Part V: Helping MAGA Folks Face Reality (Steps 356-463)

 

Part V: No Fairy in the Fairy Tale.

(Steps #356 – 463.)

 

__________ 

“You can’t live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence that there was fraud in the election.” 

Attorney General Bill Barr

__________ 

 

WITH the events of January 6 fresh in our minds (See: Part IV), we can jump ahead to the summer of 2022. After months of preliminary investigation, the House Select Committee on January 6 begins holding public hearings. The testimony is often gripping, if you watch, which most Trump fans don’t dare. 

We pick up our numbering again, as we do our best, step by step, to lead the MAGA faithful to the Truth. 

That Truth: Donald lost the 2020 election, and he’s an inveterate liar, stirring your poor souls to hate. This much is opinion, of course; but I believe it makes him the most dangerous American politician ever. 

Here’s the evidence.

Sidney Powell.

___ 

 

First, we should provide a list of the main witnesses called to testify, under oath, during hearings in June and July 2022:

 

1. Former Attorney General Bill Barr

2. Rusty Bowers, Arizona Speaker of the House

3. Alex Cannon, former Trump campaign lawyer

4. Jeffrey Clark (his testimony was shown via video, and he was shown repeatedly pleading the Fifth)

 

5. Pat Cipollone, former White House Chief Counsel

6. Laura Cox, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party

7. Brian Cutler, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader

8. Dr. John Eastman, linchpin to the plan to keep Trump in office (repeatedly pled the Fifth)

 

9. Richard Donoghue, Acting Assistant Attorney General

10. Steven Engel, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel

11. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, wanted Trump to declare martial law (repeatedly pled the Fifth)

 

12. Benjamin Ginsberg, Republican election strategist

13. Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer (repeatedly pled the Fifth)

14. Eric Herschmann, White House lawyer

15. Cassidy Hutchinson, White House aide

16. Greg Jacob, lawyer on the staff of Vice President Pence

17. Judge J. Michael Luttig, conservative judge

18. Derek Lyons, White House lawyer, minor role as witness, did not believe election was stolen

 

19. Sarah Matthews, Assistant White House Press Secretary

20. Jason Miller, Trump advisor, reluctant witness; helped undercut the “Stolen Election” lie

 

21. Matt Morgan, chief counsel for the Trump 2020 campaign

22. Bjay Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia

23. Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor

24. Sidney Powell, Trump lawyer

25. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State

26. Jeffrey Rosen, Acting Attorney General

 

27. Eugene Scalia, Secretary of Labor

28. Al Schmidt, member of Philadelphia election board

29. Mike Shirkey, Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate

30.  Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence

31. Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager

33. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia election officer

33. Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News election expert 

 

Note to MAGA folks: 

Suppose you tuned in to watch every minute of all the public hearings, as this blogger did. He’s retired. He has the time.

356. Had you, you would have had to convince yourself that 28 witnesses, who worked for President Trump, or who had been devoted Republicans all their lives, and who destroyed the myth of the “Stolen Election,” had been lying – under oath. You had to believe they all decided to take the risk of perjuring themselves.

 

357. You had to further believe that four witnesses who took Trump’s side, and all repeatedly pleaded the Fifth (#’s 4, 8, 11 and 13), had nothing to hide. Sidney Powell and Jason Miller were on Trump’s side, but even Miller believed the election was not stolen. 

(Powell may have pled the Fifth, but I’m not sure. She did answer some questions.)

 

We have learned since those hearings that Ms. Powell took a plea deal in the Georgia election fraud case (filed in August 2023), which lists Donald J. Trump as a defendant, along with Clark, Eastman and Giuliani. She is now spending six years on probation, and her legal career is charred toast. 

In any case, if you were the MAGA type you had to believe, despite all that, that this guy (below, left) was telling the truth: 

 

FUN FACT: On July 19, 2019, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta (right) was forced to resign his cabinet post after an old story was revived. It turned out, he was the guy who gave Jeffrey Epstein a sweet deal, which basically kept him out of prison, and allowed him to keep molesting young girls for another decade.  

Donald Trump has never attacked Acosta publicly – whereas he always attacks people who testify against him.  

(Keep this in mind as we summarize testimony from the hearings.) 

 

In this section, we will list key sections of testimony provided during the eight public hearings: 

 

Never any “indication of interest in what the actual facts were.” 

358. Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann was asked about the president’s endless claims of rigged voting machines: “The Dominion [Voting Systems] stuff was … I never saw any evidence to sustain those allegations.” As for claims regarding Dominion, put forward by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, Herschmann was blunt. “What they were proposing, I thought was nuts.” 

359. Matthew Morgan, former general counsel for the Trump 2020 campaign, told investigators that he tracked down all allegations of voting fraud as they came to him, in weeks following the election. He found nothing that would have been “outcome determinative.” During one meeting of top campaign people, Morgan testified that everyone in the room, “at least among the staff,” agreed. No tangible evidence of serious fraud was to be found. 

360. Bill Stepien, who took over a foundering Trump reelection effort with only 115 days left, testified via video. Stepien described all kinds of accusations of fraud made by other members of Team Trump. One: that illegal votes from other countries were coming in by the thousands. What had happened, he explained, was ballots from Americans living overseas were still being tallied. 

He told investigators he believed, almost immediately, that the president had lost. The real numbers, he said, were “very, very, very bleak.” He said, at best, he believed Trump had a 5-10% chance of contesting results, and securing a win.

 

361. In the aftermath of the election, however, voices of reason were drowned out. Giuliani appeared on television, screaming about hundreds of thousands of fake ballots being brought in in “garbage cans” and “shopping carts.” Powell was unleashed to make all sorts of wild claims. 

Stepien, himself, left his post. “I didn’t think that what was happening at that point was honest or professional.” 

 

362. Former Attorney General Bill Barr concurred. He described “an avalanche of accusations,” and said the Department of Justice tried to track down any credible claims. Most proved “completely bogus,” and “silly.” 

Trump was implacable. He insisted he had seen “boxes” of bogus votes being delivered in Detroit, in the dark hours after polls closed on November 3. Barr explained to the president that Detroit had 630 voting precincts. It was standard procedure for precincts to deliver ballots to a central location, so they could be tallied. “The stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public,” Barr testified, was “bullshit.” 

Even more damning, the former attorney general said that on the part of the president there was never any “indication of interest in what the actual facts were.” 

 

363. Alex Cannon, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, could see no proof of systemic fraud. When he refused to say that he did, and cited a report by Chris Krebs, Peter Navarro, a Trump toady, stormed into his office and accused him of being an “agent of the Deep State.” 

Mr. Krebs was, at the time of the 2020 election, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security. He was chosen for the job, by Donald J. Trump. CISA released a statement soon after, calling the election “the most secure in American history.” 

Once Barr stepped down at DOJ, Trump upped the pressure on the Department to do his bidding. Richard Donoghue and other top DOJ officers met with Trump at the White House. Trump claimed at one point, that votes in places in Michigan had an error rate of 68%. Donoghue demurred. The actual rate, he said, was “0.0063,” or one error for every 15,000 votes. 

What about the “suitcase” full of votes in Georgia? What about that!! The president insisted votes had been rolled out from under a table – and counted three times – something like 54,000 fake votes, all going to Biden. 

Donoghue told Mr. Trump that accusation was false. 

(Some of these examples appear in Part IV, so they are not numbered again.) 

 

Bjay Pak, who had been the U.S. District Attorney with jurisdiction over the matter, spoke via video. He said his team had looked into the story, and found the “suitcase” was an “official lock box.” The F.B.I. and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had both looked into the matter. 

“Nothing irregular” had been found. 

 

Republican official’s family target of death threats. 

364. Nor were the courts “rigged” against the president – although, of course, he said they were. Members of the Committee noted that twenty-two federal judges appointed by Republican presidents, including ten appointed by Trump, rejected his “Stolen Election” claims. At least two dozen elected Republican state judges also refused to provide the president relief – for the simple reason that there was no evidence to support his demands for relief. 

In order to believe that all these judges missed all the truths Team Trump was stubbornly trying to sell, you would have to stand Mr. Logic on his head. Then you would have to wallop Mr. Logic in the nuts with a crowbar. 

Then you’d have to push him off a cliff.  

(Somehow, Trump-lovers can’t figure this out.) 

 

Red mirage. 

365. Chris Stirewalt, in charge of explaining voting numbers to Fox News viewers, said in testimony that it was clear before November 3. This battle for the White House would be different. Early balloting had increased by 50%. Stirewalt and his team knew that in-person voting would trend red, favoring Mr. Trump. That would be the “red mirage,” the illusion that the incumbent was piling up a lead, on the way to a win. Trump’s people knew it too, and they told Trump as much.   

Stirewalt explained that in every election for the last fifty years, Democratic votes in cities came in late, whereas red rural districts count far fewer votes and report. “People had been talking for weeks, and everyone understood for weeks, that that was going to be what happened on Election Night.” 

The witnesses at the first two congressional hearings were clear. The fairy tale about a “Stolen Election” was untrue. 

There was no fairy.

 

“This may be the most important thing I ever say.” 

366. Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said he conveyed his doubts about the stolen election “many times,” to the White House. Short said that on January 4, 2021, Dr. John Eastman, a central figure in Team Trump’s plot to reject electoral votes from states Trump lost, admitted that the scheme he was helping to hatch would be illegal, if carried out. 

Vice President Pence had made it clear. He was going to refuse to put aside any votes. As Mr. Pence and his legal team prepared a final statement, he remarked, “This may be the most important thing I ever say.” 

 

367. Greg Jacob, a lawyer on Pence’s staff, said the vice president never wavered. Trump and Eastman were arguing that the U.S. Constitution gave a vice president power, when counting electoral votes, to set aside any he might want. 

“There was no way,” that the Founding Fathers, who “abhorred concentrated power, who had broken away from the tyranny of George III, would ever have put one person, particularly not a person who had a direct interest [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].” Jacob said, “in a role to have decisive impact on the outcome of the election.” Frankly, Jacob testified, it was “just common sense.” 

(Good Lord, MAGA folks, figure this out.) 

 

368. Judge J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was a star witness. Vice President Pence had sought out the highly respected conservative jurist for advice. 

Luttig was asked to explain what he meant by a sentence in an op-ed he had written the day before he testified: “Had the Vice President obeyed the President of the United States, America would have immediately been plunged into what would have been tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing Constitutional crisis.” 

The judge understood the gravity of the moment and his words were precise. “The most foundational principle,” he said, the rule of law, “the profound truth,” “the simple foundational truth” of the Republic had been placed at grave risk. Not by Democrats and not as a result of voter fraud. 

The President of the United States was a threat.

 

369. Even Dr. Eastman admitted, witnesses said, that Trump’s and his plan to have Mr. Pence ignore the electoral votes of several states would be “dead on arrival in Congress,” if announced. 

Fake slates of electors in seven states had been created – and as part of the plot were to be trotted out – but only at the last minute. 

(This would make it hard for the legislative or judicial branches to thwart the plot.) 

 

“Are you out of your f**king mind.” 

370. In a meeting with Eastman, Jacob stressed what should have been obvious, even to Donald Trump. No vice president in history had ever attempted to overturn an electoral count. Al Gore could have declared victory for himself in 2001. Even Dr. Eastman “acknowledged that Al Gore did not and should not have that authority at that point in time.” 

(Kamala Harris could f**k with the electoral count, herself, in January 2025, and presto: Meet President Harris!) 

(Fortunately, no Democrat has advanced this unconstitutional proposal.)

If Mike could do it, then Kamala could do it:
Assuming she had no respect for the Constitution. 

 

 

371. Mr. Short testified that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows admitted “a couple of times,” that he knew Pence had no such authority.

 

372. Jason Miller, who claimed publicly that the election had been stolen, warbled a different lullaby under oath. Miller admitted that White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone believed the idea that Pence could ignore the votes “was nutty and at one point confronted Eastman, basically, with the same sentiment.” 

373. Miller was under oath. As far as Eastman’s arguments went, Cipollone and others “thought he was crazy…his theory was crazy, there was no validity,” Miller said. Herschmann had a more pungent response. “Are you out of your f**king mind,” he asked Dr. Eastman at one point. 

On January 5, 2021, White House lawyers confronted Eastman again. He admitted that if his plan for Pence to overturn the vote ever reached the U.S. Supreme Court, it would lose 7-2. He hesitated a moment, and then admitted it would “lose 9-0.” 

As the days passed, and the courts shot down one legal challenge after another, honest voices in the Trump administration quit or fell silent. 

 

374. Judge Luttig testified that had he been advising any vice president, John Adams in 1797, Thomas Jefferson in 1801, Richard Nixon in 1961, now Pence, he “would have laid his body across the road” to stop Team Trump. 

375. Investigators asked former Attorney General Barr about voting in Fulton County, Georgia. Had it been rigged, as Trump insisted then, and insists to this day? Those allegations, Barr said, “had no merit.” The president became fixated on a “suitcase” full of 18,000 ballots and claimed those ballots had been brought out secretly from under a table, counted three times, all fake, filled out for Joe Biden. Barr explained: “the ballots under the table were legitimate ballots, they weren’t in a suitcase, they had been pre-opened, for eventual feeding into the machine…we didn’t see any evidence of fraud in the Fulton County episode,” he concluded. 

376. Gabriel Sterling talked in some detail about the president’s wild claims – and how those claims led to death threats for multiple state election officials. A young poll worker, “caught” on video, supposedly tampering with the votes, was swamped by threats against his life. 

(Trump should have spoken out against such threats.) 

(Instead, he encouraged the worst of his supporters.) 

 

377. We also learned that Dr. Eastman had asked to be added to the list of people seeking pardons before Trump left office. Testimony during the fourth public hearing made it clear why. At one point, Eastman insisted that Georgia lawmakers had a “duty” to decertify the Georgia electoral votes. 

378. Governor Brian Kemp was forced to issue a declaration. “Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change the process for the November 3rd election would be unconstitutional.” 

379. Two other state officials testified briefly on video. Mike Shirkey, Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate, was pressured to overturn the Michigan vote. As for Trump’s closest advisors, the worst of the remaining worst, Shirkey said “they were believing things that were untrue.” 

 

“We just don’t have the evidence.” 

Rusty Bowers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, was also getting barraged by phone calls, asking him to help overturn his state’s vote. One Committee member asked Bowers, “You wanted Trump to win?” 

“Yes,” he responded. 

380. Bowers was asked if he had had time to consider a statement, issued by the former president earlier that day. Bowers said he had. Trump claimed that Bowers told him during one conversation, shortly after the election, that he had won the state of Arizona, and the election had been rigged. 

Bowers responded sharply, “Anywhere, anyone, anytime…says I said the election was rigged, that would not be true.” 

381. For clarification, he was asked: Did he ever tell Trump he won Arizona? “That is also false,” Bowers said. 

382. Bowers explained how he took one memorable call from Giuliani. Rudy offered up a lengthy list of allegations. Five thousand dead people voted in Arizona. More than 200,000 undocumented individuals cast ballots. Bowers asked him to provide evidence. Rudy said he would – but never had. 

The witness explained to the Committee why he would not help overturn Arizona election results:

 

You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath, when I swore to the [U.S.] Constitution to uphold it, and I also swore to the constitution and laws of the State of Arizona, and this is totally foreign as an idea, or a theory to me, and I would never do anything of such magnitude. 

 

383. He said it was a “fundamental right of the people” to have their votes tallied and to have electors vote for the president of their choice, in their name. Bowers turned red in the face and nearly teared up. “It is a tenant of my faith,” he added, “that the Constitution was divinely inspired.” 

President Trump called Bowers in late December 2020, and personally asked for help. Bowers said he made it clear he would do nothing “illegal.”

 

384. Eastman contacted him next. He too urged Bowers to decertify Arizona’s electoral slate. “Just do it and let the courts sort it out,” Eastman pleaded. 

385. The Committee explained. They had subpoenaed Dr. Eastman for his testimony. In a video, those of us watching the hearings on television could watch him plead the Fifth in response to 146 questions.

 

  

“I don’t think this is appropriate or the right thing to do.” 

386. As we already know, in sixty-two cases Team Trump lawyers failed. Trump, Eastman, Giuliani, Ellis, and others pressed ahead with the case that was really no case. Justin Clark, another Trump campaign lawyer, said he told others that “unless we have litigation pending supporting” such challenges to the vote, “I don’t think this is appropriate or the right thing to do.” 

387. Matthew Morgan, general counsel for the Trump campaign, finally had his fill. He refused to have anything to do with the scheme. 

He messaged Kenneth Chesebro, who was pushing to create a slate of alternate electors for Wisconsin: “This is your task.” 

Undeterred, Chesebro and a cast of dozens helped create slates of fake electors in seven critical states. 

 

388. Laura Cox, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, told the January 6 Committee, via video, that at one point the fake electors in her state planned to hide overnight in the Senate building. That way, they could fulfill a legal requirement and cast alternative votes. Cox called that plan “insane and inappropriate.” 

389. The legality of the plan was so tenuous that fake electors were assured, “indemnification by the [Trump] campaign” would be made “available if someone gets sued or worse.” Meaning: Charged with a crime.

 

390. In the summer of 2023, the fake electors from Michigan are indicted and charged with fraud. One of the sixteen, James Renner, agrees to cooperate and says he was duped by lying Trump allies. 

In December 2023, the ten Wisconsin fakes are hauled into court, where they admit, under legal duress, that Biden did win the state’s popular vote. In June 2024, three more Team Trump lawyers are indicted in Wisconsin for their roles in an attempt to overturn a fair vote in 2020. 

391. Those three: Chesebro, James Troupis, and Mark Roman. 

Mr. Chesebro has since admitted to committing a felony.

 

 

“People’s hearts.” 

Georgia Sec. of State Raffensperger explained to anyone watching the hearings that a hand recount of Georgia ballots showed an almost perfect match to numbers recorded by voting machines. 

He and Sterling both debunked the story of the “suitcase” full of Biden votes. Sterling testified that investigators watched 48 straight hours of video tape. The story of the magic suitcase, brought out in secret, full of bogus votes, was false. Facts didn’t matter, however. Trump’s lies, he said, were getting into “people’s hearts.” 

(But not their coconut heads.) 

 

392. Raffensperger was asked about the president’s request that he “find” the 11,780 votes he needed to take the Georgia win away from Joe Biden. “We didn’t have any votes to find,” he said. “I had to be faithful to the Constitution.” 

 

393. A clip of Trump’s speech on January 6, in the hours just before the riot in Washington D.C. exploded was shown during one hearing. Once again, he told the gathered multitude that a “suitcase” full of bogus votes for Biden had been rolled out. 

 

“To have the President of the United States target you.” 

Trump continued to push the suitcase story. Now he told millions of supporters that a poll worker named “Shaye” Freeman Moss, and her mother, Ruby Freeman, had played a critical role in perpetrating election fraud. 

It was now Ms. Moss’s turn to tell her story to the Committee. She had been a poll worker for ten years. Her grandmother had told her how important the vote was, and reminded her that African Americans in Georgia had not always had the chance to cast ballots. The Committee rolled tape of Giuliani claiming that Moss and Freeman had stolen the election from President Trump. 

Moss had trouble speaking. 

Make America Great Again?

 

394. She had received threats, she continued, “wishing death upon me.” One caller told her to “be glad it’s 2020, and not 1920,” when white mobs could lynch a black person with impunity. 

395. Mom had testified, via video. Freeman said she had to go into hiding. People showed up at Shaye’s grandmother’s house, rang the doorbell, and when she answered, barged past. They were there, they shouted, to make a citizen’s arrest. 

396. Ms. Moss said she rarely went out now. She was afraid and had gained sixty pounds. “Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States target you?” her mother asked during testimony. “The President of the United State is supposed to represent every American,” she added, “not to target one.” 

Ms. Moss tears up testifying. Her mother, Ms. Freeman is in red.

 

For Jeffrey Clark, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Affairs, the next hearing proved brutal. It was the kind of proceeding that can lead to criminal charges, and a stint in an orange jumpsuit. Clark was the linchpin in a last-ditch plan hatched by President Trump and the worst aides and advisors still willing to do his bidding. Normally, Clark was tasked with litigation in environmental matters. 

397. He was forced to testify under subpoena, and repeatedly invoked the Fifth. 

 

Trump plans to weaponize the Department of Justice. 

398. Mr. Engel explained to the Committee, and the American people watching – which, again, was no one watching Fox News – that it was part of his job to meet with the president and top administration officials when they required legal advice. He would offer options they might choose to achieve policy goals and would guide them around pitfalls if what they wished to do might be forbidden by law. 

He explained that he, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and Acting Assistant Attorney General Donoghue had all been nominated by Donald J. Trump, with Rosen serving in three successive posts in his administration. 

399. In weeks following the 2020 election, all three came to realize that a far-reaching scheme was afoot to keep the president in power. The foundation of the plot was to pollute the national discourse with false claims of voter fraud. The President of the United States, all three agreed, though none deployed the harshest word, was spreading lies.

Rosen was asked about Clark, and his position at Justice. He said he learned only afterwards that Clark had had a meeting at the White House with Trump on December 22, 2020. This was a violation of DOJ protocol. When Rosen questioned Mr. Clark, the latter claimed the meeting was “inadvertent.” 

Engel explained that DOJ limits who speaks to the president, because even the appearance of political interference can do serious damage.

 

400. White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone, we learned, also warned Mr. Clark to “stand down.” 

401. The meeting wasn’t inadvertent. Clark had been taken to the White House by Rep. Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania. Perry was one of the lawmakers working hardest to overturn the 2020 results. At one point, he insisted (and Trump believed) that more votes were certified in that state than had been cast. Donoghue explained. Four counties in Pennsylvania had failed to upload results to a state elections website. As for Perry’s claim of massive fraud, he said, “there was zero to that.” 

Mr. Clark - in better days.

 

“You guys may not be following the internet the way I do.” 

A desperate president, listening to the worst legal voices he had left, latched onto a wild idea. He would have the Department of Justice send a letter to the Governor of Georgia, with copies going to legislatures in key battleground states, as well as Trump allies in Congress. Top DOJ officials would say that there had been “widespread fraud” in the vote. 

402. The key second sentence would read: “At this time we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.” 

The problem, of course, was that the DOJ had not identified “significant concerns” in Georgia. 

Nor had they uncovered significant concerns “in multiple states.” 

 

403. Barr, and now Rosen, Donoghue, and Engel made this abundantly clear. They repeatedly informed Mr. Trump that his allegations of voter fraud were unsupported by fact. During one contentious exchange, Trump insisted that DOJ investigations couldn’t be right. He had all the evidence he needed. “You guys may not be following the internet the way I do,” he complained. 

(Who doesn’t believe everything what they read on the internet!) 

 

404. The three officials were unmoved. None would sign the letter. Donoghue told the Committee that when he first read what he termed an “extreme” letter he had to read it twice. Horrified, he sat down to send a “prompt” response. He said that Justice would not “insert itself into the political process.” He warned Clark that he was asking DOJ “to meddle in an election.” 

 

“Not consistent with the truth, not consistent with the Constitution.” 

405. Rosen explained that he had two reasons he refused to sign. First, the letter was “not consistent with the truth.” Second, it was “not consistent with the Constitution. ” For people of principle that would cinch. 

When Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign a false statement, Trump, who has no principles, except one (to do what is best for himself) latched onto the idea of firing Rosen and replacing him with Clark – a human being who looked like he was fashioned out of Silly Putty, and garbed in a suit.  

On January 3, 2021, a Sunday, with three days left until certification of the electoral votes, matters came to a head in an explosive Oval Office meeting. Rosen had called White House Chief of Staff Meadows, and set it up. To put it mildly, Clark and Trump ran into universal condemnation. Rosen, Donoghue and Engel said they’d resign rather than help advance the plot.

 

406. Herschmann, who sat in that Sunday, said he had offered Clark blunt warning. If he went through with the letter, he would be taking his first step, as Acting Attorney General, to “committing a felony.”

407. White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone knew an illegal scheme when he heard it. According to the three witnesses testifying during the fifth hearing, he warned that the letter was a “murder-suicide pact.” He told everyone in the meeting “we should have nothing to do with it.” 

Trump was warned that there would be mass resignations at all levels at the Department of Justice if he pursued his plan. He backed down, and Clark’s chances of being elevated to Acting Attorney General were dead. 

That same night, Clark had the nerve to call Donoghue at home. Trump had heard that there was a truckload of shredded ballots, down in Georgia, and that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent had the truck impounded. The agent supposedly wanted to know what to do. Donoghue said ICE would be under Homeland Security, but promised to let them know. 

By this time, if President Trump had suggested that an alien spaceship landed, and dropped off 81,000,000 ballots, all marked for Joe Biden, I imagine no one at DOJ would have been surprised.

 

408. In fact, the truckload of shredded Biden ballots did not exist. 

 

The sixth hearing was a surprise on several levels. First, only a single witness was called to testify live. Cassidy Hutchinson, then 26, was former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Second, the hearing was scheduled suddenly, as if an emergency had occurred. 

As we learned in the end, an emergency had: Ms. Hutchinson was a target of intensifying witness intimidation. 

Ms. Hutchinson takes the oath.

  

“Potentially dangerous for our democracy.” 

Like many of the other witnesses, Ms. Hutchinson had been a dependable member of the administration from the outset. Following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, however, she saw a president spiraling out of control. 

On the evening of January 2, 2021, she talked briefly with Rudy Giuliani – speaking of spiraling out of control. Trump, he said, planned to go to the Capitol on January 6, after he gave his “Stop the Steal” rally speech. There, he hoped to speak again. He might appear on the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate. Rudy wasn’t sure, but said the president would appear “very powerful” if he did.

Hutchinson told committee members that was the first time she was “scared.” She couldn’t tell whether what Rudy had told her was true or not. But she brought up her fears with Mr. Meadows. 

409. “Cass,” he replied, “I don’t know, things might get real, real bad [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] on January 6.” 

410. Hutchinson testified that she had talked to John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, and expressed her concerns. He, too, was troubled. He told her that he wanted no part of the post-election machinations in the White House. January 6, he said, could be “dangerous to the president’s legacy,” and events might explode. The plan that was shaping up, pushed by the president’s most rabid supporters, Ratcliffe added, was “potentially dangerous for our democracy.” 

411. The first shock of the hearing came when Hutchinson outlined the clear warnings the White House received in the days leading up to the riot. There were plans afoot, among radical right-wing groups, to occupy multiple buildings in Washington D.C. On January 4 there was a warning that “Congress itself is a target.” Robert O’Brien, the president’s National Security Advisor, called Hutchinson and asked her to relay these warnings to Meadows, which she did. 

412. She asked O’Brien to speak to Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent on loan, then in charge of White House security protocols, and he did. Ornato was informed that there had been multiple, credible threats of violence. On the evening of January 5, with angry Trump supporters gathering, there were reports of armed protesters in a city where guns are almost totally banned. 

413. The president himself had said that January 6 would be “wild.” By 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the riot, it was clear that for once, a Trump prediction was correct. Law enforcement reported seeing a protester armed with a pitchfork, another with a Glock-style pistol on his right hip, mixed in with the crowd. There was a man with a long gun in a tree near the Washington Monument, and a group of three walking down the street with at least one carrying an AR-15. A report also came in – that at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Independence Avenue, there were people dressed for combat, complete with ballistic helmets and body armor. 

The most powerful man on earth does nothing.

   

Hutchinson explained further that by 10 a.m. she knew protesters had knives, pistols, rifles, and all kinds of bear and pepper spray. 

414. Ornato called to warn that law enforcement was having trouble “stacking bodies.” They lacked manpower to control a growing crowd. She relayed the message to Mr. Meadows, who seemed unperturbed.

 

415. It was clear that morning, that trouble was brewing in the nation’s capital. You didn’t need to be a genius to figure it out. Police on the streets, Secret Service agents monitoring the situation, and White House aides sensed danger. The president’s own National Security Advisor was concerned. Donald Trump did nothing to prepare for trouble, or to stop the riot once it exploded. 

416. The First Lady could have done more if you had simply given her a broom to swat a few rioters on their heads. 

The First Lady could have done more with a broom.

  

“They aren’t here to hurt me.” 

417. At the White House, Mr. Herschmann had been warning the president’s writers to drop criticism of Vice President Pence from Trump’s planned speech later that day. To include such incendiary language, would be “foolish,” he said. Yet the critical lines remained in the final draft. 

418. Mr. Cipollone had also expressed his concern about the president’s plan to go to the Capitol after his speech. Now, with signs of danger intensifying, he warned Hutchinson, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable” if the president marched to Capitol Hill, including “inciting a riot.” 

Hutchinson, Meadows, the adult Trump children, and the president, soon headed for the Washington Monument Ellipse, where a stage was set up. The president was angry. The crowd, which he had said would number in the millions, was too small. It didn’t look good on TV. Secret Service agents, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and others were reporting having trouble passing thousands through metal detectors. Many individuals entering the venue were carrying large military-style backpacks, which took longer to search. Hundreds were simply stacking gear outside the fence – which worried law enforcement in itself. Trump was warned. Many supporters had come to D.C. armed. 

419. “I don’t f**king care if they have weapons,” Hutchinson heard him say. “They aren’t here to hurt me.” He demanded agents “take the f**king mags [magnetometers] away.” That request was denied. 

 

“Idiot Island.” 

Hutchinson testified further that on the evening of January 5, Meadows had asked her to arrange for him to travel to the Willard Hotel. There a “war room” had been set up by some of the Trump diehards to plan for the next day. She told him she did not think it was “a smart idea” for him to go. “I didn’t think it was appropriate,” she told the panel. As far as she knew, Meadows did not go to the hotel that night. 

420. What kind of people were present in the “war room” that evening, and the fateful following day? Those in attendance included Roger Stone, the seven-time felon. Eastman, the mastermind of the plot to derail the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, was there. So was Gen. Flynn, one of several Trump advisors who had been advocating, relentlessly, for the president to declare martial law. 

White House lawyers referred to the gathering place at Willard as “Idiot Island.”

 

A clip of Flynn’s testimony (under threat of subpoena for criminal contempt), via video, was shown on the big screen. “Was the January 6 violence justified?” investigators asked. His lawyer and Flynn asked for a moment to confer. For 96 seconds the screen went blank. When the two men reappeared, Gen. Flynn asked for clarification. The investigator broke the question down. 

421. Was the violence justified “morally?” 

Flynn replied, “Fifth.” He was taking the Fifth Amendment. 

422. Was the violence justified “politically?” 

 “Fifth.” 

423. The investigator tried an even more direct approach. “Do you believe in the peaceful transition of power?” 

“Fifth.” 

The Flynn plan to "win" the election.

424. Hutchinson testified that by 2:05 p.m. on January 6, as the crowd degenerated into a mob, and began surrounding the Capitol Building, she had a feeling of “watching a bad car wreck” play out. 

Back at the White House, where the president was still fuming, she saw Cipollone come “barreling down the hallway.” She followed him into Mr. Meadows’ office, and listened as Cipollone insisted they had to go to the president and tell him to call off his supporters. Meadows told Cipollone that the president didn’t want to do anything. 

“People are going to get killed,” he told Meadows, “and the blood will be on your f***ing hands.” When Cipollone added that some in the mob were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” the White House chief of staff seemed to wash his hands. 

425. Trump, he replied, “thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.” 

“This is f**king crazy,” Cipollone exploded. 

 

426. One rioter was shot and killed on January 6. A second was trampled to death. Two people in the mob died from heart attacks. One police officer died the next day. Four officers committed suicide in weeks to come. Three rioters charged with crimes committed suicide before going to trial, and a fourth after being convicted. A fifth, Dr. Tammy Tower Parry, was shot and killed after she pointed a shotgun at process servers who came to her home to serve an eviction notice, after her life unraveled. Finally, Ricky Shiffer, who listened to Donald Trump’s “Stolen Election” lies, and showed up on January 6, was shot and killed after he decided to attack the F.B.I. office in Cincinnati in August 2022.

That’s 15 dead, if you cared. 

(Trump never has.) 

 

“It was him giving people the green light.” 

427. If you didn’t watch the hearing, or you only heard Hutchinson’s testimony filtered through the lens of right-wing news, you might have thought the young woman had worked for “Fake News” CNN. In fact, she testified, for almost four years she had supported the president, and had “always worked to show what good things he had done for the country.” 

428. Now, when Trump’s inflammatory tweet came at 2:24 p.m., on January 6, she could stand it no more. 

That tweet read: “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!” 

“As an American,” she told the panel, “I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American” and “it was a lie.” 

 

Both Matthew Pottinger, at the time of the riot Trump’s Deputy National Security Advisor, and Sarah Matthews, Assistant White House Press Secretary, were blunt in testimony, when asked about the tweet. 

429. Pottinger decided to resign immediately, but was asked by superiors to stay on for the day, to do what he could to restore calm. 

430. “It was obvious,” Matthews testified, “it was him [Trump] giving people the green light.” She had attended many of the president’s rallies before. “I’ve seen the impact his words have on his supporters,” she said. He wasn’t helping. He was stirring up the mob. She quit her post the next day. 

431. Even the Trump apologists at Fox News were growing alarmed, as rioters began smashing a way inside. At 2:32 Laura Ingraham messaged Meadows, insisting, “Mark, the president needs to tell the people in the Capitol to go home.” 

432. At 2:53, Donald Trump Jr. contacted Meadows, and said his father had to “condemn this shit. ASAP.” 

(Laura and Don Jr. could see the truth; but they’d later lie about what they saw.) 

 

433. A clip of Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, was shown next. It was a video warning he sent to the president around that same time. “You’re the only person who can call this off…This is bigger than you, it’s bigger than any member of Congress, it’s about the United States of America, which is more important than any politician. Call it off. It’s over,” he said.

 

Ms. Hutchinson closed her testimony with a final bombshell of her own. She said that President Trump had considered pardoning everyone involved in the Jan. 6 attack. She said Giuliani had inquired about a pardon for himself. She said her own boss, Mark Meadows, inquired. 

(Who asks for a pardon before being charged – save those conscious of guilt?) 

 

434. Rep. Liz Cheney spoke next. Up on the big screen, used by the Committee, two quotes appeared, both clear attempts at witness intimidation.

 

What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect [emphasis added], you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceed through my depositions and interviews with the committee.

 

[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.

 

The first quote was from Hutchinson, from previous testimony, given on video, under oath. She was in position to do real damage to the former president if she told the truth and she was being pressured to cover up what she knew. 

And who was that “person,” unnamed? It was the President of the United States, Donald John Trump. 

 

435. Having listened to testimony, so far, seven four-star officers felt compelled to respond. In an editorial in The New York Times, they were scathing in their assessment of the former president. Gen. Peter Chiarelli had been critical of Mr. Trump before. 

Now these top men  (Admirals Steve Abbot, James Loy, John Nathman and William Owens, together with Generals John Jumper, Johnnie Wilson and Chiarelli) warned that of the “many startling findings” presented during the hearings, the most “alarming” was that the man in the Oval Office had failed to act to stop the violence. “The president and commander in chief, Donald Trump, abdicated his duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” they wrote. 

“When a mob attacked the Capitol, the commander in chief failed to act to restore order and even encouraged the rioters.”  

 

If Mr. Trump was watching the eighth and final hearing, you knew he had another name to add to his ever-growing “Enemies of the People” list. That would be former White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone. 

 

“Doing great, great disservice to the country.” 

Once again, the Committee wove a powerful narrative, with major players fleshing out details, and Cipollone, who had agreed to testify only days before, holding center stage. 

436. Eugene Scalia, former Labor Secretary in the Trump administration, had a cameo role. He testified, on tape, that by mid-December 2020, it was clear. “It was time,” he said of Trump, “for him to acknowledge that Biden had won.”

 

As White House Chief Counsel (I noticed on Fox News later that he was described only as a “White House lawyer”), Cipollone was careful in what he said. He could not repeat anything he said directly to the president, or anything the president said to him. Client-attorney privilege does prevail. Executive privilege for a President of the United States is also necessary and real. 

So investigators asked him to comment on testimony from previous witnesses, like former Attorney General Barr. 

437. Did Cipollone agree with Barr, who said that in November-December 2020, he had repeatedly told Trump there was no significant evidence of voter fraud. Was Barr correct? “Yes,” Cipollone replied. “I agreed with that.” 

438. Cipollone was asked about Trump’s legal team – and their perfect record of defeats in 62 court cases challenging election results. Was Trump obligated to abide by the rulings of the courts? The former chief counsel seemed all too happy to respond. “Everybody,” he said, “everybody is obligated to abide by the rulings of the courts.”

Mr. Cipollone knew a crooked scheme when he saw one.
Ironically, he was the architect of Trump's defense
during his first impeachment.

  

439. Barr had told Trump, three times, by December 13, that the Justice Department had found no evidence of serious fraud. He called such claims, made by Trump, pushed by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, “crazy stuff.” Such repeated claims, Barr said he told the president, were “doing great, great disservice to the country.” 

440. Again, Cipollone could not say what he told the president. Now he made his position clear. “It is fair to say that I agreed with Attorney General Barr [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted],” he explained. 

Trump had suggested in a December 13 meeting with Barr, that he order the Justice Department to seize “suspect” voting machines. 

Barr declined.

 

441. Yet, on December 16, Trump’s top enablers drafted a letter. This time, the idea was to have the Department of Defense seize the machines. Trump also suggested making Sidney Powell a “Special Counsel,” his own Robert Mueller if you will. When asked what he thought of that idea, Cipollone did not hold back. “I was vehemently opposed,” he told investigators. “I did not think she should be appointed to anything.” 

442. He was asked to elaborate on why he called Powell’s appointment a “terrible idea.” “I don’t even understand why we have to tell you that’s a bad idea for the country, it’s a terrible idea,” he said again. 

Lou Dobbs, left, helped Fox News lose $787.5 million in a defamation suit.
Powell, right, has pleaded guilty in the Georgia case,
regarding election fraud committed for President Trump.

 

443: As of October 20, 2023, we know that Powell pled guilty in the Georgia election fraud case. We also know that with Powell flipping, the former Golfer-in-Chief, Donald J. Trump, insisted that Powell was never his lawyer and he wouldn’t recognize her if he ran over her with his golf cart. 

The blogger is joking (sort of). What the former president actually said, on Truth Social on October 22, 2023, was this:

 

Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted. Ms. Powell did a valiant job of representing a very unfairly treated and governmentally abused General Mike Flynn, but to no avail. His prosecution, despite the facts, was ruthless. 

(On two separate occasions, Flynn admitted he committed a felony.) 

(Trump granted him a Golden Pardon in December 2020.)

 

444. Jason Miller appeared on the big screen the January 6 Committee used next. Did Rudy and Sidney and other Trump outside lawyers really have evidence at that point to prove massive voter fraud? No, he admitted, they did not, “to say that it [their evidence] was thin is probably an understatement.” 

 

“No reasonable person.” 

A large part of the hearing was devoted to dissecting an explosive meeting at the White House, on the evening of December 18, 2020. The meeting was not on the official schedule. Powell, Giuliani, General Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com., simply showed up and gained entrance to the White House with the help of a junior staffer. What followed would be six hours of heated argument, punctuated by screaming, profanity, and threats of violence. None of the regular White House legal staff had been notified about the meeting in advance. 

When asked about that, Powell, in televised testimony, grumbled that Cipollone “probably set a land speed record” getting down to the Oval Office to intervene. 

Cipollone was backed up that night, and in subsequent testimony, by two members of the White House Counsel’s Office, Herschmann and Derek Lyons. None of the three could testify as to what Mr. Trump said. Again: executive privilege.

 

445. They could say what they thought of the outsiders who had magically appeared. Flynn, they said, made no bones about where he stood. He had been urging the president to declare martial law. Cipollone’s disdain was clear. “I don’t think any of these people were providing the president with good advice,” he told the Committee members. He scoffed at evidence Flynn said he had, proving voter fraud. The general had waved around a diagram that showed all kinds of links to foreign nations – and somehow proved voting machines could be controlled by hacking thermostats! 

Participants in the meeting changed locations several times. The argument dragged on past midnight. Shouting was so loud the entire West Wing was on alert. Hutchinson sent out a text at one point: “The West Wing is UNHINGED.” Powell finally left in a huff, but testified later that she would have fired Cipollone, Herschmann, and Lyons on the spot. Then, had she been in charge, she would have had them escorted out of the White House – and thrown their personal belongings out after them. 

(The blogger is joking about the “personal belongings,” serious about the rest.) 

 

What about Powell – and her “evidence” of massive voter fraud – and was she someone a sane person would trust? We knew by this time that U.S. District Judge Linda Parker had ordered Powell and other Team Trump lawyers involved to pay six-figure legal fees to the State of Michigan for filing what Parker referred to as a “frivolous” legal brief in a voter fraud case. Judge Parker went on to describe the lawsuit as “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” 

446. We knew Sidney was being sued for defaming the Dominion Voting Systems company – and sued for $1.3 billion. And we knew, since Powell had no real evidence, to prove that the machines were fixed, that in court she had adopted an interesting line of defense. “No reasonable person,” her lawyers informed the court, “would conclude that [Powell’s] statements were truly statements of fact.” 

 

In any case, by late December 2020, President Trump’s assorted plans to gain a second term that most of his closest advisors had testified they knew he did not deserve, had been thwarted in several ways. 

PLAN A: File dozens of legal challenges in state and federal court. Get ass kicked when judges rule, over and over, against. 

PLAN B: Have the Department of Justice seize the voting machines and use the smoke screen created to demand new elections – or throw out the votes from states where Team Trump claimed the vote had been rigged. Attorney General Barr kills Plan B when he points out that there is no evidence of significant voter fraud. He passes on the opportunity to subvert American democracy.

 

PLAN C: Have the Department of Defense (DOD) seize the voting machines. Throw the machines in the ocean. DOD puts the kybosh on the tin-pot-dictator-style plan and refuses to be involved. 

PLAN D: Ask the Department of Homeland Security to snag the machines. Homeland Security officials say, “No thanks.”

 

PLAN E: Trump fires Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, after Rosen insists there is no evidence of significant fraud. Rosen is replaced by a sycophant at DOJ, or a baked potato, who does as the president demands. 

Plan E is foiled when almost everyone at the top levels of Justice says they will resign if Rosen is replaced by Jeffrey Clark. 

Or a baked potato.

 

PLAN F: Trump calls on supporters to descend on Washington D.C. on January 6. If they can stir up enough chaos Vice President Pence and Congress might be cowed into overturning the electoral count, or Trump could have cover to declare martial law. Plan E is still percolating when Plan F is set in motion. The president himself predicts that January 6, “Will be wild.” 

When PLAN E is blown to bits in a White House meeting on January 3, 2021, PLAN F becomes the last stand. 

 

“‘Will be wild’ means we need volunteers for the firing squad.” 

447. In the wake of his famous, “Will be wild” tweet, Trump’s focus shifted. Radical right-wing groups began to align. It was agreed they would flood the capital. “What are you wearing?” they began to ask online. “What should we bring?” “Where do we meet up?” Kelly Meggs, a leader of the Oath Keepers, announced on Facebook that he had cobbled together “an alliance between the Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys. We have decided to work together and shut this shit down.”

(That’s the key to Plan F, dear MAGA folks.)

 

448. Kelly O’Brien, who would later show up with bear spray and help storm the Capitol, put out this tweet the same day. “CALLING ALL PATRIOTS!” she wrote. “Be in Washington D.C. January 6. This wasn’t organized by any group. DJT has invited us [emphasis added] and it’s going to be ‘wild.’” 

449. Alex Jones broadcast the same appeal, the same day, to Infowars fans. The president was calling them to be in D.C. Other right-wing leaders picked up the cry and put out the call. 

Violent rhetoric in chat rooms, and on social media platforms ramped up. “Bring handcuffs and wait near the tunnels,” which lead inside the Capitol Building, one person tweeted. “Body armor, knuckles, shields, bats, pepper spray, whatever it takes,” suggested another. “JOIN YOUR LOCAL PROUD BOYS ORGANIZATION AS WELL.” “Cops don’t have ‘standing’ if they are laying on the ground in a pool of their own blood,” howled a third Trump fan. 

450. “It ‘will be wild’ means we need volunteers for the firing squad,” a supporter of the president explained. 

451. Finally, we had Trump fans offering up their own versions of the “Final Solution” to be implemented on January 6. “Why don’t we just kill them? Every last democrat, down to the last man, woman, and child?” asked one right-winger. “The average democrat is a traitor. They do not care about election fraud. The punishment for treason is death.” 

(To this date, October 10, 2024, no significant voter fraud in 2020, has been found.)

 

452. Yet another Trump supporter was equally willing to clear the political field of Trump’s foes, “It’s time for the DAY OF THE ROPE! WHITE REVOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION!” he said. So the people who would be coming to Washington D.C. were primed. Revolution for some. Racism for others. Many had simply been swept up in a tidal wave of lies.  

453. As Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the January 6 Committee, explained, the Oath Keepers were clear. In a series of private messages they prepared to use “lethal force against anyone who tried to remove Trump from office, including the National Guard.”  

On December 21, there was another planning meeting in the White House. This time eleven GOP men and women met with President Trump, led by Rep. Mo Brooks. The others: Rep. Andy Biggs, Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Brian Babin, Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Louis Gohmert, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Jody Hice, Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Scott Perry, and Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

 

“I think he did the courageous thing.” 

During this meeting, the details of PLAN F were discussed. The key to F was to convince Mike Pence to agree not to count all the electoral votes. Pence and Meadows sat through the meeting, as did Mr. Trump. What exactly was said, we still don’t know. We do know the Mr. Pence insisted he would not screw with the counting of the votes.

Meanwhile, concern was growing on multiple fronts. Katrina Pierson, who was helping organize the “Stop the Steal” events planned for January 6, warned others that “very, very vicious” crazies were talking about showing up. She emailed Meadows to tell him plans were getting out of hand. Some “very suspect” groups, she said, were mobilizing and planning to show up in force. 

On January 2, she and Meadows talked via phone. By that time, she had been told the President of the United States planned to march to the Capitol, after his big speech at the Ellipse. 

454. Meadows has since claimed that Mr. Trump never really intended to go to the Capitol. The Committee put up on the big screen, for all to see, an official document, because the president had been shown it, which made clear. 

The plan to march on January 6 was already afoot. 

  

455. On January 4, another organizer of “Stop the Steal” events sent a message to Mike Lindell, one of the looniest supporters of President Trump. The plan to march to the Capitol was in the works – but had to remain secret. 

  

How much bloodshed was required in 1776? 

456. “This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after [speeches at] the ellipse. POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol,” Kylie Kremer explained. “It cannot get out about the second stage because people will try and set up another and Sabotage it,” she added. “It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly[.]’” 

And so the march was planned. 

People close to the president, both inside and outside the White House, his MAGA supporters, and Trump himself knew. January 6 was going to be wild. 

 

457. On the morning of January 5, White House call logs show that Steve Bannon talked with Donald for eleven minutes (8:57-9:08 a.m.) Later, Bannon announced almost gleefully on his podcast, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow…Strap in [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].” 

458. That evening, angry Trump supporters, whipped up by people like General Flynn and Roger Stone, gathered near the White House. Stone warned the audience that they must prevail the following day. They had to stop Congress from certifying the vote, or “the United States will step off into a thousand years of darkness.” 

459. Alex Jones howled, “1776, 1776, 1776, 1776, 1776,” until the crowd began to chant, “1776, 1776, 1776.” 

460. Ray Epps was also there, urging true patriots to march on the morrow. (Conspiracy thinkers will later focus only on Epps. They will decide that Epps was an F.B.I. plant, meant to stir up the mob and make the MAGA types look like crazy people. Again, read what they said! See above.) 

If anyone had stopped to consider how much bloodshed was require before the Thirteen Colonies could break free from British control, no one at the rally cared. 

A fantasy of the MAGA faithful.

 

461. Meanwhile, multiple drafts of the president’s speech for January 6 were being circulated. On the morning of the riot, Trump spoke with White House advisor Stephen Miller, from 9:52 to 10:18. Not long after, new language was inserted. Now the speech read: “And we will see whether Mike Pence enters history as a truly great and courageous leader. All he has to do is refer the illegally-submitted electoral votes back to the states that were given false and fraudulent information where they want to rectify.” 

Cooler heads soon prevailed. Those sentences were excised. Then, at 11:20 a.m., Pence made a last call to Trump for the day. He was firm. He would not set aside any state’s electoral votes. 

462. A tweet from Robert Gabriel, who began his career in the Trump administration as an aide to Stephen Miller, went out to everyone working to finalize the speech. “REINSERT THE MIKE PENCE LINES. Confirm receipt,” it read. 

 

Lesson for MAGA folks. 

As the abolitionist poet James Russell Lowell once explained, “Language is the soil of thought.” 

It’s doubtful Donald Trump ever heard of Lowell, but like every other authoritarian leader in history, he would understand what the poet meant. Language can be used to order a beer at a bar, or to flirt with a beautiful girl. Or it can be used, as prior to, and on January 6, 2021, to stir fury and hate. 

463. Trump is still stirring it today.