Part III: Helping MAGA Folks Face Reality (Steps 165-212)

Part III: Helping MAGA Folks Face Reality.

(Steps #165-212.)

 

__________ 

More than a whiff of fascism.

__________ 

 

WITH THE DECISION of the U.S. Supreme Court to deny legal remedy to President Trump for his imaginary wrongs, he believes he suffered in the 2020 election, deep desperation sets in. (See: Part II, #164). The crazies begin to multiply and coalesce, their fury fueled by Trumpian lying.

___ 

Tiananmen Square (1989): When governments send in the tanks.

 

165. December 12, 2020: Diamond and Silk, two buffoons who host a show on Newsmax, offer up a new plan to help Donald remain in the White House. “If the Supreme Court can’t save our Republic,” they tweet, “then where is the Military?” (In March 2021, the two women will elevate their buffoonery, suggesting that the military should remove President Biden from office, and “get to the bottom of what the American people saw in the 2020 election.”) 

166. Decent Republicans are not amused. Sen. Lamar Alexander says he hopes Trump will put country first and congratulate President-Elect Biden. 

167. Sen. Bill Cassidy tells reporters that on January 20, 2021, Mr. Biden will be taking over. He has the necessary electoral votes. “As we’re a nation of laws, and this is the Constitution, and this is the law,” the senator explains, “and this is how it breaks out, and the courts have ruled[.]” 

168. December 13, 2020: Attorney General Barr meets with Trump and tells him for a third time that DOJ has uncovered no proof of significant voter fraud in the recent election. Barr will later testify, as part of a congressional investigation, that he told Donald his repeated claims to the contrary were “bullshit.” 

Barr decides to resign. 

 

169. By law, electoral votes must be certified on December 14. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects Team Trump’s fourth appeal to overturn November results. In Michigan, electors ignore “credible threats” and record sixteen votes for Biden. One elector wears a bulletproof vest on the way to vote. 

170. Trump retweets a post by L. Lin Wood, who suggests jail time for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Their crime? Counting the popular votes in their state three times and reporting that Mr. Biden won. 

Three times. 

 

171. December 13-15, 2020: Trump supporters rally in Washington D.C. Now they’re furious with the U.S. Supreme Court (see: December 8). Calls are heard to lock up the justices. Having already suggested that Trump declare martial law and hold a new election, Gen. Michael T. Flynn speaks from the steps of the Court. Once again, Flynn advocates sending in tanks. 

172. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), responds:

 

Since Election Night, a lot of people have been confusing voters by spinning Kenyan Birther-type, “Chavez rigged the election from the grave” conspiracy theories, but every American who cares about the rule of law should take comfort that the Supreme Court – including all three of President Trump’s picks – closed the door on the nonsense. 

 

173. Meanwhile, a Trump appointee to the federal bench throws out another challenge to the November voting results. Describing the latest lawsuit as “extraordinary,” U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig rules that Wisconsin officials followed state law when they conducted the 2020 election.  

174. On the flip side, L. Lin Wood offers up a new strategy. If lawsuits won’t suffice, gunfire might. He suggests that like-minded “patriots” who love America so much they’d be happy to kill fellow Americans to save a second term for Trump, stock up on “Second Amendment supplies.” 

He’s just one of many Trump allies who will suggest a turn to violence to overcome a loss at the ballot box. 

 

“Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me.” 

175. Trump pressures the Department of Justice, under new leadership, to officially announce an investigation into voting irregularities in Antrim County, Michigan. He has seen a report that “proves” there was a 68% error rate in Antrim. That would only be possible if voting machines were rigged. (See: #136 above and #180 below.) 

176. Mike Lindell, the unhinged MyPillow guy, visits Trump in the Oval Office. Lindell urges his God-chosen leader to deploy the military to remain in power.

Lindell at the White House.

 

177. Behind the scenes, other Trump allies are drafting a plan which would allow him to seize voting machines in several states in an attempt to prove the election was rigged. A draft report states, in part:

 

I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find that the forensic report of Antrim County, Michigan voting machines, released December 13, 2020, and other evidence submitted to me in support of this order, provide probable cause sufficient to require action… (See: #180.) 

 

178. The idea of grabbing voting machines is broached to the Department of Defense, but shot down by people Donald appointed. 

179. Russell Ramsland, a Texas entrepreneur, emails a different plan to seize the voting machines. He suggests that the job be handled by the Department of Homeland Security. Top officials at DHS also pass on the chance to murder democracy. 

180. December 18: The story that Trump was cheated out of 6,000 votes in Antrim County now implodes. The Republican-controlled Antrim County Board of Elections completes a hand recount of all 15,000-plus votes. Donald doesn’t gain 6,000 votes. He gains eleven. And Biden loses one. 

(Dear MAGA folk: Donald is off by only a little!) 

 

181. We won’t know until June 2021, but a Republican-controlled Michigan Senate committee will make clear there was no massive voter fraud in Antrim – or anywhere else in that state. As the committee chair explains, “We must all remember: ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof’ and ‘claiming to find something extraordinary requires first eliminating the ordinary.’” 

182. On December 19, 2020, Trump announces that Peter Navarro, his top economic advisor, has handed him a 36-page report. According to Navarro it was, “Statistically impossible [for Trump] to have lost the 2020 Election.” 

Donald issues a call for action. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6,”  he exclaims. “Be there, will be wild!” 

 

183: Navarro will eventually refuse to comply with a subpoena from congressional investigators regarding his knowledge of events leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack. He will be found guilty of contempt by a jury of his peers. 

184. He will appeal his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but still get sent to the slammer. 

185. December 20, 2020: Down in Texas, Mark A. Aguirre, 63, a former Houston police captain, is working for a conservative group on high alert to ferret out massive ballot fraud. He starts his morning by ramming the cargo truck of air-conditioner installer David Lopez-Zuniga and forcing it off the road. Lopez-Zuniga is suspected of transporting 750,000 fake ballots – the very kind of fraud that Texas Attorney General Paxton loves to talk about but never actually finds. 

A search of the truck reveals zero ballots, neither fake nor real. 

 

186. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows puts out a tweet amplifying his boss’s “Stolen Election” claims – inadvertently revealing a troubling gathering, just concluded. “Several members of Congress,” he wrote, “just finished a meeting in the Oval Office with the President @realDonaldTrump, preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned.” 

187. Talk of violence is spreading online. In an email sent to the F.B.I. by a source, a Trump supporter is telling friends, “We must all join/link forces and be ready to leave our lives behind…Blood is the price of freedom.” 

Or you could try voting – and not talk about shooting just because you lost. 

 

188. December 23, 2020-January 3, 2021: Barr’s replacement, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, fields daily calls (save Christmas) from the mercurial President of the United States. Trump wants the Justice Department to make a public statement supporting claims of widespread voter fraud. 

189. Rosen rebuffs the president’s entreaties. “We did not think they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them [emphasis added throughout],” he later tells congressional investigators. 

190. Christmas Eve, 2020: The President of the United tweets angrily: “VOTER FRAUD IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY. IT IS A FACT!” He goes on to say that the nation has suffered “an act of war.” 

It’s not an act of war. 

It’s not even a fact. 

 

191. December 27: Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue has a 90-minute phone conversation with the president, during which he takes notes. Trump again brings up the Antrim claim, and airs a number of allegations. All have been discredited, Donoghue tells him. He says that he was “very blunt.” He says he “tried to correct him in a serial fashion,” knocking down the president’s multiple misconceptions.” A hand recount of the more than 15,000 votes in Antrim, for example, had shown the machines were off by a single vote, (the final tally was off by twelve) not by 68% as Trump insisted. “What people are telling you is not true.” Donoghue says he “tried to educate the president,” for Trump’s own good. 

(Like trying to teach a goat to play the piano.) 

 

192. Trump brings up the tale of a truck driver who claims to have delivered a truckload of ballots from New York to Pennsylvania. (The same driver is a ghost hunter in his spare time, so there’s that.) Donoghue explains that that allegation has been investigated. The story of haunted votes is false. 

193. Trump insists that 200,000 Pennsylvania ballots have not been certified. He is told, again, that investigations revealed no evidence of serious fraud – almost none in fact – in any of the cases he has mentioned. 

194. Trump grows agitated. He wants DOJ to investigate, to do his bidding. Donoghue tells him Justice cannot just “snap its fingers” and change election results. According to Donoghue, Trump responded, “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressman.” 

195. Those are the very lawmakers who met with Chief of Staff Meadows on December 21 (See: #186). They are the same folks who will, as the clock runs out on the Trump presidency, seek blanket pardons. 

196. Balked once more, Trump insisted that DOJ had “an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election.” Donoghue later told investigators that that was a direct quote. He had it in his notes. Trump, he added, wanted DOJ to “put the stamp of approval” on the “Stolen Election” lie. 

197. Actually, DOJ has an obligation to uphold the rule of law. 

198. Election officials in Georgia conduct a spot check of voter signatures in Cobb County to test how the signature check system worked. Biden won 56% of 387,000 votes in Cobb County. An audit of 15,000 absentee ballots turns up, only two signature mismatches. 

Two. 

 

199. New Year’s Eve, 2021: A new plan to keep Trump in power is taking form. On January 6, 2021, allies of the president will contest the certified electoral votes of several battleground states. In the U.S. House of Representatives, only one lawmaker is needed to make a challenge, and Lou Gohmert is ready. 

200. Gohmert has an interesting, one-man-rule kind of theory about how to count electoral votes. That is: a vice president can decide what to do. Ohio cast its 18 electoral votes for Trump. Mike Pence counts them. 

Pennsylvania cast its 20 for Biden. Pence doesn’t feel like counting those. 

“Under the Constitution, he has the authority to conduct that proceeding [the tally of the votes on January 6] as he sees fit,” Gohmert argues. “He may count electoral votes certified by a state’s executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors. He may ignore all electors from a certain state [emphasis added]. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution.”

Rep. Gohmert and his weird one-person-rules theory.

 

 

201. Jumping ahead, as the 2024 election fast approaches: Even a nitwit like Gohmert has to realize that this same argument could be applied by Democrats, in January 2025, regarding Kamala Harris. All that would be required would be for Vice President Harris to throw out electoral votes from one or two states – say Texas – if she loses – and she could ensure that she herself would be our next president. 

(Fortunately, Harris is not a devious nitwit.) 

 

In the Senate, like the House, only one member is needed. Sen. Josh Hawley announces he will challenge the vote.

 

202. As for the 2020 election, Sen. Rob Portman (who is about to retire) tells a reporter, “I think we need to respect this process the Founding Fathers established, and we must respect the will of the voters. The orderly transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy.” 

203. Sen. Sasse warns that “the president and his allies are playing with fire. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.” 

204. In a very, very rare act of courage, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blasts Hawley. “I’m finishing 36 years in the Senate and I’ve cast a lot of big votes,” McConnell says. This “will be the most consequential I have ever cast.” He understands that the Constitution is at stake. 

(As per normal practice, we are only quoting Republicans to bolster our points.) 

(McConnell has since returned to his wimpy ways, and supports Trump in 2024.) 

 

January 1, 2021: President Trump now pins his hopes on blocking the counting of electoral votes, on January 6. “Massive amounts of evidence will be presented on the 6th,” he promises. “We won, BIG!” 

The next day, Trump continues to fan the fury of the MAGA faithful. There has been, “An attempt to steal a landslide win,” he tweets. 

“Can’t let it happen!”      

 

205. L. Lin Wood also has a plan to keep Donald in power. “When arrests for treason begin, put Chief Justice John Roberts, VP Mike Pence & Mitch McConnell at [the] top of the list. Pence will be in jail awaiting trial for treason. He will face execution by firing squad. He is a coward & will sing like a bird & confess ALL.” 

(These people are f**king crazy!) 

 

206. January 3, 2021: Acting Attorney General Rosen, and other top officials at the Department of Justice have refused to sign a letter that says DOJ has uncovered serious evidence of voter fraud. 

A new plot to install Jeffrey Clark as Acting Attorney General, and dump Rosen, has taken shape. In an Oval Office meeting, called for by Rosen, President Trump announces that he plans to elevate Clark. 

“What have I got to lose?” he asks. 

 

207. Rosen later testifies before a congressional panel, and explains that he refused to do Trump’s bidding, because the Department functions on the basis of “facts, evidence, and the law [emphasis added].” None of which supported the Trump/Clark plan. Rosen made clear: He had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. 

208. In the same meeting, Acting Attorney General Donoghue was blunt. He and Rosen had consulted with other top officials. Donoghue announced that he wouldn’t work “one minute for this guy,” pointing to Clark. 

If the president fired Rosen, he would also resign. 

 

209. Stephen Engel, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, was also in attendance. He later testified, under oath, noting that the Department had examined all credible allegations, and to “this date” (the date he testified before Congress, he meant) there had been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. 

Trump wondered, “Steve, you wouldn’t resign, would you?” Engel had worked for the administration for four years. 

“I couldn’t be part of this,” he replied. 

 

210. Five other top officials at Justice had assured Donoghue. If Rosen was out, and Donoghue and Engel were out, they were out too. None had any hesitation. Those five were Assistant Attorney Generals Eric Dreiband, Claire Murray, Jeff Wall, David P. Burns and Makan Delrahim. All five had been appointed by Trump, with Delrahim, a native of Iran, being gifted a red baseball cap with the words, “Makan Antitrust Great Again,” when he was sworn in. 

211. A sixth Assistant AG, in charge of national security affairs, had also said he would resign, but given the nature of his duties, Rosen and Donoghue asked him to remain in his post. 

(That’s nine Trump appointees ready to resign.) 

 

212. Donoghue went further. He warned the president that there would be a wave of resignations among U.S. District Attorneys, and that others at DOJ, and in district offices – likely hundreds – would “quit in a cascade.” Clark, he said, would be “leading a graveyard.” 

With that, Clark’s chance of becoming Acting Attorney General died an ignominious death. Trump backed down – but we know now he wasn’t done. He had one last part of the plot that might work. He would redouble efforts to convince Vice President Pence to break the law.

Clark wanted to be Acting Attorney General.

January 6 Committee Hearing #6: Ketchup on the Wall

Ketchup on the Wall 

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

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

For those not watching,  particularly Trump’s diehard fans who don’t want to learn bitter truths, this January 6 Committee has done a masterful job of laying out the evidence. For the sixth hearing, we learned that Ms. Hutchinson, a striking young woman, in a white blazer, had been stationed just down the hall from the Oval Office itself. The Committee wanted it to be clear: She was at the locus of power inside the White House. At one point, Hutchinson laughed after a digital map was displayed on the massive screen behind the nine lawmakers who make up the panel. “It’s a lot smaller than it looks,” she said of her office.

Cassidy Hutchinson swears to tell the truth.

 

Hutchinson, like many of the other two-dozen main witnesses called so far, had been a dependable member of the Trump administration from the start. 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 even 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 brought those fears up in conversation with Meadows soon after. “Cass,” he replied, “I don’t know, things might get real, real bad on January 6.” 

Hutchinson testified that she had also talked to John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, and expressed her concern. 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 spiral out of control. The plan that was shaping up, pushed by the president’s most rabid supporters, was “potentially dangerous for our democracy.”

 

The first major shock of the day came when Hutchinson outlined the clear warnings that the White House had received in the days leading up to the January 6 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 such warnings to Meadows. She asked if he could speak to Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent on loan, then in charge of security protocols at the White House, 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 completely banned. 

The president himself had said that January 6 would be “wild.” By 9:00 a.m. 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 an AR-15. (Hutchinson’s wording was unclear, and I couldn’t be sure she meant there were three persons, and one had an AR-15, or all three in the group did.) A report 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.

Armed protesters were seen close to the White House.

Frantic police radio calls from that morning were played, backing Hutchinson’s testimony up. She testified further that by 10 a.m. she knew protesters had knives, pistols, rifles, and all kinds of bear and pepper spray. She stepped into Meadows’ office and expressed her growing distress. He was seated on a couch, scrolling through his phone. “I remember distinctly him not looking up,” she said. Ornato called to warn Hutchinson that law enforcement authorities were having trouble “stacking bodies.” They didn’t have enough manpower, they feared, to control a growing crowd. She went again to see Meadows – but was struck again by his “lack of reaction.” 

Meanwhile, Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer, had been warning the president’s speech writers to drop criticism of Vice President Mike Pence from Trump’s planned speech. To include such incendiary language, would be “foolish,” he said. Yet, the critical lines remained in the speech. 

White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone had already expressed his concern about the president’s plan to go to the Capitol after his speech. Now, on the morning of January 6, 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.”

 

In months since, Mark Meadows has written a book about his time in the Trump White House. He had said that the president had never planned to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6. When he called on the crowd to do so, and said he’d lead them there, Meadows said he was speaking “metaphorically,” which would not leave anyone involved open to a charge of a crime. Now Hutchinson was making clear. Trump had planned to go all along. Nick Luna and Max Miller, two other witnesses who testified behind closed doors, were shown on video, backing that story up.

 

* 

“They aren’t here to hurt me.” 

Hutchinson, Meadows, the adult Trump children, and the president, soon headed for the Ellipse, where the big stage was set up. Other speakers had been warming up the crowd. But 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 surrounding the stage. Many of those 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. He was furious because the crowd might look too small. “I don’t f---ing care,” Hutchinson heard him say, “if they have weapons. They aren’t here to hurt me.” He demanded agents “take the f---ing mags [magnetometers] away.” 

That request was denied. 

Hutchinson was backstage when President Trump strode to the podium and began to speak. She could not hear everything he was saying. Then she got an angry call from House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy. “You lied,” he exclaimed. She had assured him Trump had no plans to march to the Capitol – but now he had just said he would. Hutchinson said she had been told he would not. When Trump finished, however, Secret Service agents told him that it would not be safe. Inside “the Beast,” as the president’s heavily-armored limousine is known, an angry scene allegedly played out. Hutchinson said that she was told Trump was furious. “I’m the f---ing president,” he shouted. “Take me to the Capitol.” When Secret Service agents refused, she was told, Trump lunged at the driver and tried to grab the steering wheel. Then he grabbed at the throat of Robert Engel, another agent, who tried to force him to sit back in his seat.

 

* 

A “shattered porcelain plate.” 

Hutchinson was asked if she had ever seen the president explode before. She said that she was called to the presidential dining room on December 1, shortly after Attorney General Bill Barr told Trump that there was no evidence of serious voter fraud in the recent election. She saw ketchup dripping from a wall and “a shattered porcelain plate.” The valet indicated that Mr. Trump “had thrown his lunch against the wall.” She picked up a towel and started wiping the ketchup off. 

“Was this the only instance you are aware of where the president threw dishes,” Rep. Liz Cheney asked? No, she replied. Trump had been known to throw dishes before, and would sometimes rip off tablecloths, sending everything on the table flying. 

She testified further that on the evening of January 5, Meadows had asked her to arrange for him to travel to the Willard Hotel, where a “war room” had been set up by some of the Trump diehards to plan for events 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 Willard that night. 

What kind of people were present in the “war room” that evening – and the next day? The panel laid out some of what they had learned. Those in attendance include Roger Stone, the seven-time felon. John Eastman, the mastermind of the plot to derail the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, was there. So was Gen. Michael T. Flynn, one of several Trump advisors who had been advocating for him to declare martial law and rerun elections in battleground states where he lost. 

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. 

Was the violence justified “morally?” 

Flynn replied, “Fifth.” That is, he was taking the Fifth Amendment. 

Was the violence justified “politically?” 

“Fifth,” Flynn replied. 

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

The general replied, staggeringly, “Fifth.”

 

* 

“Blood will be on your f---ing hands.” 

Hutchinson testified that by 2:05 p.m. on January 6, as the crowd turned into a mob, and began surrounding the Capitol Building, that 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 Mr. 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 his supporters off. Meadows told Cipollone that the president didn’t want to do anything. “People are going to get killed,” Cipollone told Meadows, “and the blood will be on your f---ing hands.” (Hutchinson never used the f-word in her testimony all day.) When Cipollone added that some in the mob were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” the White House chief of staff seemed to wash his hands. Trump, he replied, “thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.” 

“This is f---ing crazy,” Cipollone replied. 

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 Cassidy Hutchinson had worked for “Fake News” CNN for four years. In fact, she testified, for almost four years she had always supported the president, had “always worked to show what good things he had done for the country.”

 

Now, when Trump’s infamous tweet came at 2:24 p.m., she could stand 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 now told the panel, “I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American” and “it was a lie.” 

The election had not been stolen – as the two dozen witnesses who had already testified had made abundantly clear. 

A brief clip of Matthew Pottinger, a former Marine, and at that time Deputy National Security Advisor, was shown on the screen. He too considered the 2:24 p.m. tweet a breaking point. At that moment, he testified, he decided he would resign. 

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

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

A clip of Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, was shown on the screen 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. 

But Trump did not act. Meadows remained paralyzed, at best. The seventh hearing may well prove that Trump expected and planned for the chaos – that he thought violence would justify further extreme action. For example: He might have cover to declare martial law and thwart the final work of Congress that way.

 

* 

Witness tampering – again – a Trump go-to move. 

Much remains to be seen; but 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 Rudy Giuliani had asked about a pardon himself. She said her own boss, Mark Meadows, also inquired. 

Rep. Liz Cheney spoke next. Up on the big screen, two quotes appeared, both clearly 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, 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 would seem it was none other than Donald J. Trump. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: The story of Trump lunging at Secret Service agents in the limousine on January 6 is in some dispute. And, for once, Trump apologists had something from the hearings they could latch onto to in an absurd effort to discredit everything else that had been said. 

Trump, of course, showed his usual lack of class, and demonstrated once again, that he believes he can convince his cult members that everyone who has ever criticized him or ever will is lying and part of the “Fake News.” In a series of attacks, he has belittled Hutchinson, calling her “this girl.” He has said he “hardly knows” who she was, and in an interview with Newsmax (where no one ever dares criticize Trump) he wondered aloud, “Is something wrong with her?” Is this “girl” perhaps “crazy?” 

When the Secret Service put out a statement saying that the agency had been cooperating fully with the investigation, and there were reports that agents in “the Beast” would deny the story about what occurred, Trump acted as if every syllable that had come from Cassidy Hutchinson’s lips had been debunked. 

“These are great people,” Trump said of the Secret Service. “I think they were very embarrassed by it because it makes them sound terrible.”

 

“It was very nice that they came to my defense,” Trump said. “I thought it was incredible, actually, because, you know, some whack job can say this stuff and get away with it.”

 

But Hutchinson had made clear – she had not been witness to that incident – whereas she had been witness to other damning events. 

At Newsmax, of course, no one bothered to ask Trump, about all the other evidence Hutchinson had – or the other evidence provided by the 26 other main witnesses so far. For your edification, we provide the list of main witnesses called to testify publicly so far:

 

All are Republicans. Many worked for President Trump: 

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 (limited testimony, Trump had invoked executive privilege)

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 (reluctant witness, repeatedly plead the Fifth)

 

9.     Benjamin Ginsberg, Republican election strategist

10. Eric Herschmann, White House lawyer

11. Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

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

13. Judge J. Michael Luttig, conservative judge

14. Jason Miller, Trump advisor

 

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

16. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State

17. Al Schmidt, member of Philadelphia election board

18. Mike Shirkey, Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate

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

20. Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager

21. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia election officer

22. Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News election expert

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

24. Jeffrey Rosen, Acting Attorney General (during the last days of the Trump presidency

25. Richard Donoghue, Acting Assistant Attorney General, under Rosen

26. Steve Engel, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel

 

And now, Cassidy Hutchinson made #27.

 

Trump, Hutchinson (green arrow) and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
Trump will later claim he hardly knew who Hutchinson was.