As the dust settles from the insurrection, what are some of the major topics of discussion?
• The ineptitude of Capitol police. (Trump spent weeks demanding his supporters hold "wild" riots on January 6th, and his supporters organized much of this on public social media sites. How could rioters have broken in so easily?).
• The complicity of Capitol police. (Domestic terrorists were taking selfies with police and, in many instances, police were seen either opening barriers to allow the insurrectionists to approach the Capitol--or at best were simply abandoning their defensive lines with minimal attempts to push back the riot. Few arrests were made. Many police did do their duty that day, however. One heroically killed a terrorist while other police simply moved aside, one officer gave his life, and another officer's quick thinking managed to lead insurrectionists away from the unlocked door of the Senate chamber).
• The double standards of Capitol police regarding how BLM protests were treated vs a literal insurrection besieging a government building where all of Congress and the Vice President were currently located(!!)
• The fact that Pence had to circumvent Trump to deploy the National Guard. (On November 9, 2020, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was fired. It's been reported that on January 4th and 5th, memos were sent forbidding DC National Guard troops from receiving riot gear, ammo, or interacting with rioters without new Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller's orders. This suggests the failure of the National Guard was premeditated).
• Congress members urging Pence and Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to immediately remove Trump.
• Cabinet members resigning in cowardice rather than doing their duty to carry out the 25th Amendment.
• Congress members moving forward with impeachment. (Instead of doing it on Thursday/Friday or holding an emergency session on the weekend, apparently they're fucking waiting until Wednesday--an entire week after the insurrection. This is the biggest emergency our nation has had since the Civil War. It must be done IMMEDIATELY).
• Pro-Trump rioters surrounded multiple state Capitols the same day they ransacked the US Capitol.
• Attempts to identify and arrest those involved in storming the Capitol.
• Demands that members of Congress who supported the coup vote and incited the domestic terrorists resign or be removed from office.
• Journalists, media outlets, politicians, and even White House lawyers acknowledging Trump's role in the incitement of these treasonous activities.
• Journalists and media outlets are no longer holding back in calling the events that have taken place coup attempt(s), insurrection, and sedition.
• Both Democrats win their races in the Georgia Senate runoff election. This means the Senate will now be split 50-50, with Vice President Harris casting a tiebreaker vote (assuming all 50 Democrats vote in favor of a bill and not a single one of them abstains or votes against it).
What is not being talked about enough:
• The fact that Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and others have variously used the terms coup, insurrection, sedition, and domestic terrorism. The fact that even Mitch McConnell and other Republicans have called the events an insurrection.
• The duty and necessity of pursuing criminal charges against members of Congress who are guilty of sedition for their role in the coup vote and guilty of inciting an insurrection (e.g. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and 145 other Congressmen, Giuliani, the Trump family, etc.). Removal from Congress is not enough. Politicians cannot be allowed to be above the law.
• The fact that the insurrection could have been much worse. (There was no arson inside the Capitol, no heavily-armed terrorists racking up the body count, and only a few bombs that were not set off. A few of the terrorists brought zip tie handcuffs to take Congressmen hostage, but were unsuccessful). Pro-Trump terrorists on public forums have been talking about planning something much more destructive on January 17th and January 19th as a last ditch attempt before Trump leaves office, so things may not be over. The FBI has warned armed groups are planning insurrections in all 50 states.
This is the coup heard 'round the world. Countless articles and analyses are being written on these events and new information is constantly coming to light. As such, it would be a waste of time to duplicate these efforts here on this blog. However, one thing I haven't really seen is a list of politicians and other government officials who have openly called these events a coup attempt, insurrection, etc. So I will attempt to list them here. This list will be updated as I find new information.
Politicians who called out the Republican coup before January 6th.
Leading up to January 6th, a few politicians were willing to say that, if certain conditions were met, then it would be tantamount to a coup.
To my knowledge, Democrat party House Majority Whip James Clyburn was the first politician to unequivocally state the fact that the behavior of Trump and Republicans to overthrow the election was a coup attempt.
"This is an attempt to overthrow our government.https://twitter.com/WhipClyburn/status/1336313614249189378
You may not call it a coup, but this is an attempted coup.
Some people say Trump is trying to steal the election.
He is not trying to steal the election.
He is in your face trying to overthrow the will of the people." -James E. Clyburn, December 8, 2020.
• Senator Jeff Merkley (Oregon):
"If Trump is trying to bypass the election & work with GOP state legislatures to ignore electoral results that would be a flat-out coup. Make no mistake, our democracy is under grave threat – not from abroad but from the White House." -Jeff Merkley, September 24, 2020.https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/1309132061232566282
• Senator Amy Klobuchar referring to the coup vote:
"This is how you run for President on the Republican side in 2024. You join a coup attempt." - Amy Klobuchar, December 30, 2020.https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1344335956409774086
• Beto O’Rourke, Democrat politician from Texas who challenged Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018:
"Cruz is trying to undermine a fairly decided election (which DHS called the “most secure in American history”), cynically knowing that though the current attempt will fail, it will now be much more likely that a future one will succeed. This is sedition." -Beto O'Rourke, January 2, 2021.https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1345465210929373185
***
January 6th, Before the Insurrection:
In the afternoon of January 6th, before the Capitol was besieged, Congress convened to count the electoral votes and formally finalize the election results. Dozens of Republicans had previously announced to the public their intent to vote in favor of a coup by objecting to the electoral votes of "swing states" that voted for Biden.
• Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:
See 1:30 in the video below."This insurrection was fortunately discouraged by the leadership of the majority party, but it was not quelled. It is a very sad comment on our times that merely accepting the results of an election is considered an act of political courage. Sadder and more dangerous still is the fact that an element of the Republican party believes that their political viability hinges on the endorsement of an attempted coup."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6foRwvCSiJE
• Senator Amy Klobuchar:
"Now I appreciate all my Democratic and Republican colleagues who have joined our ranks of coup fighters [...]"See 1:10 in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmiETw8zAHs
• Representative Bill Pascrell (New Jersey):
"I am in the House chamber watching the republican Sedition Caucus start their pathetic coup attempt to name trump dictator. I’m going to enjoy watching them flail and fail" -Bill Pascrell, 1:22PM eastern time, January 6, 2021.https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1346884954131750915
• Senator Jeff Merkley:
"Stop the coup! The US Congress, under the Constitution, has one responsibility with the Electoral College: “To open all the certificates and the votes shall be counted.” To throw out votes because you don’t like the outcome is an insurrection." -Senator Jeff Merkley, 1:03PM eastern time, January 6, 2021.https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/1346880093948416002
• Senator Sherrod Brown (Ohio):
"Any senator who objects to certifying the election results is betraying their oath of office." -Sherrod Brown, 12:20PM eastern time, January 6, 2021.https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1346869313840545794
Again, I cannot stress this enough, do not overlook the gravity of these politicians coming out to call the vote itself a coup attempt and sedition. They said this before the insurrection engulfed the Capitol. The coup vote itself was enough to constitute an act of sedition.
There are probably thousands of news articles calling the insurrection a coup attempt now, so it is not worth cataloguing them all. However, it may be useful to post a few articles which were willing to call the vote itself an act to carry out the coup. If the insurrection never happened and the vote proceeded in an orderly manner, it in and of itself would have remained one of the most disgraceful and symbolic moments in Trump's coup.
After an insurrection 147 Republicans--56% of Republican Congress members--had the nerve to symbolically vote to overturn the election and help Trump carry out his coup. Despite having zero chance of succeeding since Democrats had a majority in the House, 147 Republicans still went forever into the historical record as being willing to commit sedition to throw out legal votes and illegally give Trump a second term in office.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/congress-will-likely-vote-on-trumps-election-coup.html
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/28/will-trump-attempt-a-coup-on-january-6_partner/
The insurrection in the Capitol was carried out by a rag-tag mob who was soon dispersed. The 147 Republicans who voted for the coup will be the ones making our laws for the next 2+ years. The majority of Republican members of Congress supported a coup. That is much more grave.
***
After the Insurrection:
Around 2:15 PM eastern time both the House and Senate abruptly went into recess as insurrectionists were breaking into the Capitol.
The first part of this section is primarily quotes from Republicans and the second part is primarily Democrats. Quotes are in no particular order.
• Senator Mitt Romney:
As Congress was being locked down, he threw up his hands and yelled "This is what you’ve gotten, guys."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/capitol-lockdown.html
"New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin tweeted, "@MittRomney summoned me as lawmakers and press arrived at a secure location. 'This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,' he said w fury in his voice.""
https://twitter.com/jmartNYT/status/1346907794830712834
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/romney-trump-caused-this-insurrection/ar-BB1cx2KC
Mitt Romney and all the other Republicans who opposed the coup vote are not blameless here. They have reaped what they have sowed. They spent 4 years enabling Trump and either actively encouraging his violent rhetoric, or passively tolerating it and allowing the cancer to grow. Instead of impeaching him early on for his violations of the emoluments clause and treason with Russia, Republicans helped Trump cover up his crimes and minimized their severity in the media.
Instead of voting to remove Trump for his crimes during the Senate impeachment trial, only a single Republican voted to remove him. Mitt Romney voted yes on only one of the two articles of impeachment, as if it were some kind of game. Furthermore, Romney's vote had no influence on the final outcome. With every single other Republican dead set on aiding and abetting Trump's treason, the margin of votes was nowhere close to removing him. If Romney had to cast the final decisive vote that would end up removing Trump, would he have actually done it?
Romney has not been a fan of Trump, but he has remained largely silent, perhaps hoping to reemerge on the political scene after the party calmly moved on from Trump. Due to his failure to speak out against Trump, our country has suffered a violent insurrection and over 50% of the Republican party in Congress was willing to commit sedition by voting for a coup. As an "anti-Trump" Republican and former presidential candidate, Romney should have stepped up when his party and our nation needed leadership. His hands are not clean from the events that occurred.
• Senator Mitch McConnell:
"Mitch McConnell condemned rioters who stormed the Capitol as members of a "failed insurrection," as he pressed forward on lawmakers' effort to finalize President-elect Joe Biden's victory Wednesday.
"The United States and the United States Congress have faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw today. We have never been deterred before, we'll be not deterred today. They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "They failed to attempt to obstruct the Congress. This failed insurrection underscored how crucial the task before us is for our public.""
McConnell was one of the people to help put Trump in office, by thrusting us into a Constitutional Crisis in Obama's final year by refusing to seat a new Supreme Court judge and hundreds of lower court judges. McConnell was one of the most influential politicians in whipping Trump voters into an insane frenzy. He has spent years sabotaging the function of our government by refusing to pass important legislation and then blaming the dysfunction on the Democrat party. Before the insurrection interrupted the vote, McConnell had the nerve to say Democrats had spent 30+ years attempting to delegitimize Republican administrations and all 4 years of the Trump administration attempting to "invalidate" him, but that Republicans were above such dirty tactics. He said this while a majority of his party was about to vote for a coup to illegally keep Trump in power after losing by over 7 million votes and 74 electoral votes.
As the Majority Leader of the Senate, he was arguably the most powerful man in Congress. He was able to single-handedly set Republican policy by refusing to bring up bills to vote in the Senate. The Senate is the body responsible for appointing Executive Branch leaders and federal judges (including Supreme Court judges). The Senate is the body with the ultimate ability to remove the President in the impeachment trial. Instead of following the law, McConnell used the Senate to allow Republicans to carry out a self-coup to operate outside of the laws and Constitution for all 4 years of the Trump administration. He has blood on his hands for allowing Trump to get this far and for turning the Republican party and Republican voters into what they have become.
Now, McConnell saw his power slip through his fingers as the 56% of the Republican party who wanted a coup at all costs incited Trump supporters to ransack the Capitol. Saying the Republican party was treasonous and committing a coup was not mere hyperbole. It has happened. Republicans who claim to oppose the Trumpist insurrection have reaped what they've sowed. McConnell and all the other Republican so-called leaders could have prevented us from getting to this point. They all have blood on their hands.
• Representative Adam Kinzinger (Republican, Illinois):
"This is a coup attempt." -Adam Kinzinger, 2:24PM eastern time, January 6th, 2021. Posted as the insurrectionists breached the Capitol.https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1346900490999762951
“Here’s the truth: the president caused this. The president is unfit and the president is unwell. And the president must relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily.”https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-agrees-to-orderly-transfer-of-power-to-biden-after-day-of-turmoil-at-capitol-11610027394
"The storming of the Capitol was a coup attempt, with the purpose of overturning the election of a duly-elected president. The current president incited this coup, encouraged it, and did little to protect the Capitol and Constitution. ...Our party must reject these treasonous acts if we are ever to win back the trust of a majority of this country."
https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1346937986907299843
Kinzinger voted against both articles of impeachment. He can act high and mighty now, but he has blood on his hands for enabling Trump for this long. He tried to say the insurrection is not what the Republican party stands for, but 56% of Republican Congressmen, 147 individuals, voted for a coup--even after the violent insurrection.
• Pat Cipollone, White House Counsel for Donald Trump (December 2018-present).
"As aides urged Mr. Trump to issue a strong condemnation on Wednesday and he rejected that advice, the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, warned Mr. Trump that he could face legal exposure for the riot given that he had urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight” beforehand, according to people briefed on the discussion."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/trump-self-pardon.html
"“What do I do? Resign?” one nervous White House staffer asked a friend on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after news broke that a woman had been shot and killed inside the Capitol. The West Wing staffer told the friend that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was urging White House officials not to speak to Trump or enable his coup attempt in any way, so they could reduce the chance they could be prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. “They’re being told to stay away from Trump,” the friend said. The White House declined to comment.
Cipollone’s purported concern that Trump was committing treason—a federal crime—illustrates the chaos and fear of Wednesday’s unprecedented events."
It was Cipollone's job to defend the Office of President during the Senate impeachment trial for Trump's first impeachment. Instead of doing his duty to America to ensure there was a fair trial, he went above and beyond to ensure Trump would not be removed from office. He has blood on his hands for letting Trump get this far.
"On October 8, 2019, Pat Cipollone sent a letter to House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, explaining that the White House would not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. This meant that the White House would not comply with document requests or agree to testify before lawmakers.https://heavy.com/news/2018/10/pat-cipollone/
Cipollone accused the Democrats of orchestrating an effort to “overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the President they have freely chosen. Many Democrats now apparently view impeachment not only as a means to undo the democratic results of the last election, but as a strategy to influence the next election, which is barely more than a year away.”
He added that the impeachment inquiry “violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process.” You can read the full letter here.
[...]
Cipollone is firmly on the president’s side when it comes to the call with the leader of Ukraine, which was part of what sparked the formal impeachment inquiry. In the letter Cipollone sent to Democratic leaders on October 8, 2019, he strongly defended the call and praised the president’s decision to release the official record of the call."
[...]
Cipollone Is Close With Fox News Commentator Laura Ingraham & Was Described as a ‘Big Trump Supporter’ Before He Was Hired as White House Counsel. ...According to the Washington Post, she views Cipollone as her “spiritual mentor” and godfather."
• Joe Grogan, Trump’s former top domestic policy adviser (February 2019 - May 2020):
"On Thursday afternoon, Joe Grogan, who was the top White House domestic policy adviser to Trump until May of last year, went as far as to tell The Daily Beast that “yesterday was the worst day for the Republican Party since Lincoln’s assassination.”https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-capitol-riot-trump-officials-rush-to-keep-him-from-sparking-another-conflictat-home-or-abroad?ref=wrap
[...]
Grogan also didn’t exude confidence about certain former colleagues who are still advising the president during this crisis, bluntly describing some current aides surrounding Trump as “psycho[s].”"
The Republican party has been cultivating Trumpism for the past 5 years. They have reaped what they have sowed. They chose to prop up a president who was known to be compromised by our enemy--Russia--and in violation of the Constitution since day 1. They chose to prop Trump up after he violated the Constitution again and again and constantly sided with Russia over our own nation's government. Republicans proudly declared they would not be "impartial jurors" and keep Trump in office even if it meant rejecting facts and the Constitution.
74 million people voted for 4 more years of this. 147 Republican Congressmen--56% of Republicans in Congress right now--voted to supported his coup attempt even after the Capitol was stormed. This Republican party is not the party of Lincoln.
• Senator Ben Sasse (Republican, Nebraska):
"Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) says if the House pursues impeachment he will “definitely consider whatever articles they might move because I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office … What he did was wicked.”"https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1347536248261517317
Sasse has criticized Trump and the direction he was taking the Republican party since 2016, but took no action. He voted to acquit Trump in the first impeachment trial and voted to prevent witnesses at the trial. Sasse can talk all he wants now, but he has blood on his hands for enabling Trump and his party to get to this point.
"Sasse suggested that he could leave the Republican Party, saying, "if the Republican Party becomes the party of David Duke, Donald Trump, I’m out".[50][51] ...In September 2017, Sasse said he thought about leaving the GOP "every morning" and said that he thought of himself as "an independent conservative who caucuses with the Republicans".[53]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sasse#Donald_Trump
[...]
He added that removing Trump from office would be bad for the country in the long-term and that "removal is the wrong decision".[59] During the impeachment trial, Sasse voted to prevent the Senate to call witnesses to testify.[60]"
• Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican, Alaska):
"U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Friday that Donald Trump should resign the presidency immediately and that if the Republican Party cannot separate itself from Trump, she isn’t certain she has a future with the party.https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/01/08/alaska-sen-lisa-murkowski-calls-on-president-trump-to-resign-questions-her-future-as-a-republican/
“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during an interview from her small Capitol office, steps away from the Senate chambers that were invaded by pro-Trump rioters on Wednesday.
[...]
“I will attribute it to the president, who said, even after his vice president told him that morning, ‘I do not have the constitutional authority to do what you have asked me to do. I cannot do it. I have to protect and uphold the Constitution.’ Even after the vice president told President Trump that, he still told his supporters to fight. How are they supposed to take that? It’s an order from the president. And so that’s what they did. They came up and they fought and people were harmed, and injured and died,” Murkowski said."
Murkowski was considered a "moderate" Republican who often "considered" being a swing vote in the Senate, endangering the narrow Republican majority. In 2019, she was one of 3 Republican Senators (in addition to Susan Collins and Mitt Romney) who refused to sign a resolution opposing the impeachment. Nevertheless, she voted against calling witnesses to the Senate impeachment trial and voted to acquit Trump of his crimes. By pretending to be a "moderate", yet marching lock-in-step with her party whenever the votes actually mattered, Trump was allowed to get as far as he did. Murkowski has blood on her hands for not voting to remove Trump for office and placing obedience to a treasonous party over principle.
• Senator Pat Toomey (Republican, Pennsylvania):
"Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who has played a leading role in opposing efforts to throw out the results of the 2020 election, on Saturday said President Trump has “committed impeachable offenses.”https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/533498-gop-sen-toomey-trump-committed-impeachable-offenses
“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses,” Toomey said during an interview on Fox News’s “The Journal Editorial Report.”
Toomey is the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. He plans to retire from Congress at the end of 2022 to return to the private sector."
Toomey said he did not know whether the Senate would act on any articles of impeachment passed by the House during the final 11 days of Trump’s term in office and voiced concern that Democrats may try to “politicize” the process.
“I don’t know what they are going to send over, and one of the things that I’m concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something,” he said.
While Toomey said he believes Trump “committed impeachable offenses,” he added, “I don’t know what’s going to land on the Senate floor if anything.”
[...]
“We lost those races because the races were about Donald Trump and not about our candidates. I think we had better candidates. He had a very, very good rationale to present to the voters, which is you don’t want to risk the Democrats who have gone to this extreme left in recent years, you don’t want to give them power,” he said.
[...]
Asked if Senate Republican colleagues bore some responsibility for a pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol on Wednesday when Congress was counting the Electoral College vote, Toomey said, “I think there’s a lot of soul searching that’s going to have to happen.”
“There are people who perpetrated the big lie that Donald Trump won in a landslide and it’s all been stolen from him. That’s not true,” he said."
Toomey voted against Trump's first impeachment and his statement above attempts to deflect as much blame as possible toward the Democrat party, so he's not even trying to wash the blood off his hands...
• John Bolton, former U.S. National Security Adviser for Trump (2018-2019):
He asked Trump to resign, and says Trump is "completely responsible" for the insurrection (5:00 in the video below), and says criminal charges against Trump may be appropriate, but is against invoking the 25th Amendment.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1842008131707
Bolton has made a career shaping US wars over the decades and has consistently advocated for bloodbaths in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Palestine, and elsewhere. Bolton apparently butted heads with Trump because Trump was, at the time, not willing to go to war with Iran, among other things. Bolton distanced himself from Trump after the Ukraine phonecall scandal, but helped to make the impeachment a farce:
"Bolton refused to attend his scheduled deposition in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump on November 7, 2019, and threatened to take legal action if he was subpoenaed.[174] ...However, in a written statement obtained by NBC News on January 6, 2020, Bolton announced that he would testify during the Senate impeachment trial should he be issued a subpoena to do so.[177][178][179]"
Afterwards, Bolton published a book with juicy gossip from his time in the Trump administration, instead of just doing his duty to testify.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton#Trump%E2%80%93Ukraine_scandalStrange how a man who has made a career inciting insurrections and bloodbaths overseas thinks he is qualified to criticize Trump.
• Career criminal former Attorney General Bill Barr:
“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “The President’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.”In Trump's rally before the insurrection, Trump criticized Barr:
“All of a sudden, Bill Barr changed. You hadn’t noticed,” Trump complained on Wednesday. “I like Bill Barr, but he changed. Because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney.”https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/07/barr-trump-committed-betrayal-of-his-office-455812
If we want to search for a single individual who carries the most blame for allowing Trump to get to the point where he was able to incite domestic terrorists, the blame arguably rests most squarely on Bill Barr. Barr was single-handedly instrumental in covering up the Mueller Investigation and preventing impeachment from proceeding against Trump. To get a job as Attorney General, Barr sent an unsolicited memo to the Trump administration (i.e. a job application), arguing the Mueller Investigation shouldn't even exist because Trump had done nothing wrong. Soon after Barr got the job, he attempted to bury the investigation by very likely forcing Mueller to wrap it up before it was fully finished. Then, Barr released a 3.5-page summary completely misrepresenting the findings of the Mueller Report. Barr attempted to completely exonerate Trump of the crimes uncovered by the investigation, while Mueller, who almost never made any public statements, firmly disputed and contradicted Barr's characterization of the report.
Barr made a name for himself when he helped cover up the Iran-Contra affair for President H. W. Bush. He chose to walk an anti-American path once more when he gleefully signed up for the cover up job in the Trump administration.
Barr has oceans of blood on his hands for enabling Trump and covering up his crimes.
Moreover, Barr marched lock-in-step with Trump's election conspiracies. Lest we forget Barr's role in helping Trump push his narrative of election fraud:
"‘This is an attempted coup’: Voting expert warns Bill Barr is ‘trying to overturn the election’ Bill Barr was harshly criticized by a leading voting rights expert on Monday after he authorized the Department of Justice to probe GOP voter fraud conspiracy theories.https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/this-is-an-attempted-coup-voting-expert-warns-bill-barr-is-trying-to-overturn-the-election/
[...]
"There were no irregularities," he continued. "This is an attempted coup and every major figure in America needs to denounce it. US attorneys need to resign in protest. They are trying to overturn the election and subvert the will of the people."
"The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/william-barr-voting-irregularities/index.html
[...]
Barr's densely worded memo had told prosecutors they could take investigative steps such as interviewing witnesses during a period that they would normally need permission from the elections crimes section. It's not clear what practical effect the policy would have in an election in which President Donald Trump trails President-elect Joe Biden by tens of thousands of votes in several key states."
"Attorney General William Barr was mocked for "playing dumb" after he claimed to be unaware of what state laws said on the legality of voting twice after President Donald Trump appeared to tell people to try and commit the crime."https://www.newsweek.com/bill-barr-mocked-playing-dumb-voting-twice-illegal-1529366
Trump tasked Barr with the witch hunt of "investigating the investigators". Immediately after the wrapping up of the Mueller Investigation, US Attorney John Durham was tasked with digging up dirt on the people who dared provide enough evidence of Trump's crimes with Russia to warrant the beginning of the Mueller Investigation. Being so blatantly partisan and so close to the election, the logical outcome was to trump up an October surprise to derail Democrat performance in the 2020 election (just as Comey had done to Clinton in 2016).
The Durham Investigation was a witch hunt which found nothing. In the final weeks before jumping off the sinking ship, Barr said there was no evidence of election fraud. ...After spending months pushing Trump's deranged narrative and allowing him to remain in office at all costs, Barr just dusted off his hands, 'retired', and left Americans to deal with the damage of an insane treasonous president.
• John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intelligence and Security (resigned):
"Yesterday's events were an unprecedented attack on the very core of our democracy--incited by a sitting president. The president has long disregarded and diminished the rule of law and the constitution. Yesterday, that culminated in violent sedition against the US Congress for the purposes of overturning a legally recognised and valid election."https://twitter.com/CostelloJK/status/1347198645381292034
• Fiona Hill, former Trump National Security advisor (2017-2019) specializing in Russia:
“The president was trying to stage a coup. There was little chance of it happening, but there was enough chance that the former defense secretaries had to put out that letter, which was the final nail through that effort. They prevented the military from being involved in any coup attempt. But instead, Trump tried to incite it himself. This could have turned into a full-blown coup had he had any of those key institutions following him. Just because it failed or didn’t succeed doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.”https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-capitol-riot-trump-officials-rush-to-keep-him-from-sparking-another-conflictat-home-or-abroad
On January 11th, Hill published a long article giving her take on events, giving a basic break-down of some of the major steps Trump took to get to this point.
"Yes, It Was a Coup. Here’s Why.https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533702-former-trump-official-fiona-hill-presidents-actions-have-put-us-on
As in the case of other coup attempts, the president’s actions have put us on the brink of civil war."
Hill calls it a self-coup, but I do not think that is the best description. If Trump managed to remain in office through a coup, the Constitution and our current regime of government would no longer be in effect. They would simply be ripped up. There would be no way to go back or continue under them with a post-Trump president if Trumpists were able to carry out his coup to completely disregard our entire system of laws and Constitution. This type of coup is equivalent to "typical" coups such as when military dictatorships oust an old regime/Constitution or insurrectionists seize the seat of government and force a new regime/Constitution.
As I understand it, a self-coup is when a government which came to power through legal means assumes illegal powers, usually for a temporary amount of time. In our situation, a self-coup already happened long before Trump attempted to carry out his coup to overthrow the 2020 election.
This is what happened when the Republican-controlled US Congress and Executive branch (which includes President Trump and heads of different agencies, e.g. Attorney General) decided to operate outside of the Constitution by aiding, abetting, and covering up Trump's crimes at all costs. This is inherently temporary in nature because once Biden took over the Executive branch, Republicans would not able to sustain their illegal powers in that branch of government. If Democrats took back the House and Senate, Republicans would not be able to sustain their illegal powers in the Legislative branch of government. And so forth. In this situation, we could theoretically "go back to normal" and continue operating under the same Constitution and regime of government.
It is very important we understand that there were two separate events here. The coup surrounding the 2020 election, and the Republican self-coup which happened early on in Trump's presidency.
• Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager in the Georgia Secretary of State's office, who was in the news after giving a press conference debunking Trump's voter fraud claims:
"Anyone elected to the House or Senate who is challenging the results of the Presidential election in Congress are part of this attempted coup inspired by the President and they should resign. This is an insurrection..."
https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling/status/1346910444242391043
• Michael R. Sherwin, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia:
"Asked if federal agents and prosecutors will look at the incendiary statements made by speakers at Trump’s rally shortly before a mob of his supporters breached security at the Capitol and wreaked havoc inside, acting U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin said: “Yes, we are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but . . . were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/federal-investigation-capitol-riot-trump/2021/01/07/178d71ac-512c-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html
Asked specifically if that included Trump, who had urged the crowd to “fight like hell” before the rioting began, Sherwin replied: “We are looking at all actors here, and anyone that had a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they’re going to be charged.”"
• Joe Biden:
“What we witnessed yesterday was not dissent. It was not disorder. It was not protest. It was chaos. They weren’t protesters, don’t dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists. It's that basic, it's that simple. And I wish we could say we couldn’t see it coming, but that isn't true, we could see it coming.
The past four years, we’ve had a president who’s made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law clear in everything he has done. He unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset, and yesterday was the culmination of that unrelenting attack.
[...]
No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVgqCuJJBCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMA1pF9pY0A
"I think the American public has a real good clear look at who they are. They're part of the big lie.
[...]
If he's the only one saying it, that's one thing. But the acolytes that follow him, like Cruz and others, they are as responsible as he is.
[...]
I was pleased to hear some of the more prominent Republicans say to me that the Ted Cruzes of the world are as responsible in terms of people believing the lies, as — not as responsible but similarly responsible — Trump. But they didn’t say go to the Capitol, I’ll be with you, follow [as Trump did]. That’s a different story."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR37AMD1Dcg
If Biden does not pursue a Crimes Commission to hold every single last Republican politician who voted for a coup and incited domestic terrorists responsible to the maximum extent of the law, Biden will be giving aid and comfort to domestic enemies who incited terrorists. After the insurrection which he incited, Trump said "our incredible journey is only just beginning." Biden with be squarely to blame he if allowed Trump to regroup his forces to try another coup.
• House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi:
"On Friday, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she had discussed with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley “available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”"https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-capitol-riot-trump-officials-rush-to-keep-him-from-sparking-another-conflictat-home-or-abroad
In a 60 Minutes interview with Nancy Pelosi on January 10th, she said, "[Trump] has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him," and, "This president is guilty of inciting insurrection. He has to pay a price for that."
See 1:26 and 13:22 in the video below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RldpC8a9Zv4
• Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:
"Those who performed today's reprehensible acts were rioters, insurrectionists, thugs, domestic terroristshttps://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1346999623840370689
They don't represent America
They were violent extremists who tried to take over the Capitol
They must be prosecuted to the full extent"
"What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by President Trump.https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1347223559278653441
This president must not hold office one day longer."
• Representative Ilhan Omar:
"Rep. Omar Announces Articles of Impeachment Following Coup Attempthttps://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-announces-articles-impeachment-following-coup-attempt
January 6, 2021 | Press Release
WASHINGTON—Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) released the following statement after gunmen stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the election results.
Today, I watched as armed terrorists stormed the United States Capitol, including the House and Senate chambers, in an effort to stop the certification of our Presidential election. Members of Congress, our families, staff and law enforcement’s lives were all put at risk. We should not mince words about what this was: a coup attempt, in the world’s leading democracy no less.
Thankfully, I am now safe in a secure location, but am heartbroken about what we are enduring at our nation’s capital.
This is not a one-off incident. It is the result of years of collaboration on the part of the Republican Party, who have aided and abetted Trump’s criminal attempts to destroy our republic, and the cause of democracy around the world.
All leaders should denounce this coup. And the President should be impeached and removed from office for his open sedition."
"It’s important to impeach and convict this president even if he has few days left in office.https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1347985842996989958
It will set a precedent.
We must make it clear that no president can lead an insurrection against the U.S. government.
What we do today will matter for the rest of this nation's history."
"Sadly, the very administration officials who have been complicit in his crimes cannot be relied upon to hold him accountable.https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1347316861004894209
We are a coequal branch of government, who he is openly attacking.
It is time for Congress to assert its authority. We must impeach now."
"Did you pick up the phone and tell Trump to stand down when he was inciting insurrection?https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1347757058792284160
No.
We are going to fulfilled our Constitutional duty and impeach Trump.
Maybe you can find courage @LindseyGrahamSC and help us protect the nation from a tyrant."
Omar demonstrated she was a true leader when she began writing articles of impeachment immediately:
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1346934098384793606
Previously, I praised her for being the only member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who was willing to state the obvious fact that members of Congress, and especially those on the Foreign Affairs Committee, should not be allowed to have dual loyalties to a foreign state.
Unlike traitors like Cruz and Hawley, Omar has a long and promising career ahead of her.
• Representative Rashida Tlaib:
"This is on Donald Trump, period. He called folks to D.C. and gave them marching orders. He needs to be impeached and removed immediately."https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1346938196442152961
"Our oath of office requires us to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and *domestic*.https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1348051925351149579
Right now, this means protecting our country from Donald Trump who organized & directed a violent attack at the U.S. Capitol leaving 5 dead.
Those that betrayed their oath by enabling a vile tyrant to overthrow a democratically elected office should also lose any right to represent a country that already fought one war against racist & traitorous Americans that failed to live up to their oaths."
• Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee:
"Yesterday, a seditious mob broke into the Capitol.https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1347218531385966593
Spurred on by the President and inflamed by falsehoods told by his allies on Capitol Hill."
"The American people can expect the House will do its duty. And we will move swiftly.https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1347928616789712896
But the Senate must undertake its Constitutional obligation, as well.
If McConnell stonewalls, he will bear responsibility for whatever dangerous acts this president commits in the days ahead."
• Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee:
"Make no mistake: President Trump and his enablers are directly responsible for this violence."https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1346912025637756930
"Have faith. These terrorists will fail. They will be brought to justice. Their enablers will be brought to justice. If the President and his allies have any shred of honor left, they will tell these thugs to stand down now."https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1346912135046053889
• Beto O’Rourke, Democrat politician from Texas who challenged Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018:
Replying to a Ted Cruz tweet where Cruz pretended to be against the violence:
"It is your self serving attempt at sedition that has helped to inspire these terrorists and their attempted coup."
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1346921717055283203
"Don’t let him change the subject. Ted Cruz is guilty of trying to overturn a lawfully decided election, of helping to incite a violent insurrection that resulted in the deaths of five people including a police officer, and of pursuing sedition for his own political gain. Resign."
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1348062447945576450
In this second tweet, O’Rourke is responding to a Ted Cruz tweet where Cruz is "accusing" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of supporting BDS, as if that is a bad thing! Ted Cruz once again reveals his anti-American attitudes by saying that he thinks giving billions of American tax dollars to Israel each year to prop up their apartheid regime is a good thing.
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1348028216368394240
The article Cruz links to says the Democratic Socialists of America require anyone running for election in New York city to support BDS if they want an endorsement from the DSA (of which AOC is a member):
"In next year's municipal elections, 35 of 51 seats in the New York City Council are “up for grabs,” but if a person vying for a seat wants the support of prominent Democratic Socialists, such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he or she must pledge, if elected, not to travel to Israel.https://www.radio.com/wcbs880/articles/news/democratic-socialists-questionnaire-called-anti-semitic
[...]
“There are two questions, not just one question. There's a second question about the Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement of Israel that they are calling for these candidates to support,” Miller explains.
My only criticism of AOC on this subject is that she needs to be more vocal about her support for BDS and anti-Zionism! Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar's courageous and pro-American stance of supporting anti-Zionism is well-known. But I will admit this is the first time I've heard about AOC supporting it.
Meanwhile, AOC pointed out that Ted Cruz sent out fundraising messages an hour after domestic terrorists stormed the Capitol. Seditious scumbag indeed:
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1347322698444242945
Going back to O’Rourke, I will not say he is to blame for Cruz's existence, but he might have been able to beat Ted Cruz in the next election if he didn't have such an idiotic stance on gun control in Texas. He lost his Senate election to Cruz by a margin of only 51-48. He definitely could have pummeled Cruz after his act of sedition had he not used absurd rhetoric in his subsequent presidential campaign...
"Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke reiterated his support for a mandatory gun-buyback program of assault-style rifles on Thursday and said, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
[...]
O’Rourke unveiled a proposal weeks after that shooting calling for a national gun registry, a nationwide gun licensing system and the mandatory buyback of assault-style rifles as part of his plan to curb gun violence and the rise of white nationalism."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/beto-orourke-hell-yes-take-ar-15-ak-47/index.html
• Senator Jeff Merkley:
Merkley had previously called the coup vote a coup before the insurrection. After the insurrection, he said:
"The trail of destruction and looting. What happened today was an assault by the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol, but it was also an assault on our constitution."https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/1347039504528498688
"While we were attacked by domestic terrorists outside the building, our democracy was simultaneously assaulted by Senators objecting to legally certified election results inside the chamber. Those Members of Congress were advocating for the election results to be shredded. Shame."https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/1347274387184111619
• Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, Illinois):
"What we saw today was not a protest, it was an attempted coup. I refuse to let anyone intent on instigating chaos or inciting violence deter me from carrying out my Constitutional duties."https://wsiltv.com/2021/01/06/u-s-sen-tammy-duckworth-what-we-saw-today-was-not-a-protest-it-was-an-attempted-coup/
In a letter sent to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, she demanded the military investigate whether current or former members of the US military participated in the insurrection. We already know that several prominent people involved in the insurrection were involved with the military at some point--such as Ashli Babbitt (the terrorist who was killed) and retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr. (one of the men with zip tie handcuffs). As more news comes out, we learn of more names, such as active-duty psyops officer Captain Emily Rainey, who, by her own admission, organized a group of 100 people to travel to the riots.
Excerpt from Duckworth's letter:"The attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 was one of the darkest days in our Nation’s history. Our allies and adversaries alike witnessed President Donald Trump incite a violent mob to attack a Joint Session of Congress and delay the execution of the Electoral Count Act. They watched these domestic enemies of the Constitution assault law enforcement officers and defile the United States Capitol. Now they are watching how the United States Government responds to this insurrection."https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/duckworth-pentagon-capitol-coup-troops-457463
• Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf:
“What we're seeing today is not democracy—it's an attempted coup.”https://twitter.com/GovernorTomWolf/status/1346915230824198144
• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:
"We must call today’s violence what it actually is: a failed attempt at a coup."https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1346951002117857281
• Senator Bernie Sanders:
"The man directly responsible for the chaos of today is Donald Trump, who has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power – including insurrection and inciting violence. Trump will go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history."https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1346960922615685121
"Some people ask: Why would you impeach and convict a president who has only a few days left in office? The answer: Precedent. It must be made clear that no president, now or in the future, can lead an insurrection against the U.S. government."https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1347625769242140675
• Senator Elizabeth Warren:
"The violence at the Capitol today was an attempted coup and act of insurrection egged on by a corrupt President to overthrow our democracy."https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1346947575975272448
• Senator Sherrod Brown:
"President Trump must be removed from office for inciting yesterday's violent insurrection.https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1347243968552169473
I am calling on the cabinet and vice president to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment."
"Both @HawleyMO and @SenTedCruz have betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy.https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1348018812050878467
I am calling for their immediate resignations.
If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them."
• Representative Cori Bush:
"I believe the Republican members of Congress who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election must face consequences. They have broken their sacred Oath of Office.https://twitter.com/RepCori/status/1346926083350794240
I will be introducing a resolution calling for their expulsion."
• Representative Bill Pascrell:
"While we watch the republican Sedition Caucus try to burn down democracy, just outside us rioting rightwing mobs are attacking police trying to storm the Capitol.https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1346892883379576834
These extremists are egged on by trump and republicans’ coup attempt."
"Rampaging rightwing terrorists stormed the US Capitol today to stage a violent coup and a few hours later over half the republican caucus voted to finish the job. We can’t simply turn the page."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347040240465276928
"These 121 congressional republicans just voted for trump and the rampaging fascists’ coup."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347034403487313920
[Note: actual ideological fascists would not fight to pit 51% of the nation against the remaining 49%. The House chamber where the electoral vote count was taking place has two giant fasces on the wall. During impeachment, Nancy Pelosi wore a large pin of the Mace of the House of Representatives (which is a 4-foot-tall fasces ffs!). Please stop using "fascist" as a meaningless strawman for the tribalist/majoritarian far-right.]
"This attempted coup is treasonous, incited directly by donald trump and some congressional republicans."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1346933480173805568
"I was the first member to call for trump to be criminally prosecuted.https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347540682265817088
If we don’t hold trump accountable for his crimes it will only embolden bad actors and hurtle our country irreparably down the path of lawlessness and fascism."
As far as I am aware, Representative Eric Swalwell was the first member of Congress to call for a Crimes Commission on August 14, 2020.
Pascrell called for Trump to be criminally prosecuted on November 17, 2020:
https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1345905567366311936On December 11, 2020, Pascrell was the first Congressman to call for Congressmen who pledged to overturn the election through the coup vote to be barred from holding office due to the 14th Amendment:
https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347285362159321089"I have signed onto my colleague @RepCori's resolution. Any House members who have tried to overturn the election and install a dictatorship have violated the Constitution and should not sit in Congress."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1346949599190278144
"When he leaves office trump must be prosecuted for his crimes, including his incitement to violence which is a treasonous felony. [photo of 18 U.S. Code 2383, Rebellion or insurrection]"
https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347245436898258948
The following tweet contains a 3 minute video showing terrorist Ashli Babbitt attempting to enter through a barricaded door. Police simply move out of the way of the door while the terrorists begin to bust it down.
"This was a terrorist uprising to murder people and destroy democracy. It was incited by trump and wiped into a frenzy by republicans’ lies."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347653772940632065
"Trump incited a fascist mob to ransack the Capitol, but it was egged on by weeks of lies by gop leaders about overturning the election and years of their cynical rightwing propaganda."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347612609835638785
"Trump should fear going to jail. He should face prosecution when he leaves office like anyone else who’s committed scores of crimes."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347593496354545666
"This is domestic terrorism. ...Donald trump has Officer Sicknick’s blood on his hands. He should be prosecuted for incitement that killed him."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347532346459885570
"If anyone at the trump White House or Defense Dept deliberately blocked the deployment of the National Guard to the Capitol, anyone responsible must be held accountable and possibly arrested."https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1347385602136829953
• Representative Eric Swalwell (Democrat, California):
"I think we absolutely have to because of the nature of the breach and where these individuals were able to go and whether they were able to get documents. They certainly had access to many of the documents of the House and the Senate. And we know that there were individuals in the House--Congressman Louie Gohmert was calling for violence a week before this took place.https://twitter.com/DeadlineWH/status/1347316162024103941
I do think we owe it to the American people to understand whether members of our own houses were working with these protesters. I think that what Senators Cruz and Hawley did yesterday was nothing less than assist and enable a sedition effort that incited terrorists to come into the Capitol."
Back in 2020, Swalwell was the first member of Congress to demand a Crimes Commission to hold the Trump administration accountable for its crimes. Now that there has been an insurrection incited by Trump and his enablers, America cannot continue to exist if we do not form the Crimes Commission.
• Representative Mark Pocan (Democrat, Wisconsin):
“I think we need to call this what it is. An attempted coup.”https://twitter.com/MarkPocan/status/1346926331527892996
• Representative Steven Horsford (Democrat, Nevada):
"I've joined my colleagues in calling for the investigation and expulsion of complicit House members in the attempted coup on January 6th. The breach on Capitol Hill led by domestic terrorists calls for an examination of the United States Capitol Police (USCP).https://twitter.com/StevenHorsford/status/1347721314983821313
"121 Republican Members of Congress violated their oath of office and sought to overturn the will of the democratic electorate after the Capitol was attacked. Their seditious actions have no place in the People’s House."https://twitter.com/StevenHorsford/status/1347721318368641026
"The US Capitol was breached today with violence and insurrection that left a woman dead."https://twitter.com/StevenHorsford/status/1347002552362037248
• Representative Veronica Escobar (Democrat, Texas):
"It took a failed coup attempt for @Twitter to act."https://twitter.com/RepEscobar/status/1347711079716171783
"Our democracy was threatened by domestic terrorists who violently stormed the Capitol at the direct instigation of the 45th President of the United States and his enablers."https://twitter.com/RepEscobar/status/1347102087302279169
"After yesterday’s failed coup attempt...Congress must impeach Donald Trump again, remove him from office immediately, and bar him from holding office ever again."https://twitter.com/RepEscobar/status/1347288634651774976
"After a failed coup attempt, Congress has returned to the Capitol to carry out our obligation to the Constitution and to the American people."https://twitter.com/RepEscobar/status/1347002929836748802
• Representative Karen Bass (Democrat, California):
"The President of the United States is inciting a coup."
https://twitter.com/RepKarenBass/status/1346913395287711758
She tweeted a picture of Trump's January 6th rally to the FBI on their tweet asking for information on "individuals instigating violence in Washington, D.C.":
https://twitter.com/RepKarenBass/status/1347190699763134468
"Did they think that their attempted coup was going to stop us from doing the work on behalf of the people who elected us to be here?"https://twitter.com/RepKarenBass/status/1346985448384692225
"These are not harmless objections. In light of the riots and the attempted coup we just endured, we should all be able to see that."https://twitter.com/RepKarenBass/status/1346970744094392321
"Calling the day's events an "attempted coup" and blaming what she called a "cult following" for President Trump, Rep. Karen Bass spoke to KCAL9 live from a secure location in D.C."https://twitter.com/CBSLA/status/1346917492413714434
• Representative Jamie Raskin (Democrat, Maryland):
"The President continues to pose a clear and present danger to the people and our Republic. He incited an insurrectionist mob to join a “wild” disruption of the peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol. Violence & death followed. He must be removed from office immediately."https://twitter.com/RepRaskin/status/1347656091879026693
• Representative Sylvia Garcia (Democrat, Texas):
"Thanks to everyone who has called or reached out in any way to check on me after yesterday’s domestic terrorist attack at our Capitol."https://twitter.com/RepSylviaGarcia/status/1347349771929976834
"We are back in House Chamber ready to do our constitutional duty. Trump’s terrorists will not deter us."https://twitter.com/RepSylviaGarcia/status/1347002367896555520
• Representative Jamaal Bowman (Democrat, New York):
"Bowman's first bill in Congress? The COUP Acthttps://riverdalepress.com/stories/bowman-first-bill-in-congress-the-coup-act,73037
The new Bronx representative wants a deeper investigation on security failures at Capitol Hill during insurrection attempt.
While the U.S. House considers introducing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump for a second time, newly minted U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman is making moves to find out exactly what happened in the insurrection attempt against Capitol Hill on Tuesday, introducing his first bill as a congressman to help get to the bottom of it.
Bowman is readying what he calls the Congressional Oversight of Unjust Policing Act — or the COUP Act — which he says would establish a national commission to investigate the mob attack of the congressional chambers this week while lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden's presidential win. Bowman wants the commission to address what he describes as systemic failures in the Capitol security apparatus, and investigate alleged ties between members of U.S. Capitol Police and white supremacist movements.
"How does it happen that a group of armed, violent insurrectionists are able to march into one of the most secure buildings on Earth and force members of Congress to hide under their desks?" Bowman said, in a release. "This is not entirely a story of incompetence on the part of law enforcement, and we have to ask: Did some of those charged with protecting us willingly lay down their posts? Was there a coordinated effort to take over the United States government with violence? Why wasn't there a coordinated effort from the beginning with other members of law enforcement?"
[...]
The COUP Act already has support from U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of Illinois, who told Bowman on Twitter that "we need answers and we need them now."
• David Plouffe, Democratic strategist:
"Democratic strategist David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign, rejected calls to "move on" following the violent failed insurrection waged by supporters of Donald Trump.https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-coup/
[...]
"This has to be something that we don't move away from and Ted Cruz and [Josh] Hawley and the Trump family, they're all going to want to say, 'You know what, let's just move on, we need to be unified.' And to hell with that," Plouffe said.
"These people need to burn in hell for what they've done to our country," he demanded. "Sorry, I'm worried that we are going to move on and we can't.""
• Army Brigadier General Thomas Kolditz (retired):
"One of my bigger concerns is that there has long been a strong Trump following in the military. People in the military have every right to be conservative or extremely conservative. But Trump’s supporters in the military who think that what happened [on Jan. 6] was a good thing need to be managed out of the military as soon as possible. That probably won’t happen until the Trump loyalists are out, but that needs to be done. We’re not talking about half a dozen people. We’re probably talking about thousands across the Department of Defense. Many of them will have already run their mouth, put things on social media. But this was an insurgency, a crime against the state. And it’s a duty obligation of the defense leadership to make sure that there are no, essentially, sleeper cells, people in the military who, for whatever reason, think an insurgency is a good idea or justifiable.https://fortune.com/2021/01/08/trump-support-military-capitol-coup-attempt/
[...]
Military officers can have liberal viewpoints, conservative viewpoints, and so forth. But what we have now is a near cult. The insurgency has taken shape, and it’s domestic terrorism. The woman who was shot climbing through the window at the Capitol was a 12-year Air Force veteran, and I’m sure she did not come upon her allegiance overnight. So it’s really important."
• Anonymous cowards who are more concerned about "protecting" their reputations in future Republican administrations than saving us from Trump:
"“This is the speech of a psychopath," an unnamed Republican official watching Josh Hawley's speech told NYMag correspondent Olivia Nuzzi."https://twitter.com/olivianuzzi/status/1347004743919529985
"Senior Trump Official: We Were Wrong, He’s a ‘Fascist’.
On Friday afternoon, 48 hours after the U.S. Capitol was stormed by violent insurrectionists encouraged by Donald Trump in an attempt to overthrow the government in protest of his election loss, a senior member of his administration spoke to me while he was driving to work.
“This is confirmation of so much that everyone has said for years now — things that a lot of us thought were hyperbolic. We’d say, ‘Trump’s not a fascist,’ or ‘He’s not a wannabe dictator.’ Now, it’s like, ‘Well, what do you even say in response to that now?’”
For four years, people like this official — lifelong Republican operatives — have convinced themselves that Trump’s obvious faults were worth tolerating if it meant implementing a conservative policy agenda.
[...]
This is like a plot straight out of the later, sucky seasons of House of Cards where they just go full evil and say, ‘Let’s spark mass protests and start wars and whatever,’” the senior administration official said.
“I went through Access Hollywood, Charlottesville — all of these insane things. There’s some degree of growing accustomed to the craziness. It’s not like my heart is racing, like, Oh God, how am I supposed to react to this? It’s just more that I’m depressed. For people who devoted years of their lives to dealing with the insanity in an attempt to advance a policy agenda that you believe in, all of that has been wiped out. The legacy of the Trump administration is going to be that the president sparked an insurrection and people died because he tried his best to not abide by the Constitution and the tradition of a peaceful transition of power that’s been the norm since our founding. Nothing else is even going to be a side note.”
[...]
“There’s not a single person I have talked to at any level, from 23-year-old assistants to members of the Cabinet, who are not disgusted and ashamed with what has happened,” the senior administration official said, adding that the conversations among remaining officials were about how to handle the next 12 days before Joe Biden’s administration — and whether to continue to be a part of the transition of power at all. “It’s different for everybody. If you’re a regular domestic-policy staffer in the West Wing or the EEOB, the implications of you quitting are different than if you’re a senior national security official, or you’re tasked with contributing to the continuity of government.” “We are in a terrible spot,” the official said. “You can’t just say, ‘Well, this is outrageous and I quit’ in this situation.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/capitol-riot-senior-trump-official-calls-him-a-fascist.html
[Again, in an actual fascist regime, Trump would have been executed long ago for weakening the state by dividing the populace and weakening the state by committing treason with foreign powers.]
"The concerns in the upper echelons of the administration’s national-security community range from fears inside the Pentagon that the president will do or say something that effectively throws the U.S. into a military confrontation with another country to anxieties in the intelligence apparatus that Trump will divulge classified intelligence on his way out, according to four officials who spoke with The Daily Beast about the matter. All requested to remain anonymous in order to speak more openly about the discussions.https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-capitol-riot-trump-officials-rush-to-keep-him-from-sparking-another-conflictat-home-or-abroad
“This isn’t a hypothetical anymore,” said one senior administration official. “This is real. What happened yesterday changed the calculus. People are concerned about [the president’s] state of mind.”
[...]
Defense and intelligence officials have discussed attempting to prevent the president and his loyalists at the Pentagon—especially Kash Patel, the chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller—from tampering with classified information or carrying out their own political agendas that could threaten the security of the United States, three currently-serving senior officials told The Daily Beast.
[...]
Part of the problem, officials said, is that Trump’s inner circle has been even further cut off from the rest of the administration. And those who are left and are still communicating with him are “not going to rock the boat,” one senior official said.
“There is no one to tell the truth to him at all anymore,” another former senior national-security official said. “That’s the problem. Even if they did, he wouldn’t listen.”
[...]
“It could easily lead to the president inspiring people to act out even more, with the message being that [MAGA’s enemies] are stealing more from you,” said another senior Trump administration official, who added it could, in Trump and his diehard followers’ eyes, vindicate the “‘Deep State’ rhetoric.”
"Some top remaining administration officials are preparing to resist any unlawful or dangerous orders in the closing days of Trump's presidency, senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the sensitive conversations tell Axios.https://www.axios.com/trump-advisers-25th-amendment-alternative-b84640f7-0469-498d-b4cf-0ba1d873cee4.html
[...]
Between the lines: Some senior officials at the State Department and other agencies privately discussed the need to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. That idea is going nowhere."
These anonymous cowards had a duty to speak out against Trump's tyranny. Instead, they held their tongues and enabled him. Even now they are too scared to take responsibility and condemn the treasonous elements that have taken over their party. They have blood on their hands and have reaped what they have sowed.
***
The World is Watching: foreign leaders respond.
• Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister:
"What we witnessed was an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president and other politicians"https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/riots-washington-capitol-hill-trudeau-trump-1.5866237
• Jagmeet Singh, Canadian leader of the New Democratic Party:
"Calling the riot "an act of domestic terrorism," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on the federal government to designate the Proud Boys — whose members played a visible role in Wednesday's events — as a terrorist organization. The NDP has launched a petition and is pressing Trudeau again after the prime minister offered a non-committal reply when asked about listing the group today."https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/riots-washington-capitol-hill-trudeau-trump-1.5866237
• Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson and Chinese state media outlet CGTN:
"We believe that the American people want safety and tranquillity, especially in the severe situation of the current epidemic, we also hope that the American people can enjoy peace, stability and security as soon as possible," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.
An editorial column posted by China's state-run foreign news outlet CGTN on Thursday gloated on behalf of the Communist Party, blaming not just Mr. Trump, but the entire American political system and both parties that lead it for the unrest.
U.S. politicians' "neverending campaigning seems to have turned them into soundbite-making machines who forget their actual job descriptions (sic) is to solve problems, not keeping their position in Washington at the expense of everybody outside of it," CGTN charged.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-capitol-riot-donald-trump-protests-foreign-reaction/
• Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister:
""On the United States and the election, I want to say that all my life America has stood for some very important things — an idea of freedom and an idea of democracy. And ... so far as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol and insofar as the President has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe that that was completely wrong," he said a press conference, in response to a journalist's question."https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/world/world-reaction-us-capitol-riot-intl/index.html
• Stefan Löfven, Swedish Prime Minister:
"Deeply worrying developments in Washington, D.C. [...] President Trump and several members of Congress bear substantial responsibility for developments."https://twitter.com/SwedishPM/status/1346959300648980480
• Emmerson Mnangagwa, President of Zimbabwe:
"Last year, President Trump extended painful economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about Zimbabwe’s democracy.https://twitter.com/edmnangagwa/status/1347176848694931457
Yesterday’s events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy. These sanctions must end."
• Venezuelan government:
"Officials in Venezuela issued a statement of concern over the stability of US democracy in the face of US Capitol riots carried out by Donald Trump supporters.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/venezuela-violence-us-capitol-riots-b1783625.html
[...]
Mirroring the language used by US officials commenting on political movements in foreign countries, Venezuela condemned the violence in the Capitol.
"Venezuela condemns the political polarization and the spiral of violence that only reflects the deep crisis that the political and social system of the United States is currently going through," the message said.
[...]
"With this unfortunate episode, the United States is suffering the same thing that it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression. Venezuela hopes that soon the violence will cease and the American people can finally open a new path towards stability and social justice," the statement said."
Reflection.
Last, but not least, all those people who tried for months to say Trump was not engaging in a coup, or spent years saying Trump should not be impeached because "Pence will be worse" need to take a long look into the mirror and do some soul-searching.
Pence is an anti-American traitor for enabling Trump all these years, but it is difficult to imagine President Pence would have so viciously spent months attempting to carry out a coup against an indisputable defeat in the 2020 election. During the counting of the electoral votes, Pence was among the minority of the Republican party who were actually in touch with reality (again, over 50% of Republican Congressmen--147 of them--voted in favor of the coup that day).
President Pence would have been more competent at enacting conservative policies, but would President Pence have wreaked nearly as much havoc? Trump has intentionally let the Coronavirus ravage our nation, killing nearly as many Americans as all of WWII. It is impossible to imagine anyone short of a comic book super villain killing more. As ignoble as President Pence would have been, he would not have left the seat of our government in ruins in his final weeks. Nevertheless, blood remains on Pence's hands for enabling Trump and not removing him via the 25th Amendment during his most deranged and treasonous moments (including right now).
Who else has blood on their hands for allowing Trump to get to this point?
• All the journalists and media outlets who gave Trump 24/7 free air time before the 2016 election shifted public opinion such that Republican voters believed he was a serious contender. They have oceans of blood on their hands for every crime the Trump administration has committed.
• All the journalists, media outlets, and Democrat party strategists who boycotted Sanders and pushed the narrative that he was not "electable"--thus in turn giving us the only Democrat candidate who was "unelectable" enough to lose to Trump--have oceans of blood on their hands for every crime the Trump administration has committed.
• All the journalists and media outlets who aided and abetted Trump's crimes via helping him shape the narrative of reality--by gaslighting us into believing his crimes were not real (or, if they were real, not as severe as we thought) and literally engaging in making up Orwellian "Alternate Facts"--have oceans of blood on their hands for every crime the Trump administration has committed. This is especially true for left-leaning media outlets, who should have been calling out Trump's crimes with the same ferocity that rightist media outlets criticized Obama for things as mundane as wearing a tan suit.
• All the journalists and media outlets (especially the left-leaning ones) who said calling things a coup was a "dangerous hyperbole" functioned as Trump apologists and allowed Trump to organize a coup in broad daylight for months.
***
This is not the time to say "I told you so", but I have been calling this a coup and covering events as they continually got darker for years. The reason Trump's "fake news" moniker caught on so quickly is because it is painfully obvious just how crooked and self-serving the media is. They put profits over integrity. They sensationalized things which were non-issues and deliberately downplayed the actual serious events like the coup attempt preparations. Now that the insurrection and coup attempt is on everyone's minds, they have jumped on the bandwagon and are writing articles about it. But at some point, they will probably go back to business-as-usual and forget all the lessons that should have been learned.
Trump would have gotten nowhere without all of his enablers. This includes essentially every single member of the Republican party (who shamelessly parroted his narrative, and could have removed him from office) and nearly every single journalist and media outlet (who gave Trump legitimacy leading up to 2016 and then only called things a coup once it was too late to do anything about it).
The Republican coup failed this time, but if the courts had backed Trump and threw out mail-in votes like he was expecting, the coup would have succeeded. If Trump wasn't mentally deranged and beholden to foreign nations like Russia, there probably would have been many more General Flynns coming out of the woodwork in the military to support the coup. Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr. (Air Force, retired) was one of the men who broke into the Senate with zip tie handcuffs to take Congressmen hostage. Ashli Babbitt, the terrorist who was killed in the insurrection, spent over a dozen years in the Air Force. Active-duty Army psyops officer Captain Emily Rainey admitted to organizing a group of over 100 people who traveled to the insurrection. How many more military members participated in the insurrection?
Even after the invasion of the Capitol by domestic terrorists, 56% of Republican Congressmen symbolically voted to overturn the election by throwing out electoral votes in "swing states" which voted for Biden. Trump was able to delay the National Guard and it seems some Capitol police members were complicit in the insurrection. If Trump was a cunning strategist instead of a bumbling dotard, how much better organized would the "insiders" in the police have been? Many people have started speculating that Trump's plan was to allow a member of Congress to be captured by insurrectionists so he could declare martial law. We were that close to having whatever shreds of liberty we have left destroyed by Trump.
If Trump was competent, the outpouring of media articles calling this a coup would be too little too late. If Trump was competent, the formality of Congress counting electoral votes wouldn't have been enough to stop him, and the heads of Pence, McConnell, Romney, and countless others would have been on pikes, as members of Trump's inner circle (e.g. Lin Wood) advocated! The insurrectionists chanted "hang Mike Pence" and some carried zip ties with the goal of capturing Congressmen. They were out for blood. But the insurrectionists were sloppy because Trump was so insanely self-assured and divorced from reality. If he had an aura of calculated professionalism about him, his followers would have picked up on that and the insurrection would have been much more destructive. Even with their sloppiness, they were only minutes away from capturing Mike Pence and Senators.
Trump was a bumbling con man who advocated Russia hack his opponent on live television before he was even sworn into office. He has been in violation of the Constitution since day 1. Why did we let this happen? Why did the media prop Trump up? Why did Republicans--many of whom criticized him before he was elected--enable him at every turn? Why did Democrats, such as Pelosi, take so little action against his administration when they had the chance? If Obama wanted to do a play-by-play copy of what Trump did, he wouldn't have even made it to step 1. Why did our so-called leaders let this happen for Trump?
For all the journalists musing on how fragile democracy is--no shit, politicians treat everything like it's a sports game and are unwilling to act with the urgency situations call for. The election cycles make them unwilling to engage in long-term thinking. Democracy's very nature makes it terrible at dealing with urgent crises, because decision-making and blame is deferred to the abstract notion of consensus, rather than based on principle and decisive individual leadership. Rather than taking the risk to step up, rise to the occasion, and make tough decisions, our so-called "leaders" scramble in disarray and simply react to disasters only after it's too late and the damage has been done.
All it would have taken is one Republican of principle to step up and say, "We will no longer tolerate Trumpism," and then back that up with ACTIONS. Instead, Romney stood by passively during the Trump administration and only voted yes on one of the two articles of impeachment like it was some kind of game. Instead, McConnell actively enabled Trump and spent his career building his party into a monster, and then dared to act disappointed when it disobeyed him by doing exactly what he had trained it to do. Instead, Lindsey Graham, who said "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed...and we will deserve it", solicited to commit election fraud for him just a month ago. Now, days after the Capitol was sacked for the first time since the War of 1812, Graham is back at it by advocating to prevent our nation from healing--by saying Trump should not be impeached for throwing a violent coup.
All it would have taken is Pelosi or some other Democrat in a leadership position actually playing hardball and exercising the full extent of their powers to halt the Trump administration's damage by any means necessary. Instead they treated it like it was a gentlemanly badminton match or some shit. Pelosi didn't even use the Mueller Report as a basis for impeachment. If Trump had less hubris and his mafia boss call to Ukraine--which took place only one day after Mueller testified to Congress--never happened, the first impeachment wouldn't have happened. Pelosi didn't even try to serve as "check and balance" by using the House's power to jail Trump cronies who refused to comply with subpoenas with extreme arrogance. Now barbarians have sacked Pelosi's office. Politics isn't so much of a game now, is it? She did everything short of literally asking Trumpists to walk all over her, her party, and our nation.
This is what the media and politicians would look like if they had any conscience at all.
Politics shouldn't be treated like a game. People's lives and the fate of our nation are at stake. Our so-called leaders have allowed us to be a global laughing stock over the past 4 years, but it doesn't seem so funny any more.
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