeded the call by Logan Jaffe, Lydia DePillis, Isaac Arnsdorf and J. David McSwane, ProPublica on Wed, Jan 13, 2021:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/president-trump-tweeted-big-protest-in-dc-on-january-6th-be-there-will-be-wild-and-thousands-of-insurrectionists-heeded-the-call-28622391
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