I am greatly saddened by this. The United States Secret Service has revealed that the texts which the January 6 Committee subpoenaed, regarding events on or about January 6, have been irretrievably destroyed. That is very foreboding news. That speaks to two issues right off: One, the extent to which the Secret Service served Donald Trump and not the office of the president; and two, how close the attempted coup came to fruition. This should make the hair on the back of your head stand up.
Here’s Rick Wilson’s take.
2/ …the peaceful transition of power after free and fair democratic elections, the 1/6 committee, DOH, and the Department of Homeland Security must absolutely step the hell up.
This isn't whether Steve Bannon is a scabrous scrapegallow or Mook Meadows…
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
4/ …engaged in an activity that is quite robustly a coverup. Several thoughts obtain.
First, the long-rumored and discussed cadre of Trump Praetorians in the USSS needs to get aired the hell out. This reeks like leftover ass.
Second, the leadership and every…single…
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
6/ The 1/6 Committee Presents The Long Hot Summer series is recommended. They can skip vacation this once and crack some skulls.
I've noticed many Republicans get very livid lately when this whole scandal gumbo is compared to Watergate.
Stop doing Watergate shit, then.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
8/ The core of their reputation wasn't a fearsome readiness to defend the President.
It was also a cool, detached professionalism that served the office, not simply the political whims of the man who held it.
For months, Mike Pence's refusal to enter the VP limo…
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
10/ I'm no Presidential staff historian, but Trump's elevation hyper-loyalist Tony Ornato from Secret Service into the role of Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations might have been a tell.
I suspect he's rather a key element here.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
12/ I'll wrap this by noting that oversight by the Executive and Legislative in this matter is more than a little urgent.
Trump's shitbird superpower has always been to call out the worst versions of the people working for him.
The Service is gambling its reputation on HIM?
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2022
Power corrupts and Trump does have this “superpower” of leading the people around him to believe that he can and will confer great power on them. What actually ends up happening is that their association with him ruins their lives. But to the gullible, it must be an intoxicating ride for a while, an affirmation of the adage, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
And no question, a lot of people get where they are in life with other people opening doors for them, as opposed to their own merit. The attraction of jumping several levels in your pay grade and importance is intoxicating, admittedly. This is the magic wand that Trump waved at a lot of people.
Trump evidently had his own Praetorian Guard. And Mike Pence knew it. That’s why he was afraid to get in the limo.
I never thought I’d see anything like this in America. The next question becomes, is there anybody in the Secret Service who would do their patriotic duty and come clean and say what happened January 6, now that the evidence has been destroyed? I’m not holding my breath. Of all the shocking developments we have seen so far in the January 6 Committee investigation, to my mind this is the most depressing of all, willful destruction of evidence, cloaked in the guise of an “accident” while a routine technical upgrade was taking place.
Pence needs to explain his actions. What did he know? The SS? Awww hell. Corruption there and for sure in the FBI. 45 garnered the allegiance of too many. This is how Vlad works. What in the hell did those SS agents see in 45 or what were they promised? The American people are not stupid (oh wait – 30 million or so are.).
No, my dear. The figure is 74 million. Even 30 I could live with. 74 million keeps me awake at night.
We are coasting on the cusp of fascism. There’s no other conclusion to be reached on these facts. And yes, there were plenty of people on the inside who were ready to break the law and destroy evidence for Donald Trump. How an idiot like him got this kind of adulation I have no idea.
SS needs to be cleaned out – and DHS needs to be abolished and its assorted agencies put back in their prior homes.
The comment about Trump’s superpower being his ability to call forth the worst in people really hit me. It felt like I’d been slammed by one of my DIs driving a point home. Then I realized it’s even worse than that – because Trump has always surrounded himself with some of the worst, sleaziest and most despicable people to begin with. Those qualities are why he picks them in the first place. THAT is what makes his superpower so much worse – he takes the worst people and makes them even worse!
I shudder thinking about the various mixtures of cancerous cells Trump regularly injected into our government. And with his platform our society/country. Some will be more like dormant viruses – say chicken pox which if you had it as a kid and then as an adult had an outbreak of shingles is a painful and unpleasant example but what Trump has done is release things that might be long dormant but when they show up be far worse than chicken pox/shingles which is awful (trust me – I’ve had it) and instead fatal.
Conservatives who read these pages can hate on me all they want and they do. I return it right fucking back. And in Trump’s case no way in hell do I want some wackjob to charge into Mar A Lago or onto his golf course with an assault weapon and mow him down. No fucking way. I WANT that despicable excuse of a human being, that flaming orange human shaped rectum we know as Donald Trump to live a long time. And die a slow, painfully agonizing death. That motherfucker should suffer horribly, and while I once never thought I’d say this about anyone since 1976 even more horrible (and as I say for a far, far long time frame) death than my piece of shit grandfather. Bad as that was it was still too good for him. And NO horrible death, no matter how protracted and painful will be enough to make Trump suffer the way he should for all the harm he’s caused in his life!
This is another powerful reason to get Mike Pence talking to the 6 January Committee. Let’s find out what he knew about Trump’s malign influence within the Secret Service, and within other govt departments too. Pence knows it all. He’s no heroic patriot who will step forward on his own. He needs to be subpoenaed immediately
Mike Pence won’t voluntarily testify. He, delusionally, believes he can be president and if he gives up TFG, he loses MAGA votes. He will never get their votes. He needs to come clean. As to the USSS, they really need to clean house, top to bottom. The chief has announced he’s leaving at the end of the month, hoping to avoid the worst of the fall-out from all this.
Both CLINTONs testified.
PENCE must testify!
I called the local SS office in Charlotte & got a live person on the phone. Insolent. Silent about any questions I raised. ‘No comment’, which sounded like pleading the fifth was all I got. Stonewalling all the way around. Typical police agency response when confronted with their collective criminality. These aren’t the best folks in the country. They are a specialized gang. Period. They are morally corrupt & that thin veneer of ‘respect’ has been tore away.
The Secret Service head, James Murray, needs to be fired immediately. We also need to find out why it took so long to learn about this dereliction of duty.