January Fools: Part V - The Inevitable Explosion (January 6-20, 2021)

 

 NOTE: Throughout this post, we will insert pictures of Trump (as seen below) every time you are required, if you believe in the fairy tale, to accept a ridiculously unbelievable statement, swallow an absurdity as fact, overlook an outright lie, or ignore common sense. In honor of his bone spurs, we shall use this symbol, a picture of a younger, less blubbery Trump leaping in the air on one of his golf courses.

Where Trump supporters suggest sending in the military, we shall substitute in a picture of Chinese tanks approaching Tiananmen Square. 

PART V – THE INEVITABLE EXPLOSION. 

1/6/21: The events of today are impossible to chronicle in a blog, even one as massive as this. When I woke this morning, and rose from bed, there was a lightness in my step. The Georgia senate runoff elections Tuesday, I assumed, put a coda to Lame Duck Donald’s political career. 

____________________ 

Ken Burns noted that the Founding Fathers feared both “the mob” and the “autocrat.” On January 6, he said, “we got both.”

____________________ 

 

Originally, I planned to note that six days short of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox’s term in office, an African American had been chosen to be the next U.S. senator from that state. 

Maddox rose to fame in 1964 after threating to use a pistol to shoot, or a pickaxe handle to bludgeon, any Negroes who tried to enter his Atlanta eating establishment. The “Pickrick” specialized in skillet-fried chicken with a side order of racism and a fractured skull for dessert. 

(Maddox was a Democrat, by the way, that party in the South in those days being a bastion of racists.) 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had just passed in June. Nevertheless, civil rights workers in the South were being murdered on a regular basis. Their killers were just as regularly acquitted in the courts. These were the days when black lives definitely didn’t matter. Their white allies in the civil rights movement weren’t much safer. In Maddox’s case, he proudly explained how he “stood up” for liberty and states’ rights when the n*****s came calling. 

Mostly customers, with only a few employees, voluntarily removed the twelve Pickrick Drumsticks [pickaxe handles] from the nail kegs on each side of the large dining room fireplace. They had been forewarned by the arrival of Atlanta’s news media of an impending attempted invasion of our restaurant by the racial demonstrators and once the demonstrators and agitators arrived, the customers and employees pulled the drumsticks from the kegs and went outside to defend against the threatened invasion.

 

The “invaders” were three black seminarians, who thought, in a free country, they might get a bite to eat. 

Now, here we were, half a century later. Rev. Raphael Warnock, a former seminarian himself, was headed for Congress, having defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a close race. Rev. Warnock was born in Georgia in 1969, the eleventh of twelve children, when Maddox was governor. His father served in the U.S. Army during World War II, but could not have ordered a plate of fried chicken in Lester’s place once he returned. Nor could he risk voting, lest he raise the ire of the local Ku Klux Klan. 

Almost as exciting, I thought, on Wednesday morning, was the election of Jon Ossoff, 33, who happens to be Jewish. By that time, the Democrat had a 17,500-vote lead over Sen. David Perdue. There were ballots still to be counted. Yet, it was almost certain Perdue would be unable to overcome that lead. QAnon people, a growing segment of the GOP base, would be horrified to learn that not only an African American, but a Jew, would be representing the Peach State in Washington D.C. 

Even better, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s days in power were now numbered.

 

* 

My wife and I decided to go for lunch and celebrate. We’d already had COVID-19, so we felt safe. 

Before we left, around 12:30 p.m., we caught five minutes of the president’s speech to a huge crowd, gathered for the “March to Save America” rally. I heard him tell angry supporters that he, and he said they, weren’t going to stand for having the election stolen. I looked at my wife and said I thought such rhetoric sounded dangerous. If you weren’t going to stand for it, and Congress was about to certify the election, what course was left to stop the steal – imaginary as that “steal” might have been? I heard Trump say, if the crowd let it happen, “you won’t have a country anymore.” 

I thought to myself, I’d be happy to fight for a just cause, if I believed we wouldn’t have a country anymore. 

We let the TV run, so we could rewind, and watch events unfold once we returned from lunch. 

We already knew that dozens of GOP members of the U.S. House of Representatives were planning a last-ditch challenge of the electoral vote. Included in a group of thirteen senators who said they would join the challenge were two who deserve special mention. One was soon-to-be-former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. 

A second was Sen. Ted Cruz, sure to live in infamy for his spineless support of the man he once labeled a “sniveling coward,” “utterly amoral,” “a bully,” and a man, who when telling a lie, was fully capable of believing it. 

Cruz warned, four years ago, that if Trump could not be stopped in the GOP primaries “this country could plunge into the abyss.” 

(He was right, for once.)

If you have forgotten, Trump was new to politics in February 2016, when he faced Cruz in the Iowa primary. When Cruz (“Lyin’ Ted,” as Trump called him) prevailed, Donald had his first chance to claim an election was stolen. He insisted his defeat was the result of “fraud.” 

“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa,” Candidate Donald howled, “he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” 

Just to be sure supporters got the message, three days later Trump retweeted a post from a fan: “IA [Iowa] caucus hasn’t picked nominee in 16 years! Cruz dirty tricks stole it. Trump way ahead in primary states.” 

Trump went on to claim the 2016 general election was rigged, even though he won by virtue of the Electoral College vote. Then he insisted he really won the popular vote, because Democrats got millions of votes from illegal immigrants. 

Somehow, Democrats were slick enough to steal most of those votes in California, where they had no need for them, and not in Pennsylvania or Michigan, where they did. That, like so much of what Trump has said, was the essence of nonsense. And you might have thought his fans could figure it out. 

(They didn’t.)

Trump would next claim that the 2018 midterm elections, with Democrats getting 59 million votes, vs. 50 million for GOP candidates in the House of Representatives, were rigged and fixed and unacceptable and a travesty for sure. 

He had promised a “big red wave.” 

In the 2020 presidential contest, Trump piled up 74 million votes, which was much better than 2016. It was perfectly believable to Donald and members of his cult that he increased his vote by eleven million. (He did.) But it was perfectly unbelievable that Joe Biden piled up 81 million votes. (Although he did.) 

The vote in Georgia, for example, incensed the president. It was fixed and fraudulent and Republicans who ran the system in the state had to be RINO’s, robbers and human scum. Trump lost the state by 11,779 votes. 

Then the state did two recounts. He lost again. Then he lost again. 

Just four days before disaster unfolded on Capitol Hill, the president called and begged Georgia officials to “find” 11,780 votes, or round up to 12,000, so he could win that state. (See: 1/3/21.) 

Then he campaigned for Loeffler and Perdue, even though he complained that the special elections they faced would be rigged. With his “help,” Perdue went from having an 88,000-vote lead in November, to losing by 33,000 in January. Loeffler did worse too. Democrats turned out a greater share of their base. 

That meant that the final score in Georgia election counts stood: 

Democrats:    5. 

Team Trump:   0.

 

They say, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” By the time my wife and I headed for lunch on January 6, the chunky dame was warming up her cords. Sadly, the President of the United States of America proved to be deaf.

 

* 

TIMELINE OF EVENTS 

Here we include only events or comments that pertain to the “stolen election” myth itself, and maybe a few details just for interest. A more complete listing can be found in a separate blog post.

 

JANUARY 6, 2021 

7:11 a.m.: Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, is worried enough about potential violence to have hired a former Secret Service agent to guard her during the day. She takes to Twitter to blast GOP colleagues for their plan to challenge the electoral votes:

 

We have sworn an oath under God to defend the Constitution. We uphold that oath at all times, not only when it is politically convenient.

Congress has no authority to overturn elections by objecting to electors. Doing so steals power from the states & violates the Constitution. 

 

8:06 a.m.: The Secret Service alerts agents. Ten thousand people are waiting to pass through security checkpoints to enter the “Save America” venue, and hear President Trump speak. Some are “wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and carrying radio equipment and military-grade backpacks.” 

 

8:17 a.m.: President Trump’s Twitter thumbs are already up and hard at work. He tweets: 

States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage! 

 

It’s a chilly Wednesday morning in the nation’s capital. Trump knows this is his last chance to wrest victory from Joseph R. Biden Jr. and secure a second term. He has lost sixty court challenges to election results. He remains untroubled by what the judicial branch of the government has had to say. He has asked supporters to come to D.C. for a grand conclave, last chance to claw back what he insists is a stolen election. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6,” he has tweeted. “Be there, will be wild.” 

The day after Christmas, he had tweeted angrily: 

The ‘Justice’ Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th. 

(Both the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. are led by men he picked.)

  

Like lemmings in red MAGA hats, his fans come by the tens of thousands. They gather on the Ellipse, near the Washington Monument. They are there to hear such luminaries as Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Roger Stone, the recently pardoned felon, Rudy Giuliani, and Diamond and Silk.  

 

9:00 a.m.: The “March to Save America” rally commences. Homeland Security personnel notice hundreds of backpacks left outside the venue, as rallygoers choose not to pass them through metal detectors. The Washington Post explains later that during an “exercise that the department had held a week earlier, discarded bags were an indication of possible concealed weapons.” 

Vice President Pence calls the White House. He informs the president that he has concluded he has no authority to block the certification of the electoral votes. “You don’t have the courage to make a hard decision,” Trump tells him. 

At the rally, Rep. Brooks is first to stride to the podium and speak. “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” he says. 

Today, the curtain will be pulled back and American patriots will learn by their votes which Republican senators and congressmen have the courage to fight for our America. Today, by their votes, Americans will learn which Republican congressmen and senators love their bourbon, love their cigars, love their prestige, love their personal power, love their special interest group money more than they love America.

 

Because today, Republican senators and congressmen have a simple choice. Today, Republican senators and congressmen will either vote to turn America into a godless, amoral, dictatorial, oppressed and socialist nation on the decline or they will join us or they will fight and vote against voter fraud and election theft and vote for keeping America great.

 

“Socialist Democrats attack our Bill of Rights on a daily basis,” he continues. This is a struggle he implies between all that is good and all that is evil. 

The good is all on Trump’s side. His foes, 

They attack freedom of speech, freedom of association, they attack freedom of all kind[s], including the right to bear arms. Now, let’s be clear about these socialist Democrats. They also want to destroy our free enterprise system. They don’t trust you with your individual liberty and freedom to do what’s best for yourselves or your families.

 

However, we’re going to stop them. We have definitely had some setbacks with what happened in November. We had some setbacks with what happened last night in Georgia. But we are not going to let the socialists rip the heart out of our country. We are not going to let them continue to corrupt our elections and steal from us our God-given right to control our nation’s destiny.

 

Brooks closes his speech by leading the crowd in chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

 

9:46 a.m.: National Park Police at the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial are becoming concerned. An estimated 800 Trump supporters, with large flags, are gathered at the Lincoln site. 

“113, we have individuals with shields and gas masks at the statue.”

 

“OK, they’re at the Lincoln statue with shields and masks?”

 

“10-4, and taking pictures right now with a flag that says ‘Fuck antifa.’”

 

At the same time, this warning comes in from the Washington Monument: “Just for safety, there’s a guy, a White male, walking around the flag circle with a pitchfork.” 

 

10:00 a.m.: Protesters begin gathering on the Capitol grounds. 

At the rally, Rudy Giuliani has a turn to speak. He tells the crowd that Vice President Pence can do what Jefferson did when he was vice president and challenged the electoral vote. 

This is horse manure from first syllable to final punctuation. In the election of 1800, Jefferson ran for president, and it was intended that Aaron Burr be vice president. In those days electors cast two votes, one for president, one for vice president. Jefferson and Burr, men of the same party, ended up with 80 electoral votes each. It was obvious Jefferson’s supporters meant him to be president, not Burr, who they assumed they were voting for in order to place him in the second slot. 

The opposition party, the Federalists, saw a chance to make trouble. In case of a tie in the Electoral College, the Constitution says the election shall be decided by the House of Representatives, with each state having a single vote. In the House, where each party controlled the vote of eight of sixteen states, in ballot after ballot, the Federalists continued to vote for Burr. Finally, one member of their party relented, abstained, and Jefferson prevailed. 

Jefferson didn’t “challenge” the electoral vote. The vote was tied – and per the Constitution, the decision went to the House. Burr went on to serve as vice president, although Jefferson ignored him. Later he filled Alexander Hamilton with a dose of lead, leading to the famous Broadway musical. 

Regardless, the situation in 1800 had nothing to do with a challenge like Trump was making; and Jefferson did not question the vote count. He never howled about how the U.S. Constitution was “rigged.”

 

Truth did not matter to Rudy. He insisted that all President Trump wanted was a ten-day delay, and a commission to examine all the claims of fraud he, Rudy, and other crackpots had made. “Who hides evidence?” he asked the crowd with a rhetorical shout. “Criminals hide evidence. Not honest people.” 

He continued: 

Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat. I’m willing to stake my reputation, the President is willing to stake his reputation, on the fact that we’re going to find criminality there.

 

Is Joe Biden willing to stake his reputation that there’s no crime there? No. Also, last night [during the senate runoff elections in Georgia] one of the experts that has examined these crooked dominion machines has absolutely what he believes is conclusive proof that in the last 10%, 15% of the vote counted, the votes were deliberately changed. By the same algorithm that was used in cheating President Trump and Vice President Pence. Same algorithm, same system, same thing was done with the same machines. You notice they were ahead until the very end, right? Then you noticed there was a little gap, one was ahead by 3%, the other was ahead by 2%, and gone, gone, they were even. He can take you through that and show you how they programmed that machine from the outside to accomplish that. And they’ve been doing it for years to favor the Democrats.

 

This was the worst election in American history. This election was stolen in seven states…. And it has to be vindicated to save our republic. This is bigger than Donald Trump. It’s bigger than you and me. It’s about these monuments and what they stand for. [Professor John Eastman will explain]… what happened last night, how they cheated, and how it was exactly the same as what they did on November 3rd.

 

Rudy was fired up, and hoped to fire up the crowd. “We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we can’t get the answer to this question,” he warned. “This is bigger than President Trump. It is a very essence of our republican form of government, and it has to be done. And anybody that is not willing to stand up to do it, does not deserve to be in the office. It is that simple.”

  

11:37 a.m.: Proud Boys join protesters near the Capitol Building. Trump defenders will later say their presence at this early stage proves the president didn’t incite the crowd. Then again, he did say during a presidential debate that the violent right-wing group should “stand down, but stand by.” 

And they took that call to heart.

 

11:57 p.m.: Donald John Trump begins his rally speech. “We have hundreds of thousands of people here,” he begins. He asks news media to turn their cameras and show the massive crowd. 

These people, he says, waving a hand at the throng, “They’re not going to take it any longer.”  

I’m honest. I just, again, I want to thank you. It’s just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you. Hundreds of thousands of American patriots are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.

 

12:00 p.m.: Rep. Cheney, stops by the GOP cloakroom in the House of Representatives. She sees petitions for lawmakers to sign, calling for the electoral votes in six states to be contested. Dozens of her colleagues are signing, even though only one member of the House and one in the Senate are needed to force a debate over the votes. “The thing we do for the orange Jesus,” one representative mutters. 

But he signs. 

Trump is still speaking. His frame of mind has long been clear. He’s going to do everything he can to change the outcome of the election, even if a felony or two might be involved. Yet, he intends to fool the crowd into believing their enemies, the evil Democrats, have stolen what was rightfully his. 

And theirs. 

Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. I say sometimes jokingly, but there’s no joke about it, I’ve been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first. Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country, 12 million more people than four years ago. I was told by the real pollsters, we do have real pollsters. They know that we were going to do well, and we were going to win. What I was told, if I went from 63 million, which we had four years ago to 66 million, there was no chance of losing. Well, we didn’t go to 66. We went to 75 million and they say we lost. We didn’t lose.

 

That’s an odd claim to make, that 66 million votes in 2020 would have guaranteed a win. Twelve years earlier, in 2008, Obama had 69.5 million votes. In 2012, he polled 65.9 million, and Hillary Clinton had  65.9 million in 2016, as well. Only an idiot would have told Trump that 66 million was sure to be enough; and only an idiot too lazy to check facts … Trump … would have believed it. 

 

  (One for each of three elections.)

 

Trump doesn’t seem to know much about other countries, either, where slaughter of political opponents is not rare, and margins of victory often run to 30%, 40% and even 90%. 

You could take third world countries. Just take a look, take third world countries. Their elections are more honest than what we’ve been going through in this country. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace. Even when you look at last night, they’re all running around like chickens with their heads cut off with boxes. Nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.

 

[Crowd]: Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! 

“What an absolute disgrace, that this could be happening to our constitution,” the president continues. He says he hopes Mike Pence will challenge the electoral vote count. “I hope Mike is going to do the right thing.” 

I hope so. I hope so because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do. This is from the number one or certainly one of the top constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it. We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our constitution, and protect our constitution. States want to revote. The States got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice-President Pence has to do is send it back to the States to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people.

 

[Crowd]: We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump! 

The Rabble-Rouser-in-Chief continues: 

We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy. … The weak Republicans, they’re pathetic Republicans and that’s what happens. If this happened to the Democrats, there’d be hell all over the country going on. There’d be hell all over the country. But just remember this. You’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody, and they try and demean everybody having to do with us, and you’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down our nation.

 

That election, our election was over at 10:00 in the evening. We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, and then late in the evening or early in the morning, boom, these explosions of and bullshit, and all of a sudden. All of a sudden it started to happen.

 

America is blessed with elections all over the world. They talk about our elections. You know what the world says about us now? They said we don’t have free and fair elections and you know what else? We don’t have a free and fair press.

 

Our media is not free. It’s not fair. It suppresses thought. It suppresses speech, and it’s become the enemy of the people. It’s become the enemy of the people. It’s the biggest problem we have in this country. … We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy.

 

  (Attacks on the free press should scare all Americans.) 

The president calls on the gathered faithful to walk down to the Capitol and make their (ill-informed) presence known: 

We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong. 

 

12:29 p.m.: TV newscasts roll video showing a large crowd breaking off from the audience to head for Capitol Hill. 

 

12:36 p.m.: Vice President Pence arrives at the Capitol, his wife Karen and daughter Charlotte by his side. They are joined by his brother Greg Pence, a Republican congressman from Indiana. 

The vice president’s office releases a three-page letter, making it clear that he will not be interfering with the counting of votes. That letter, signed by Mr. Pence, reads in part, “As a student of history … I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the Vice President with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session Congress.” 

JAMES MADISON.

No way did the Founding Fathers want to rest power in one man's hands.

 

Trump is telling those still listening that this will be a day “history is going to be made.” 

We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity, they’ll be ashamed. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget. With only three of the seven states in question, we win the presidency of the United States. 

 

He thanks the “more than 140 members of the House” who agreed to contest the votes. “Those are warriors,” Trump insists. “They’re over there working like you’ve never seen before, studying, talking, actually going all the way back, studying the roots of the Constitution, because they know we have the right to send [back] a bad vote that was illegally got.” 

Trump compliments Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and a few other “warriors,” and Loeffler and Perdue. He says they never stood a chance in the runoff election. It “was rigged against them.” As for himself, he got cheated terribly in Georgia. “Last night was a little bit better because of the fact that we had a lot of eyes watching one specific state, but they cheated like hell anyway.” 

Trump isn’t particularly happy with the other branches of government; and you wonder, if he had his way, if they’d survive a second term: 

Look, I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me. I picked three people. I fought like hell for them, one in particular I fought. They all said, “Sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us.” The senators, very loyal senators. They’re very loyal people. “Sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us, sir. Cut him loose, sir.” I must’ve gotten half of the senators. I said, “No, I can’t do that. It’s unfair to him. And it’s unfair to the family. He didn’t do anything wrong. They’re made up stories.” They were all made up stories. He didn’t do anything wrong. “Cut him loose, sir.” I said, “No, I won’t do that.” We got him through. And you know what? They couldn’t give a damn. They couldn’t give a damn. Let them rule the right way, but it almost seems that they’re all going out of their way to hurt all of us, and to hurt our country. To hurt our country.

 

He attacks the media for putting out stories about the U.S. Supreme Court and Attorney General Bill Barr, “so that they are afraid to rule correctly.” It’s “the media’s genius,” he tells the crowd. 

(Actually, it’s the rule of law; but no one in the vast crowd seems to notice or care. The worst elements are now developing the character of a mob.) 

“Today, for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of our Constitution, and for the sake of our children, we lay out the case for the entire world to hear,” he says. “You want to hear it?” Then he lays out all the reasons why he says he was cheated out of a win, including every example the courts have already shot down. 

Over 8,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Think of that. Dead people! Lots of dead people, thousands. And some dead people actually requested an application. That bothers me even more. Not only are they voting, they want an application to vote. One of them was 29 years ago died. It’s incredible.

 

It is incredible because none of this has been proven in court. We’ll put it this way. Trump throws out a lot of big numbers in the case of Pennsylvania to “prove” he was robbed: 205,000 this, 14,000 that, 10,000, 60,000, finally 400,000. No wonder he lost! “Mike Pence has to agree to send it back,” he again insists. If the vote isn’t stopped, “if you don’t do that, that means you will have a president of the United States for four years, with his wonderful son.” 

He throws out more big numbers to prove he was cheated out of the win in Wisconsin. Again, none of the claims he makes have been proven in court.

 

12:45 p.m.: Pipe bombs have been found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee. 

Georgia has already done three counts of the votes and the votes have shown three times that Trump lost. Not good enough, Trump rants: 

In Georgia, your secretary of state, I can’t believe this guy’s a Republican. He loves recording telephone conversations. I thought it was a great conversation personally, so did a lot of other … people love that conversation, because it says what’s going on. These people are crooked. They’re 100% in my opinion, one of the most corrupt. Between your governor and your secretary of state. And now you have it again last night… Home of Stacey Abrams. She did a good job. I congratulate her, but it was done in such a way that we can’t let this stuff happen. We won’t have a country of it happens.  

 

They should find those votes. They should absolutely find that just over 11,000 votes, that’s all we need. … And Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.

 

At this point, Trump has accused the Supreme Court of being against him, the Republican leaders in Georgia, Mitch McConnell, and now Vice President Pence. A rational being would know the president has lost hold on reality. Unfortunately, the crowd is angrier and angrier. More and more Trump fans head for Capitol Hill. 

Trump tells the crowd he could go on, but “it’s freezing” and he doesn’t want to. Still, he has a few last words to share. 

[Someone in the crowd]: “We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.” 

 

12:53 p.m.: A mile away, rioters overwhelm the first lines of police and pass barricades on the west side of the Capitol building. 

 

1:00 p.m.: There are already reports that hundreds of Trump supporters have reached the Capitol and breached police barricades. A woman filming the scene can be heard saying, “Holy fucking shit.” 

 

1:03 p.m.: Speaker Pelosi calls the joint session of Congress to order, to begin certification of the electoral votes. 

At the same time, Capitol Police discover a parked red pickup truck with Alabama tags. Inside they find an M4 assault rifle, loaded magazines, and materials for eleven Molotov cocktails. 

A mile away, Trump is wrapping up his diatribe. He refers to the effort to vote him out of office as “a criminal enterprise. This is a criminal enterprise.” 

When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn’t listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he’s listening to. It is also widely understood that the voter rolls are crammed full of non-citizens, felons and people who have moved out of state and individuals who are otherwise ineligible to vote. Yet Democrats oppose every effort to clean up their voter rolls. They don’t want to clean them up, they are loaded. And how many people here know other people that when the hundreds of thousands and then millions of ballots got sent out, got three, four, five, six, and I heard one who got seven ballots. And then they say, “You didn’t quite make it, sir.” We won. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.

 

They said, “It’s not American to challenge the election.” This is the most corrupt election in the history, maybe of the world. … I’m calling on Congress and the state legislatures to quickly pass sweeping election reforms, and you better do it before we have no country left. Today is not the end. It’s just the beginning.

 

He has a list of “reforms” he promises to make in his second term, including limiting voting only to citizens, which is the way it’s been for more than 200 years. “We will restore the vital civic tradition of in-person voting on election day so voters can be fully informed when they make their choice,” he promises. 

This is ironic since he himself voted by mail. He won Ohio, where millions voted by mail. He won Florida, too, where more millions voted by mail. 

(His cult followers can’t figure this out.)

 

He promises to attack Big Media, once he has a second term guaranteed. “They should be regulated, investigated and brought to justice under the fullest extent of the law. They’re totally breaking the law.” 

 

That statement, alone, should terrify any of his listeners who truly cherish freedom of the press, and the right to criticize and hold leaders to account. Trump is in Putin territory, in terms of rhetoric. Finally, he ends on a “positive” note, insofar as you might love President Trump: 

Looking out at all the amazing patriots here today, I have never been more confident in our nation’s future. Well, I have to say we have to be a little bit careful. That’s a nice statement, but we have to be a little careful with that statement. If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country, because it’s illegal when the votes are illegal, when the way they got there is illegal, when the States that vote are given false and fraudulent information.

 

As this enormous crowd shows, we have truth and justice on our side. We have a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts. We love our country. We have overwhelming pride in this great country, and we have it deep in our souls. Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.

 

And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans for our movement, for our children and for our beloved country and I say this, despite all that’s happened, the best is yet to come. 

 

1:12 p.m.: At the Capitol, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, object to the certification of Arizona’s electoral votes. Gosar gets a standing ovation from most of the Republicans in attendance. One of the first to leap to her feet and lead the applause is Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. 

The president has assured his audience that he will join them on the march to the Capitol. Instead, he returns to the White House. 

There’s another “bone spurs” joke here, waiting to be made, but this isn’t funny. A mob has taken shape. 

 

1:15 p.m.: With more and more rioters joining the attack on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police arrive to bolster the defense. Rioters continue to assault officers and break through barricades. 

Philip Lewis, a journalist on the scene, tweets: “Whoa: Trump supporters going at it with the police on the steps of the Capitol as Congress counts the Electoral College ballots inside[.]” 

 

1:19 p.m.: The President of the United States returns to the White House. He settles in front of a wide-screen TV in the private dining room just off the Oval Office. For the next 187 minutes he watches events unfold – but does nothing to stem the violence. Had he been in a medically induced coma, he could not have been more useless. 

 

1:30 p.m.: Lawmakers return to their separate chambers and debate begins on certification of the votes. 

 

1:31 p.m.: The mob is driving over-matched law enforcement officers back. “Break open the gate!” one rioter is heard to shout. “We’re not going to be scared! We’re not backing down! You mess with American people, this is what you get!” 

 

1:44 p.m.: Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace tweets: “Just evacuated my office in Cannon due to a nearby threat. Now we’re seeing protesters assaulting Capitol Police. This is wrong. This is not who we are. I’m heartbroken for our nation today.” She posts video of police fighting to hold the line. 

 

1:49 p.m.: Capitol Police request assistance from the National Guard. A member of the Metropolitan Police is heard over radio, frantically calling for backup. “This is now effectively a riot.” 

(Trump is still watching TV.)

 

2:11 p.m.: Rioters manage to take over the steps on the west side of the Capitol Building and break in near the Senate chambers. 

 

2:13 p.m.: Vice President Pence is ushered out of the Senate and taken to a safe room, along with members of his family. 

 

2:15 p.m.: Speaker Pelosi is led out of the House chamber and taken to safety off site. Rioters are heard calling out her name and threatening to kill her. 

In the affidavit for his arrest, Dominic “Spazzo” Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys, and one of the alleged rioters will later admit, “Anyone they got their hands on they would have killed.”

Several members of Pelosi’s staff realize their escape route has been cut off  and take shelter in a back conference room, barricading the door with furniture. As rioters break down the door to the main office, shatter an antique mirror, scatter documents, and steal computers, and occasionally pound on the conference room door, they remain huddled in the dark for two-and-a-half hours. 

 

“You better come watch. They’re attacking the Capitol.” 

2:17 p.m.: Even Donald Trump Jr., watching the attack unfold, is smart enough to tweet out a call for calm: “This is wrong and not who we are. Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don’t start acting like the other side. We have a country to save and this doesn’t help anyone.” 

 

2:22 p.m.: The blogger’s wife, watching the first rioters attack Congress, comes upstairs to the blogger’s office. 

“You better come watch,” she says. “They’re attacking the Capitol.” 

Shouts to "Hang Mike Pence."

 2:24 p.m.: President Trump tweets: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” 

(The President of the United States is still stirring up the mob.) 

 

2:25 p.m.: Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, after consultations with other Pentagon leaders, tells his staff to prepare to move the “emergency reaction” force to the Capitol. They could arrive in twenty minutes. 

 

2:26 p.m.: Tim Giebels, the head of the security detail guarding Mr. Pence has already urged him to leave the Capitol. 

Twice. 

Mr. Pence refuses, fearing images of his motorcade escaping would encourage the rioters. He and his family are taken down a safe stairway, to a subterranean area that rioters probably can’t reach. His armored limousine is parked there, and the VP and his family are instructed to climb inside. “I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence says. “I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.” 

Meanwhile, rioters break through the doors of the East Rotunda. At the almost exactly the same moment, President Trump misdials the number for newly elected Sen. Tommy Tuberville. He wants the man from Alabama to throw up additional objections to the counting of electoral votes. He gets Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. Lee hands the phone to Tuberville. 

“Coach, how’s it going?” Trump asks. 

“Not very good, Mr. President,” Tuberville replies. “As a matter of fact, they’re about to evacuate us.” 

“I know we’ve got problems,” Trump says. 

“Mr. President, they just took our vice president out,” the senator adds abruptly. “They’re getting ready to drag me out of here. I got to go.” 

The mob can now be heard howling, “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” 

 

2:30 p.m.: Senators begin to evacuate their chamber. The blogger’s daughter, watching events unfold on TV from her home in Portland, Oregon, texts him, “Are you watching this?” 

Other members of our family report that they too are watching the shocking scenes. Trump’s defenders will argue at his impeachment trial that the President did not know how dire the situation was. 

(If you had two eyeballs that worked, or even one, you knew.) 

 

2:35 p.m.: Rioters are just outside the House chamber. They break windows and pound on the door. Plainclothes officers draw their guns. 

 

2:38 p.m.: Trump finally does something. The bare minimum. He tweets. “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” 

That’s it. 

 

2:39 p.m.: Members of the House begin to evacuate. 

Around this time House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy calls Trump. He insists he must act. He must call off the rioters. 

“You know what I see, Kevin? I see people who are more upset about the election than you are. They like Trump more than you do,” the president replies. 

“You’ve got to hold them,” says McCarthy. “You need to get on TV right now, you need to get on Twitter, you need to call these people off.”

 

2:44 p.m.: The mob batters at the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby, adjacent to the House chamber. 

Windows are smashed and Ashli Babbitt – an avowed supporter of President Trump – tries to climb through the opening. 

She is shot and killed by officers protecting lawmakers. 

Inside the House chamber, members are worried about gunfire erupting, and are told the backs of their chairs are bulletproof. If worse comes to worst, they are advised to get down under their chairs. 

According to a timeline prepared by the Associated Press, the Joint Chiefs of Staff “set up a video teleconference call that stayed open until about 10 p.m. that night, allowing staff to communicate any updates quickly to military leaders.” 

(The President of the United States plays no known role.)

 

2:47 p.m.: The mob takes over the floor of the U.S. Senate. 

 

2:52 p.m.: Even Rudy Giuliani (who helped stir the mob), realizes the day has spiraled out of control. He tweets: 

To all those patriots challenging the fraudulent election,

 

POTUS wants you to EXPRESS YOUR OPINION PEACEFULLY,

 

We are the law and order party,

 

You are on the right side of the law and history.

 

Act with respect for all.

 

The first F.B.I. Swat team arrives to reinforce police. More than 500 officers from a variety of federal agencies join the battle to protect Congress. 

A riot unfolds - an insurrection possibly.

 

3:00 p.m.: Members of the mob have taken over the floor of the Senate. One of them, Paul Hodgkins, tells others, “Guys, please don’t wreck anything in here.” Later, he remembers, “It felt like some kind of dream.” 

Jacob Anthony Chansley, soon to become famous as the “QAnon Shaman,” calls on fellow rioters to say a prayer in this “sacred place.” “Thank you, heavenly father,” he intones, “for gracing us with this opportunity. … Thank you, heavenly father, for this opportunity to stand up for our God-given, unalienable rights. … Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ.” 

(Again: Who stirred these people up?)

 

3:04 p.m.: The D.C. National Guard is activated. 

 

3:14 p.m.: Heavily reinforced police units begin to clear the Capitol Rotunda of rioters. 

 

3:15 p.m.: Ivanka Trump tries a tweet of her own: “American patriots,” she tap-taps on her phone, “any security breach or disrespect for to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.” 

Reaction is swift. Ms. Trump is roundly criticized for her ineffective effort – and she deletes the post minutes later. 

(The President of the United States continues to sulk in his private dining room, watching TV.) 

 

“The disdain for democratic institutions is devastating.” 

3:18 p.m.: It’s not like other people watching this shitstorm don’t know what has to be done. On CNN, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) admits, “I’ve not seen anything like this since I deployed to Iraq...The president needs to call it off. Call it off. It’s over. The election is over.” 

A few minutes later, a second Republican veteran, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, also tells CNN, it’s time for Trump to admit the truth. “He needs to stand up and say, ‘I lost the election,’” and put this insurrection to an end.

 

3:19 p.m.: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are on the phones, calling for help. They are informed the Guard has been activated. The Guard troops, however, are only prepared for traffic duty. Now the new mission must be explained, and extra equipment issued, before they are sent into a “volatile combat situation.” 

Acting Sec. of Defense Christopher Miller releases a statement saying, “Chairman Milley [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and I just spoke separately with the Vice President and with Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer and Representative Hoyer about the situation at the U.S. Capitol. We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation.” 

(He does not mention Trump.)

 

(In an interview some weeks later, Miller poses this question: “Would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech? I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened.” 

“It seems cause-and-effect,” he adds. “The question is, did he know he was enraging the crowd to do that? I don’t know.”) 

 

3:31 p.m.: Inside the Capitol, the rioters continue to battle police who are trying to clear them out. Gina Bisignano, who has traveled all the way from California to hear Trump speak – and end up as a minor cog in a mob – urges others to keep up the fight. “Everybody, we need gas masks,” she calls out at one point. “We need weapons. We need strong, angry patriots to help our boys. They don’t want to leave.” 

Incongruously, she calls out, “You are not going to take away our Trumpy-bear. You are not going to take away our votes and our freedom that our men died for.”

3:32 p.m.: Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General for NATO registers his dismay at what he and others in Europe are seeing: “Shocking scenes in Washington, D.C. The outcome of this democratic election must be respected.” 

 

3:33 p.m.: Like President Trump, the whole world can see what’s transpiring. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweets. “The enemies of democracy will be happy to see these incredible pictures from #WashingtonDC. Riotous words turn into violent acts - on the steps of the Reichstag, and now in the #Capitol. The disdain for democratic institutions is devastating.” 

(The Germans have experience with right-wing types shutting down their legislature.)

 

3:47 p.m.: Police finally clear the Rotunda. 

 

3:48 p.m.: Army Sec. McCarthy, frustrated by the delay in the Guard’s linkup with police, dashes “from the Pentagon to D.C. police headquarters to help coordinate with law enforcement.” 

Pictures are showing up on Twitter, showing a gallows set up in front of Capitol Hill, indicating someone is soon going to be dangling from a noose. 

 

4:05 p.m.: President-elect Biden appears on television. He calls on Trump “to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.” 

(To this point, the President of the United States has done nothing but tweet.)

 

4:06 p.m.: Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, tweets: “Disgraceful scenes in U.S. Congress. The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.” 

 

4:10 p.m.: The governor of German’s largest state posts on Twitter: “For centuries the US Congress was a global symbol for freedom and democracy. The attacks by fanatic Trump supporters hurt every friend of the USA. Those sowing populism and polarization with words will reap hatred and violence.

 

4:17 p.m.: Finally, the president makes himself heard. Still unrepentant, he releases a video on social media. “I know your hurt,” he begins, feeling his own hurt. “I know your pain. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now,” he tells his supporters. 

There’s never been a time like this, where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home, we love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.

 

“The first video out in the Rose Garden was never going to be a good idea because it was a continuation of the rally,” a former White House aide tells Politico later. “It’s almost as if he was still in rally mode.” 

In fact, this was the third take – the first two being even worse. 

 

4:26 p.m.: Enraged yet again, a fresh wave of rioters attempts to storm the west terrace doors of the Capitol. The crush is so great, fighting so fierce, a Trump supporter named Roseanne Boyland is trampled to death. 

 

4:56 p.m.: Sen. Jeff Merkley tweets: “Electoral college ballots rescued from the Senate floor. If our capable floor staff hadn’t grabbed them, they would have been burned by the mob.” 

 

5:02 p.m.: The first 154 members of the National Guard arrive at the Capitol to support police and help clear the grounds. 

Politico later notes: 

Trump, still fuming about Pence’s decision not to interfere with the certification, never called his vice president. Pence had been forced to hide with his family in the Capitol while rioters chanted that they wanted to hang him. Later, Trump expressed frustration to Meadows and other aides that Pence had gotten credit for deploying the National Guard and coordinating with other government officials on the overall response, but it would be days before the two men spoke directly.

 

In fact, save for their first morning call, Pence and Trump never speak again all day. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell never talks to the man in the White House either. Later, one of his aides explained, “What would have been the point? Trump wasn’t going to be helpful.”

 

 

5:34 p.m.: Police manage to clear the last rioters from the building.

 

6:00 p.m.: A curfew for the entire city goes into effect.

 

6:01 p.m.: Trump, the Tyrant of Twitter, tweets: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” 

Trump’s favorite lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, calls Sen. Tommy Tuberville, but doesn’t mention the riots. He wants the newly elected senator from Alabama to “slow down” the final certification process. 

He dials the wrong number.

 

6:03 p.m.: The most vociferous fans of the president are already out with excuses, including evangelical leaders. Pastor Mark Burns tweets a video, saying he’s “angry” and “indignant.”  “This is a very sad day for America, very sad day for America,” he says. So far, he’s right. Then, this gem: For the media to say that the attackers were Trump supporters is “a lie from the gates of hell.” 

Who busted up the Capitol Building? 

Antifa folks, he says! 

Eric Metaxas, another leading voice in evangelical circles, tweets: “There is no doubt the election was fraudulent. That is the same today as yesterday. There is no doubt Antifa infiltrated the protesters today and planned this. This is political theater and anyone who buys it is a sucker. Fight for justice and Pray for justice. God bless America!” 

(God bless and protect us from ignoramuses like Metaxas.)

 

“Inspired by…patently false claims about the election.” 

If some evangelical leaders seem blinded by the light, three of Trump’s picks to lead the Department of Defense weigh in on their old boss, and his responsibility for the debacle at the Capitol. 

According to former Sec. of Defense James Mattis, 

Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. 

 

Former Sec. of Defense Mark Esper expresses similar disgust: 

This afternoon’s assault on the US Capitol was appalling and un-American. This is not how citizens of the world’s greatest and oldest democracy behave. The perpetrators who committed this illegal act were inspired by partisan misinformation and patently false claims about the election. 

 

Even Acting Sec. of Defense Christopher Miller feels a need to reassure the country that he’s not one of the nuts. He doesn’t mention the man who is, namely, Donald J. Trump. 

Says Miller: 

I strongly condemn these acts of violence against our democracy. I, and the people I lead in the Department of Defense, continue to perform our duties in accordance with our oath of office, and will execute the time-honored peaceful transition of power to President-elect Biden on January 20.

 

Others are no less horrified. Former U.S. forces-Afghanistan commander Gen. John Allen offers this assessment: 

After four years of seemingly unending outrages, it’s time. U.S. President Donald Trump must go, and the vice president must rescue the country’s democracy by leading the cabinet in invoking the 25th Amendment. After a long series of offenses – a list that would exceed the space available here – the culmination of Trump’s criminal attempts at election tampering and his incitement of insurrection on Wednesday lead us to the point of an unavoidable national reckoning.

 

Former U.S. Special Operations commander Gen. Raymond Thomas expresses his own outrage: “UNAMERICAN! My blood is literally boiling. We allowed this to happen in a slow boil. Meanwhile Nero fiddles…on Twitter. So sad for our country right now.”

 

6:17 p.m.: Witnessing the day’s events, world leaders express shock and dismay. The Prime Minister of Canada offers condolences: “Canadians are deeply disturbed and saddened by the attack on democracy in the United States, our closest ally and neighbour. Violence will never succeed in overruling the will of the people. Democracy in the US must be upheld - and it will be.” 

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney calls the scenes in Washington “a deliberate assault on Democracy by a sitting President & his supporters, attempting to overturn a free & fair election!” 

“I supported the ideas and positions of the Republicans, of the conservatives, of Trump,” says Italy’s far-right League Party leader Matteo Salvini. “But a legitimate vote is one thing, going to parliament and clashing with the police is quite a different matter. That’s not political vision, that’s madness.” 

French President Emmanuel Macron issues a statement: 

When, in one of the world’s oldest democracies, supporters of an outgoing president take up arms to challenge the legitimate results of an election, that one idea — that of “one person, one vote” — is undermined.

 

Today, France stands strongly, fervently and resolutely with the American people and with all the people who want to choose their leaders, determine their own destinies and their own lives through free and democratic elections. And we will not yield to the violence of a few individuals who want to challenge that.

 

“Unbelievable scenes from Washington D.C.,” the prime minister of Sweden, Erna Solberg, agrees. “This is a totally unacceptable attack on democracy. A heavy responsibility now rests on President Trump to put a stop to this.”

 

7:00 p.m.: F.B.I. and ATF agents conduct a room-by-room search of the Capitol, looking for any rioters, weapons, or threats. In a quick conference call various congressional leaders and Vice President Pence are notified that the rioters are gone. Mr. Pence says only two words, at the end: “Thank you.” 

 

8:00 p.m.: The Capitol Building and grounds are declared secure. 

The vice president’s spokesperson Devin O’Malley says Pence will return to the Senate chamber to resume the certification process, after congressional leaders announce plans to reconvene. “VP was in regular contact [with] House & Senate leadership, Cap Police, DOJ & DoD to facilitate efforts to secure the Capitol & reconvene Congress. And now we will finish the people’s business.” 

Sen. Graham stops Pence as he enters the Senate chamber. “You’re doing the right thing,” he says. “I’m proud of you.” 

“I just spoke with Vice President Pence, Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, tweets. “He is a genuinely fine and decent man. He exhibited courage today as he did at the Capitol on 9/11 as a Congressman. I am proud to serve with him.” 

Neither O’Malley nor O’Brien mentions any contribution the president might have made to quell the insurrection.

 

“A demagogue chose to spread falsehoods.” 

8:08 p.m.: The Senate resumes debate over certification of the Arizona electoral vote, the only state vote that is formally challenged in the end. There is little stomach for delaying tactics. Even Sen. Graham is ready to move on. 

“Enough is enough,” he says. 

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) rips into the president. “We witnessed today the damage that can result when men in power and responsibility refuse to acknowledge the truth,” he says. “We saw bloodshed because a demagogue chose to spread falsehoods and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans.” 

“We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride, and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States,” says Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). 

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) lays the blame directly at the feet of the president, accusing him of spending the hours of crisis “cowered behind his keyboard. Lies have consequences,” he adds. “This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the president’s addiction to constantly stoking division.” 

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tx) tells a reporter that opposing Trump’s attempts to overturn the election “may well sign my political death warrant. So be it.” 

Even Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who had aligned himself with Trump, releases a statement calling on him to concede. “It’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence,” Cotton says. 

Reporters for Politico talk to several top Republican operatives. “He screwed his supporters, he screwed the country and now he’s screwed himself,” says a 2016 Trump campaign official, who asks not to be named. 

“Donald Trump caused this insurrection with lies and conspiracy theories about the election being rigged against him,” says Scott Jennings, a former aide to George W. Bush who remained close to the Trump White House. “The election was not stolen but this madness was fomented by the president and his top advisers.” 

Tom Bossert, the president’s former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser, tells reporters that Trump has “undermined American democracy baselessly for months” and is “culpable for this siege.”

 

9:00 p.m.: Professor Eastman, Trump’s legal advisor, contacts aides to Mr. Pence. He insists again. The vice president can choose to refuse to count the electoral votes. 

 

9:12 p.m.: The House resumes debate over certification of the electoral vote. The Senate does likewise. 

 

10:19 p.m.: Twitter locks Trump’s account so he can no longer stir anger and send out misinformation. 

The process moves forward, as provided by the U.S. Constitution. Most members of Congress are frankly stunned by events of the day. The electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania are challenged in the House. The Senate must then vote to accept or reject the challenges. 

Deliberations and debate drag on; but it’s clear support for the president and his cause has abated in the wake of the riot. 

Midnight comes and goes, with lawmakers still in session.

___ 

 

1/7/21: In the early morning hours, Congress finally completes certification of the states’ electoral votes, making Joseph R. Biden Jr. the “President-Elect.” 

3:41 a.m.: Vice President Pence asks Senate Chaplain Barry Black, a retired Navy admiral, to close with a prayer. “We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy,” he says. “These tragedies have reminded us that words matter [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted],” he continues, “and that the power of life and death is in the tongue.” 

 

3:49 a.m.: White House aide Dan Scavino, who has access to Twitter, releases a statement on his account, in the name of Donald J. Trump. “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out,” the president says, “nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20.”  

It’s much too little. 

Much too late.

 

7 a.m.: Former White House Press Secretary Mick Mulvaney, now serving as envoy to Northern Ireland, resigns in protest over events of the day before. “I can’t do it,” he explains, “I can’t stay.” 

A furnace-blast of condemnation begins to build. “This has all been part of a big f***ing show ... That’s what is so infuriating about the whole thing,” a GOP strategist who worked to elect Trump admits. “He knows he lost. He’s a showman,” the strategist continues. “And that showmanship had unintended consequences.” 

Former White House communications director, Alyssa Farah, says she saw trouble brewing in December. So she stepped down from her post. She tells Politico she knew there was no evidence of fraud on a scale to have tipped the election. People around her made it clear that was not “the message” they wanted to put out. 

Farah explains: 

I made the decision to step down…because I saw where this was heading, and I wasn’t comfortable being a part of sharing this message to the public that the election results might go a different way. I didn’t see that to be where the facts lay.

 

So to me, it was time. And then Wednesday was really a boiling point showing that misleading the public has consequences. And what happened was unacceptable. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. And I certainly fault the protesters – frankly, we should call them terrorists, but I fundamentally fault our elected leadership who allowed these people to believe that their election was stolen from them. The president and certain advisers around him are directly responsible.

 

The Times also reports: 

Even one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers in his bid to reverse the election results in Pennsylvania, Jerome M. Marcus, broke with him, filing a motion withdrawing because “the client has used the lawyer’s services to perpetrate a crime and the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant and with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”

 

Behind the scenes, even the biggest Trump apologists are stunned. We will not know this for over a year, until a Select panel in Congress begins investigating events surrounding January 6. Sean Hannity, of Fox News, sends White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany a five-part plan for talking to the president. “No more stolen election talk,” he advises. Hannity also suggests that Mr. Trump be warned – impeachment and removal under the XXV Amendment could result. 

In another exchange, Hannity urged McEnany to keep a variety of advisors away from the defeated president. “Key now. No more crazy people,” as he put it. 

“Yes 100%” McEnany replied. 

Former White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, who proudly served this nation in uniform for decades, is one of several voices to call for enacting the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. He is supported by a number of others, including former Director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, a Republican, who warns against the potential danger still represented by Trump. 

(That amendment allows a vice president and a majority of a cabinet to declare a president no longer able to perform his or her duties due to sickness or incapacity. Or in this case if a president is a lunatic.) 

In an interview on CNN, Kelly unloads on his old boss. “What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud,” Kelly tells host Jake Tapper. He describes the president’s behavior, both on January 6, as well as in weeks leading up to the election, and in the weeks since, as “outrageous.” 

Finally, he focuses on what he learned by working with the 45^th president for as long as he did. 

It’s impossible to understand who he actually is, but when you work closely with him, you understand he’s a very flawed human being. When you first meet or start working with him – in my case, no idea of the flaws – and you start working for him and begin to understand how flawed he is, then it’s a matter of staying in the job as long as you can to prevent some sort of disaster.

 

Such as: January 6, 2021.

 

Gen. Colin Powell tells reporters that while he is opposed to the idea of invoking the 25^th Amendment, as far as Mr. Trump is involved, you “can’t not have concerns” about his fitness for office and the potential for fresh damage he might cause in the 13 days in office he has remaining. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski summed up her contempt for the president, saying emphatically, “I just want him gone.” 

Sen. Pat Toomey and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie both said the president had committed “impeachable offenses.” 

The Wall Street Journal, owned by longtime Trump supporter Rupert Murdoch, agrees. Editors call for Trump to resign or be impeached: 

When some in the crowd turned violent and occupied the Capitol, the President caviled and declined for far too long to call them off. When he did speak, he hedged his plea with election complaint.

 

This was an assault on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election. It was also an assault on the legislature from an executive sworn to uphold the laws of the United States. This goes beyond merely refusing to concede defeat. In our view it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn’t previously crossed. It is impeachable.

 

With less than two weeks until his term is ended, why impeach at all? 

The Journal explains: “The best case for impeachment is not to punish Mr. Trump. It is to send a message to future Presidents that Congress will protect itself from populists of all ideological stripes willing to stir up a mob and threaten the Capitol or its Members.” 

It would be best, the Editorial Board explains, if Trump would resign, but the Board doubts he will: 

We know an act of grace by Mr. Trump isn’t likely. In any case this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure. He has cost Republicans the House, the White House, and now the Senate. Worse, he has betrayed his loyal supporters by lying to them about the election and the ability of Congress and Mr. Pence to overturn it. He has refused to accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the result, win or lose.

 

It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly.

 

Former GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner is frank in assessing the challenge facing his party. “I once said the party of Lincoln and Reagan is off taking a nap. The nap has become a nightmare for our nation,” he tweets. “The GOP must awaken. The invasion of our Capitol by a mob, incited by lies from some entrusted with power, is a disgrace to all who sacrificed to build our Republic.”

Trump still has his loyalists. Rep. Matt Gaetz and other toadies get to work, floating the myth that XRVision, a company specializing in facial recognition software, has identified swarms of Antifa types storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 

This is total nonsense. That means many Trump supporters fall for it completely. XRVision quickly announces it has not identified any members of the mob and has no idea what Gaetz might be talking about. The Washington Times, which first ran the claim, which Gaetz picked up, makes corrections. 

Then editors take the story down. 

___ 

 

1/8/21: At a press conference this afternoon, F.B.I. Assistant Director Steven D’Antuono is asked about claims that Antifa was involved in the attack. “We have no indication of that at this time,” he says. (See: 1/7/21.) 

In related news, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as loyal a lout as ever served an unhinged U.S. president, is forced to announce that there will be a peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration, which, in every other election since 1788 (not counting 1860) would go without saying. 

He has already had to respond to foreign criticism, that the United States is now a “banana republic.” 

This sets Pompeo to grumbling. “Many prominent people – including journalists and politicians – have likened the United States to a banana republic,” he says. 

The slander reveals a faulty understanding of banana republics and of democracy in America. In a banana republic, mob violence [emphasis added] determines the exercise of power. In the United States, law enforcement officials quash mob violence so that the people’s representatives can exercise power in accordance with the rule of law and constitutional government.

 

So, we were just moments away from turning into a banana republic on Jan. 6? And Trump was the one handing bananas to supporters?  

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, of Canada, supplies the answer in a news conference of his own. “What we witnessed,” on January 6, in Washington D.C., he tells a gathering of reporters, “was an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president and other politicians.” 

(Rep. Mo Brooks, take a bow.)

 

“As shocking, deeply disturbing, and frankly saddening as that event remains, we have also seen this week that democracy is resilient in America, our closest ally and neighbour,” Trudeau adds. “Violence has no place in our societies, and extremists will not succeed in overruling the will of the people.” 

___

 

1/9/21: It’s an irrefutable fact that this week, the president’s second National Security Advisor, Gen. H. R. McMaster, said our country was in its current fix because “the sad reality [is] that President Trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain.” 

We know for a fact that Trump’s third National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has written an entire book about what a dangerous liar the president is. “I don’t think he’s fit for office,” he has said.

 

The final word for today, and really any other day, goes to Billy Piper, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader McConnell. It’s just too bad that so many Trump fans will never listen. Referring to Trump, he chooses an apt, but chilling comparison. He likens the president to the religious cult leader who died with 75 of his followers in a fiery cataclysm at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993.

 

“Trump is a political David Koresh,” Piper says. “He sees the end coming and wants to burn it all down and take as many with him as possible.” 

    

___

 

 

1/10/21: Fresh details of the president’s plot to steal the election he says Biden stole from him are revealed. We already have the tape of his call to Georgia officials asking them to “find” just enough votes for him to “win” the state’s 16 electoral votes. (See: 1/2/21.) 

Now we know he put in a call to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. We’re not talking the “tip line,” either. 

What Trump asked a lead investigator in charge of running down rumors of election irregularities, was to “find the fraud.” If he or she did, Trump promised, they would be “a national hero.” Without further detail, we can’t be sure this call would merit another felony count. 

We do know it’s unethical to call and pressure investigators to get the result you want. 

It’s worth adding that the investigator has asked to remain anonymous for fear of riling up the pro-Trump cranks.

You have to be paying careful attention, not trying to smash down doors and kill cops on Capitol Hill, to chase down the truth. In recent days two more gaping holes were shot in the bottom of the “stolen election” boat. First, Sen. Kelly Loeffler conceded defeat in a special election in Georgia and called Rev. Raphael Warnock to tender best wishes. In a video to supporters she explained, “Unfortunately we came up slightly short in the runoff election. Earlier today I called Rev. Warnock to congratulate him and to wish him well in serving this great state.” 

Sen. David Perdue, acting like a normal human being, conceded next. He, too, admitted that he had lost a runoff and congratulated his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff. 

Unlike the president, neither Loeffler nor Perdue insisted that the voting machines in Georgia were rigged. They did not claim they lost because dead voters rose from their crypts and voted in ghoulish mobs. They did not hire crackpot lawyers to peddle idiotic “votes were stolen” claims. 

They bowed out with grace. It can’t be easy to lose; but not everyone goes off their rocker when they do. 

Perdue’s statement read: 

Bonnie [his wife] and I are deeply grateful for the support millions of Georgians have shown us this year and in the six years since we first ran for the United States Senate. Serving our home state has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am very proud of how our team in Georgia and Washington, D.C. fought every day to deliver real results for all eleven million Georgians. 

 

Although we won the general election, we came up just short of Georgia’s 50% rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent [emphasis added] for this runoff win. Bonnie and I will continue to pray for our wonderful state and our great country. May God continue to bless Georgia and the United States of America. 

 

See how easy that was.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: We learn more than a year later, that on this day, Jan. 10, 2021, Sean Hannity, Fox News Buffoon, is warning then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan that they must get this message across to the sullen, sulking president: “He can’t mention the election again.” 

___ 

 

1/11/21: Gen. Colin Powell said today he could no longer consider himself a Republican in the wake of the mob attack on Wednesday. Would he support impeachment again? “Of course,” he told a reporter, although he doubted there was time for it to do much good.

 

FUN FACT: Randall Lane, editor of Forbes magazine, warns companies not to hire former communications officials from the Trump administration. Should they do so, he explains, “Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie.” 

Lane names five individuals specifically, referring to them as “Trump’s fellow fabulists.” Namely: Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany and Kellyanne Conway. 

 

“A criminal” and a “political pyromaniac.” 

1/12/21: Secretary Pompeo had planned a trip to Europe to talk with allies. Luxembourg announced it no longer wanted to meet with the U.S. Secretary of State. Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, was candid in a way that diplomats rarely are. In a radio interview he called President Trump a “criminal” and a “political pyromaniac,” to boot. 

That had to sting, but there was still a meeting scheduled in Brussels, with representatives of the European Union. Then that shoe dropped. A diplomatic source told reporters that EU officials were “embarrassed” to be meeting with Pompeo, who had stood by Trump so blindly, for so long.

The president heads for the Texas-Mexico border one last time to look at his big, beautiful, still-not-paid-for-by-Mexico wall. Before departing, Rejected-President Trump is asked by reporters. Does he believe he bears any responsibility for the attack on Capitol Hill? 

“If you read my speech,” he replies, “... what I said was totally appropriate. They’ve analyzed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence and everybody ... thought it was totally appropriate.”  

In fact, he had never stirred up anyone in all his life, and everyone agreed, even Hillary Clinton. The Democrats, though? Boy, didn’t they want to stir up “tremendous anger” by impeaching him a second time. And didn’t that create a “tremendous danger” for the country! 

Reuters quotes former Rep. Evan McMullin: “Trump’s threats of more violence by warning of ‘tremendous anger’ and ‘tremendous danger’ in response to potential impeachment, a vital mechanism of our democracy, are further evidence of its justice and necessity,” he says on Twitter. 

Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, is asked why his old boss can’t just admit he made a mistake. 

He replies: “The man does not ever, ever, ever want to appear weak ... or that he might have been wrong.” 

The former Marine added that “great leaders, good leaders” have to admit when they’ve made a mistake. “He doesn’t have the ability to do that. His manhood is at issue here.” 

Fragile ego, weak man.

 

1/13/21: With just one week remaining in his first and, hopefully, only term in office, Trump makes history again. 

On a vote of 232 to 197, with nine Republicans and one former Republican voting in favor, and four others abstaining, Lame Duck Don gets impeached a second time. The grounds include violating his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution (see below), inciting a deadly riot, and trying to force Georgia officials to overturn certified election results. (See: 1/2/21 and 1/10/21.) 

____________________ 

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 

Oath or affirmation required of all presidents

____________________

 

Future school history books will describe the impeachment process, as set up under the U.S. Constitution, and will include a picture of this guy: 

This second try is different, though, because even many Republicans have awakened. Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of the party in the U.S. House of Representatives, issues a blistering statement to explain why she voted in support of Trump’s removal from office. 

Referencing the shocking attack on Capitol Hill, she writes: 

Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.

 

None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.

 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, also votes to impeach. “There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection,” he says in a statement. “So in assessing the articles of impeachment brought before the House…if these actions – the Article II branch inciting a deadly insurrection against the Article I branch – are not worthy of impeachment, then what is an impeachable offense?” 

Rep. John Katko of New York is equally clear: “It cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection.” 

Certainly, the risk for Republicans who vote to impeach is great, but not the political risk alone. Rep. Pete Meijer, 33, of Michigan, newly-elected, and a Republican, becomes the target of death threats when he is the only freshman in his party to vote to impeach Donald John Trump. 

“We realize that was a vote we cast that put our safety at risk and going forward, I am expecting there will likely be more political violence,” said Meijer. “So my expectation and the expectation of some folks I’m talking to who are trying to vote our conscience on this, there will be folks that try to kill us, and that’s something we have to grapple with every day.” 

 

Rep. Meijer noted that one GOP colleague told him that he or she wanted to vote to uphold Biden’s electoral win. Concern “about the safety of that individual’s family” dissuaded him or her from taking the risk. “That is where the rhetoric has brought us,” Meijer said with sadness. 

“That is the degree of fear that’s been created.” 

The same pressures will be there when the upper house receives the fresh impeachment resolutions and Republican senators decide to vote. In the U.S. Senate, Ben Sasse has said he is considering a “yes” vote. 

Sen. Mitt Romney is likely to vote to impeach, since he was the only Republican the first time to agree that Trump should be removed. 

With right-wing groups still threatening violence to come, 25,000 U.S. troops have been sent to Washington D.C. to keep the peace.

Today, Rep. Brian Mast led National Guard troops on a tour of the Capitol. Mast, a Republican who lost both legs in combat, thanked Guard personnel for their service. At the same time, troops were warned that extremist groups promising to protest the election might deploy improvised explosive devices (IED’s) in the nation’s capital. So the soldiers should be vigilant. 

Good news: President Trump gets our fighting men and women mostly out of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Bad news: President Trump’s own actions make it necessary to deploy our fighting men and women in America’s streets. 

Handcuffed, as it were, to the insurrectionists by their own words and false claims of massive voter fraud, the worst of the worst of the GOP (generally speaking, those most tied to Trump) did their best to slip the restraints. With evidence piled high against them, their only choice was to go for misdirection. There were the usual high points and low points during the House impeachment debate. One of the lows came when Rep. Ken Buck (R-Co.) tried to defend President Trump’s conduct leading up to the riot by pointing out that “the socialists in Hollywood” had been mean to the president all along. Robert DeNiro, Buck complained, had said “he wanted to punch the president in the face.” And poor Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had been asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia before she and her family were served.

 

So, rioting on Capitol Hill? A policeman killed and scores injured. A president inciting a riot. Sure, Sanders not getting to order her entre. Just as bad. 

If Rep. Buck was pathetic, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, elected to Congress for the first time in November, from the Fourteenth Congressional District of Georgia, was an idiot, grabbing as much spotlight as she could. 

Rep. Greene announced that she would introduce impeachment charges against President Biden on January 21. 

Other Trump supporters have been reduced to denying that Trump supporters were involved in the January 6 attack at all. No less a political weaselˆˆ than Rep. Matt Gaetz has peddled the myth that the attack was the work of leftist Antifa radicals. This line of elephant poo was cleaned up today, during debate on the Articles of Impeachment. Just minutes after Gaetz stood in the House of Representatives to repeat that brazen lie, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy shot it down. McCarthy made it clear he did not support an impeachment charge. 

Still, his explanation was in no way a defense of the president. Trump, he said, bore “responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” 

“Some say the riots were caused by antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that,” Rep. McCarthy added. “Conservatives should be the first to say so.” 

McCarthy also admitted that it was not “the American way” to contest a fairly-decided election. “Let’s be clear, Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States in one week because he won the election.” 

Amen.

 

(ˆˆNote: This writer tries at all times to avoid the use of dehumanizing language. In the case of Rep. Gaetz, labeled a “political weasel” above, a rare exception may be justified. That is, while he is still a human being in good standing, in terms of his politics he is a “weasel.” 

I’m not sure this meets my standard; but I let it pass here. I believe Gaetz is the kind of person who would have followed Hitler or Fidel Castro or any dictator, had he lived in their time and place, and thought he would benefit if he did.) 

 

1/15/21: Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, visits Trump in the Oval office, to urge his god-chosen leader to rise up. 

____________________ 

America First: Dictator Version!

____________________ 

 

Jabin Botsford, a Washington Post cameraman with a telephoto lens, manages a snap of Lindell’s notes. 

We’ll let the Independent, a British newspaper, explain what the cameraman was able to pick up: 

One of Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, went to a meeting at the White House with notes suggesting “martial law if necessary”.

The notes, captured by a photographer as Mr Lindell entered the Oval Office on Friday, come after Mr Lindell tweeted then deleted calls for the president to “impost martial law” in the seven battleground states that won the election for Joe Biden.

 

The page is curved and not fully visible, but the heading is titled “[illegible] taken immediately to save the [illegible] constitution”.

 

It references a “cyber” attorney and “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell, while recommending “Kash Patel to acting CIA”.

 

“Insurrection Act now as a result of the assault on the… martial law if necessary upon the first hint of any…”, it read.

 

“… foreign interference in the election trigger [ineligible] powers. Make clear this is China/Iran.”

 

So, let’s be clear. If Lindell had his way, we’d all be in for a grand surprise in just five more days. 

Trump would give the order, and those 25,000 troops on guard in D.C., to guard against a repeat of what happened on January 6, would turn on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Mike Pence and the rest. Martial Law. “America First: Dictator Version!”

“The president’s right to loyalty.” 

FELLOW HEAD-UP-HIS-ASS Trump supporter Lou Dobbs, and (not for much longer) Fox Business News host, goes off on a rant about Republicans who he believes have stabbed Donald J. in the back. “These are people who don’t care about the party, the president. They don’t care about the Constitution themselves,” he tells a guest, former GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz. “Because they’re acting in utter disregard for the president’s right to loyalty.” 

Obviously, Dobbs has never read Article I of the Constitution, or any of the other articles. Nowhere do the Founding Fathers express the belief that the head of the executive branch has a “right to loyalty” from members of the legislative branch. 

Or from you or me. 

(Like Lindell, Dobbs is channeling his inner fascist.)

 

Chaffetz, a former member of that branch doesn’t bother to correct the host, most likely because Chaffetz wants to keep getting paid to show up as a guest commentator on Fox News. 

 

“The President has perpetrated false rhetoric.” 

Since the topic is idiocy, it might be time to nominate the new dumbest member of Congress, with several fresh candidates rushing to the fore. For this blogger, the current favorite is incoming Sen. Tommy Tuberville, famous mainly for being a college football coach. 

Apparently, Coach Senator never had time while charting X’s and 0’s to read the U.S. Constitution. He suggested this week that a great way to lower the temperature – not the global temperature, of course – but the political temperature in our country, would be to delay Mr. Biden’s inauguration until the COVID-19 crisis abates. 

(Yes! Brilliant idea! Since President Trump is doing such a fantastic job of focusing on that crisis right now!) 

“We probably could have had a swearing-in and inauguration later after we got this virus behind us a little bit,” Coach Senator told baffled reporters in Alabama. “Again, we’re talking about Washington, D.C.,” Tuberville added, in a snarky stab at the people who muck about in the “Swamp.” 

 

Alas, the fact that the 20^th Amendment sets January 20 as the day, and noon as the time for a new president to be sworn in, somehow escaped Coach Senator’s feeble intellectual grasp. 

One lawmaker who is definitely smarter than Coach Senator, is Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The Republican senator said in a statement released this week that the decision to impeach President Trump was “appropriate.” She promised to listen to “both sides” when the Senate trial begins. As for Mr. Trump’s role in the tragedy that took place on January 6, she was clear: 

President Trump’s words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans...the desecration of the Capitol, and briefly interfered with the government's ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

 

For months, the President has perpetrated false rhetoric that the election was stolen and rigged, even after dozens of courts ruled against these claims. When he was not able to persuade the courts or elected officials, he launched a pressure campaign against his own Vice President, urging him to take actions that he had no authority to do.

 

Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequences and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment.

 

Amen. 

And see below.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: We should note that conservative media personalities Diamond and Silk stand by Trump’s authoritarian side. As late as March 26, 2021, they appear on right-wing television where they insist that the U.S. military should remove Biden from office, partly because Biden had just tripped going up some stairs, and they suggest we “let the military take over from here.” David Brody, of Real America’s Voice News, asks, why should the military take over? “From a national security standpoint?” he wonders. Yes, the ladies agree – and we need to get to the bottom of what happened in the 2020 election. 

This blogger would suggest that if we let the military take charge, we won’t have to worry about elections ever again. 

 

1/16/21: Is it over yet? Dear God, please let this end. Is Donald J. Trump really still president? 

While we haven’t seen much of the man, himself, of late, we continue to receive a flood of information about the Capitol Hill riot. 

____________________ 

“You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy.” 

President Trump

____________________ 

 

According to The New York Times, in a tense phone call prior to that day’s certification of the electoral vote, the president chastised Vice President Pence. Two people briefed on the call say that Pence told his boss he had no power to stop the vote, nor any inclination to ignore the U.S. Constitution. 

“You can either go down in history as a patriot,” Trump raged, “or you can go down in history as a pussy.”

Having been pressed relentlessly for days, Pence asked his lawyers to consult with J. Michael Luttig, “a former appeals court judge revered by conservatives” and other constitutional scholars. Judge Luttig made it clear there was no constitutional path the vice president could follow to void electoral votes. 

Reached for comment later, the judge told reporters it had been “the highest honor of my life” to play a role in preserving the U.S. Constitution.

 

Joe Grogan, Trump’s former domestic policy adviser, summed up the situation in even starker fashion. “We’re very lucky that the vice president isn’t a maniac,” he said. 

Trump supporters would be wise to consider who Judge Luttig thought he had to preserve the Constitution from. 

And who Grogan thought the maniac was. 

 

As far as blowing shit up, it appears Loser Don may have blown up the GOP in Arizona. Having insisted he won the state in November, although the vote tallies say he did not – and even though no one has seen any evidence to prove his claim – Republicans are now fighting among themselves in the land of cacti and triple-digit temps. Trump loyalists, like GOP Party chair Kelli Ward, want to censure the governor, a fellow Republican, for not overturning the 2020 vote. 

As Politico reports, reasonable members of the GOP (for example, people who realize QAnon conspiracy theories are drivel) are less than amused. 

“The craziness from the state Republican Party … it’s pretty embarrassing,” said Kirk Adams, a former Republican state House speaker and former chief of staff to Ducey. “We have been fed a steady diet of conspiracy theories and stolen election rhetoric and, really, QAnon theories from the state Republican Party since before the election, but certainly after.”

 

“Let us be clear: we find the weeks of disinformation and outright lies to reverse a fair and free election from the head of the Arizona Republican Party and some elected officials to be reprehensible,” read a full-page ad in The Arizona Republic this week from Greater Phoenix Leadership, a group of CEOs. “The political party organization and these elected officials, which some of us have supported in the past, have again embarrassed Arizona on a national stage.”

 

When Gov. Doug Ducey again defended the integrity of the state’s vote, Ward replied on Twitter, “STHU.” 

That is: “Shut the Hell Up.” 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: A last-ditch recount in Maricopa County, ordered by Ward and other diehard Trump fans, and conducted by a conspiracy theorist named Doug Logan, wraps up its work in September 2021. 

Joe Biden won the state by winning Maricopa by a large margin. Logan and his team count and weigh and fricassee the ballots, looking for fraud. 

Biden gains 99 votes in Maricopa, giving him 1,040,873. 

Trump loses 261. 

 

1/17/21: Having had several days to ponder the sad state of the Republican Party, Sen. Ben Sasse offers harsh assessment of what went wrong on January 6. 

____________________ 

“It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party.” 

Sen. Ben Sasse

____________________

 

 

The violence that Americans witnessed – and that might recur in the coming days – is not a protest gone awry or the work of “a few bad apples.” It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice.

 

When Trump leaves office, my party faces a choice: We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them. We can be the party of Eisenhower, or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones. We can applaud officer [Eugene] Goodman or side with the mob he outwitted. We cannot do both.

 

The conservative swaths of this media landscape were primed for Trump’s “Stop the steal” lie, which lit the fuse for the January 6 riot. For nine weeks, the president consistently lied that he had “won in a landslide.” Despite the fact that his lawyers and allies were laughed out of court more than 60 times, he spread one conspiracy theory after another across television, radio, and the web. For anyone who wanted to hear that Trump won, a machine of grifters was turning clicks into cash by telling their audiences what they wanted to hear. The liars got rich, their marks got angry, and things got out of control.

 

And that, dear America, is a nearly pitch-perfect assessment of what went wrong on Capitol Hill, and whom we should blame. 

 

“Any reasonable person could see the potential for violence.” 

GOOD REPUBLICANS, and we should remember there are many, continue to come to grips with what has happened under Trump’s rule. Former GOP Congressman Evan McMullin tweets: 

Rand Paul warns that if Senate Republicans convict Trump, a third of the party will break off. So be it. The GOP faces an inescapable choice between a future of extremism, treachery and losses, or of truth, principle and leadership. Both paths are difficult, but only one is good.

 

Rep. Tom Rice, one of ten House Republicans to vote to impeach the president releases a statement explaining his vote. 

Under the strict definition of the law, I don’t know if the President’s speech last Wednesday morning amounted to incitement of a riot, but any reasonable person could see the potential for violence.

 

Once the violence began, when the Capitol was under siege, when the Capitol Police were being beaten and killed, and when the Vice President and the Congress were being locked down, the President was watching and tweeted about the Vice President’s lack of courage.

 

For hours while the riot continued, the President communicated only on Twitter and offered only weak requests for restraint.

 

…It is only by the grace of God and the blood of the Capitol Police that the death toll was not much, much higher.

 

It has been a week since so many were injured, the United States Capitol was ransacked, and six people were killed, including two police officers. Yet, the President has not addressed the nation to ask for calm. He has not visited the injured and grieving. He has not offered condolences. Yesterday in a press briefing at the border, he said his comments were “perfectly appropriate.”

 

I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.

 

Sen. Sasse later adds to his criticism of those who have been playing with matches and flamethrowers. Writing in The Atlantic, he warns: “Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon. They can’t. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them. Now is the time to decide what this party is about.” 

In case anyone missed the point, he singled out newly-elected GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, poster child for QAnon folly, and offered succinct assessment. Greene, he warned, is “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.” 

“If the GOP is to have a future outside the fever dreams of internet trolls,” the senator adds, “we have to call out falsehoods and conspiracy theories unequivocally. We have to repudiate people who peddle those lies.” 

Doug Leone, a billionaire backer of President Trump renounces his support in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. “After last week’s horrific events, President Trump lost many of his supporters, including me,” he explains. “The actions of the President and other rally speakers were responsible for inciting the rioters. We need to find the best way to move forward as a country, get behind our newly-elected President, and start working on the many difficult issues facing America.” 

He and his wife Patti had donated $700,000 to the president’s reelection. Money they’d clearly like back.

 

1/18/21: With two days remaining in the presidency of Donald Trump, you might imagine that serious evidence of widespread election fraud would have been uncovered – in Georgia, for sure. 

____________________ 

“There’s just nothing to them.” 

Bobby Christine, Acting U.S. District Attorney, and Trump appointee

____________________ 

 

The president continues to insist that, like the Loch Ness monster, the evidence is there. But the people in charge of finding it keep insisting they’ve looked, and “Voter Fraud Nessie” never surfaces. 

Last week, Bobby Christine, Acting U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, a recent Trump appointee to his post, announced that his office would not bother to pursue two challenges to the Georgia election results filed by President Trump’s legal team.

“I can tell you I closed the two most – I don’t know, I guess you’d call them high profile or the two most pressing election issues this office has,” he explained to staff, in a recording obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

“I said I believe, as many of the people around the table believed,” Christine is heard saying, “there’s just nothing to them.” 

Christine also indicated during the conversation that he would like to go public with the findings but could not. “I would love to stand out on the street corner and scream this, and I can’t.” 

His former boss, Byung J. “BJay” Pak, also a Trump appointee, had been forced to resign just before the Georgia senate runoff election. Pak’s sin? He failed to find election fraud that wasn’t there. 

 

 

1/20/21: GOOD RIDDANCE, DONALD J. TRUMP! Zero days left. At noon, Joe Biden takes office as President of the United States. 

QAnon hearts are breaking, as reality strikes. 

____________________ 

“There is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it.”

 

Amanda Gorman, poet

____________________ 

 

His predecessor leaves office with the same lack of class he entered, having failed to concede an election he lost 78 days ago. 

The 46^th President of the United States gave an inaugural speech worth remembering, calling on the nation to heal. There was no big crowd in person. Washington D.C. was a heavily-armed camp, lest the same despicable elements that rampaged through the halls of Congress on January 6 return and do additional, perhaps fatal damage to the republic, which has stood for 232 years. 

The 45^th president, cowardly as ever, skipped town three hours before, sent off by a small crowd of family and what few “friends” he had left. Even VP Pence chose not to show up to see Reject Don off, choosing to accept an invitation to attend Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s swearing in instead. 

(That may tell you all you need to know.)

 

So, as the nation has done, once every four years, since 1789, and several times suddenly, when leaders have died, we watched a new leader take charge. 

After four years, it was time to wash a stain away. Mr. Biden reminded us that “democracy is precious,” and “democracy has prevailed.” (See his full speech below.) 

If you missed the performance of the young poet, Amanda Gorman, 22, rectify that at your pleasure. It was exuberant, optimistic, and a call to move forward, undaunted, imperfect as our nation’s progress has always been and always shall be. “We shall not march back to what was,” she boldly predicted, “but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.” 

For “there is always light,” she said, “if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it.”

                         

                                                                                                                

 

A Bit of Comic Relief. 

HuffPost reporters sat down yesterday and followed some of the traffic on social media sites favored by QAnon believers. As the moment for the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. approached, they knew Biden was going to be stopped! Because the mysterious “Q” had promised. With excitement growing with each passing moment, several believers predicted we were about to see “National Popcorn Day,” all over again. 

(The real National Popcorn Day is January 19.) 

With the final minutes until the swearing in ticking away, one believer commented on social media, “WELCOME TO THE GRAND FINALE!!!” 

“Anyone else wanna puke with excitement?!?!?!” said another. Pass out the barf bags, I guess! 

(11:45: Kamala Harris takes the oath of office.) 

“Where the hell is the fucking storm?” one believer asks worriedly. 

“Well this popcorn just got cold,” says another. 

(The imaginary butter has coagulated.)

 

“When do the arrests start??” asks a third, quizzically. 

(12:00 noon: Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes the oath of office.) 

“I can’t stop crying. Fuck. Why?” asks a QAnon disciple. 

“It’s over,” agrees another.

We we go one we go down the rabbit hole.