Holy shit! Man, talk about informational overload. When these hearings started Democratic committee member Jamie Raskin said that the J6 Committee hearings would Blow the roof off of the building. And as we speak, right about now the Capitol dome should just be passing the International Space Station.
There is so much to write about, and so much new information to dissect and disseminate. Too much for me to do tonight, when my thoughts and memories are whirling.
Instead I want to concentrate on the single revelation tonight that blew me through the back of my chair. It came in two parts. The first was the incredible amount of testimony that came in tonight that showed That even Trump’s closest advisors knew the incredible import Trump’s words had on his supporters.
One of tonight’s witnesses, Sarah Matthews, the Deputy Press Secretary in the White House testified that, as one of the first media people to join Trump’s reelection campaign, she traveled the country with Trump on campaign events, and testified firsthand as to the power his words had on his audiences. Which was why she was so distraught about Trump’s Ellipse speech, and even more disappointed in his 2:24 tweet castigating Vice President Mike Pence. It seemed to her like incitement of the crowd.
Which feeds into what blew me out of the chair. We all know, and have heard repeatedly about Trump’s Missing 187 minutes in the executive dining room on January 6th, while the Capitol riot raged. Trump went into the dining room at about 1pm and went to the Rose garden at 4:07 to tell the rioters to go home. But that wasn’t really the point.
The overriding question is, What was Trump doing in the executive dining room for that 187 minutes? He was sitting there watching FUX News, and cheering on the rioters for answering his call, and queering up the electoral vote certification.
Which begs the question, What was Trump watching on FUX News? And that’s where the J6 committee dropped the hammer on Traitor Tot. It showed that at about 3:56 FUX News re Trump made that 4:07 statemported that the DC National Guard were leaving their barracks and heading to the capitol. As were other law enforcement personnel. With no new rioters, and increasing law enforcement reinforcements, Trump’s putsch had failed.
That’s why Trump made that 4:07 announcement from the Rose Garden. He wanted to spare his traitorous scum from being scooped up once reinforcements arrived. If the arrival of the cavalry had been delayed, Trump would never have made that announcement! He would have sat there, and let the riotious mob continue to delay the congress from doing its job for as long as possible. He sent them home simply because there was no reason to keep them there any longer.
There is a good reason why Traitor Tot spent 187 minutes sitting in the executive dining room watching DUX News. He wanted to see how long his seditious mob could keep the cops at bay while he and Giuliani canvassed GOP loyalists in the House and Senate to dispute the vote totals. Donald Trump is a seditious traitor to the United States.
Damn. Thanks Murfster. I didn’t pick up on that with the clarity that you did despite some of the analysis I saw on TV. You cut right to the point. It’s scary to think that the law wasn’t followed because the CINC didn’t authorize the use of the Guard (unlike the states, the DC Guard is under federal control) and once you start down that “this was/is a special circumstance” it’s truly terrifying, but even more is what could have happened had people without the legal authority not intervened and do what Trump was obligated to do.
But once he realized that he literally wasn’t being listened to by subordinates in the actual chain of command he then and ONLY then tried to put lipstick on his rabid pig of an insurrectionist riot. And get his supporters to leave before his subordinates could start countermanding the prior “Just in case” orders to not make mass arrests. Imagine if the various Guard units had been given authority they’d normally have to herd people to areas where they could be handcuffed (and searched – how many weapons as in GUNS might have turned up?) and transported before a judge? The investigation would have gotten off to a much faster start with people being charged right then and there – especially for being in DC with firearms. When Jan 20 came and went and they didn’t have the pardons they assumed Trump would give them there’s no telling how much they would have given up – before various entities could start work on coordinating defenses for them and the organizers.
So he told them to leave. To protect his worthless ass. And move on to another prong of his strategy as in trying to bully Republicans who literally had been in fear for their lives (and in some cases their families who were on hand to witness them taking part in a bit of history) during the riot to STILL back his effort to delay certification of the vote!
When Liz Cheney concluded with “see you in September” I thought damn straight! And my mind started re-writing lyrics to the Beach Boys tune.
See you, in September
There are lots of
Bombshells yet to come…
The really bad part, Denis, is that the OFM couldn’t even do the “stand down” message right. All he had to do was follow the script in front of him and he’d have had plausible deniability. Instead, he had to tweak it due to challenging words like “yesterday”, which probably was enough to convince many people around him to save their own ass.
And this was just Season One. Season Two is going to be just as explosive, I wouldn’t wonder.
I think you raise an interesting point about staff trying to provide (both for Trump and themselves) plausible deniability, especially when it comes to that Jan. 7 statement. I still am stunned by those outtakes of him slapping the podium, making faces, stating what he wouldn’t say and speaking edits to the person at his teleprompter. After watching the local news & weather on the channel here in the Raleigh area I turned on Morning Joe and it’s been running in the background as I’ve been tending to my site housekeeping stuff. One of the talking heads made a comment that caught my attention when, referring to all that suggesting Trump didn’t want to say some things in the prepared statement because he knew what he intended to say later on! That’s really is sticking with me and I think will for a long, long time.
I loved Adam Kinzinger’s statement, that Trump didn’t fail to act during that extended time frame, he chose not to act. The other most interesting thing I saw, was Bannon, on October 30 or 31 outline exactly what Trump would do, if he lost the election. He laid it out clearly, which to me shows the whole thing was premeditated.
Well…YEAH. Quite the coincidence that Bannon just gave up on the same day the J6 Committee exposed him and the others, isn’t it?
In that clip, Bannon went full-on sociopath. They always, *always* reveal themselves sooner or later because they don’t want anyone to harbor any doubt whatsoever they’re the author of these so-called “genius” strategies.
You watch: if Bannon goes down for obstruction—as it almost surely seems he will—that spigot will turn into a firehose wielded by a rabid shoat with a point to prove.
And irony of ironies, in the same situation, so will Formerly. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done the fuck with popcorn.
But in the world according to Politico and Axios, none of this will stop November’s red wave, because bothsides… and because these know-nothing poohbahs like nothing more than politics as usual. Even if one side has already pulverized democracy.
Battered democracy but I would look to what Putin failed to do to Ukraine for an accurate idea of “pulverized”. In fact, I would say Ukraine was always the real prize here for Russia once Trump was in place. Oh and add the Atlantic to the idiot chorus of the nonexistent “red wave”. Obviously they’re ignoring the likes of Oz, Walker and Vance to come to such conclusions.
Not exactly an “aha” moment. That insurrection lasted hours and nothing came from the W.H. Nothing at all. Outside of the D.C. police there were no protectors for Congress. I’m not sure why this had to be put in such a way that your average gnat would understand it but I guess it does: says a lot about the lack of working grey matter between the ears of many Americans.
I’m not criticizing the J6 committee mind you. They knew better than I do who they had to convince so putting it in terms a toddler could grasp was the way to go I’m sure.
There is no doubt that Trump inside of the mob to storm the Capitol and he didn’t care if they were armed or not because they were not a threat to him as he has admitted. One aspect of that day has not been investigated was how unprepared the DC police were for such a large crowd. The planning for the riot had been the discussed for over a month on social media that any in their intelligence community for the FBI could have seen and prepared for. Contrast this with when black lives matter decides to have a peaceful protest, usually with 1-3 days advanced notice and the state or local police will have over a thousandbor more officers there.
Even during the day of the riot, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies we’re still trying to find the link between the rioters and Antifa or BLM. That was their mindset.
I have some thoughts regarding your DC Police comments. First, they have an entire city to patrol and protect every single day. Now, as we all know they play a key role in providing security for large events in DC and a long history of effective partnership with the federal government on this score. But keep in mind that unless specifically invited/authorized by the appropriate federal entities for specific situations they have no authority on federal property. Which includes both the Capitol Complex and virtually everything between it and the Lincoln Memorial. Trump’s mod could literally march down the Mall – federal land – to the Capitol!
In theory DC was granted “Home Rule” long ago. In practice it’s a fucking joke. Congress (almost exclusively Repu8blicans) fuck with DC and Home Rule all the time, often simply to score political points by feeding red meat to voters back home. But let’s get to the main issue here which is that unlike the states and (I think) every territory where the Gov. or other top elected official is head of their National Guard (unless/until those troops are federalized for one reason or another) the Mayor of DC has NO authority to call up and/or deploy the DC National Guard. Zero. None. The DC guard is completely under federal control and only takes orders from the Pentagon even for crowd control/event security anywhere in the District of Columbia. Even if the Guard is needed somewhere other than federal property!
Now, considering that also keep in mind that there were discussions prior to Jan. 6 about the event. DC officials were as I recall rather uncomfortable with the planning, or at least not terribly reassured that if things got ugly an immediate response would be authorized. Some of the DC Guard was put on standby but not even geared up properly for riot ressponse. And there wasn’t a daman thing the Mayor could do about it. Compare that to the Governors of MD and VA who had plenty of help at the ready and more on standby that could be deployed within hours if needed. THEY were ready to respond and in a meaningful way if given the go order from the Pentagon. Hell, GOP Gov. Larry Hogan of MD had units stationed next to the border of DC and even asked for permission to send them to help! And his Guard had to sit in place for hours.
There was as we know some serious shit going down in certain offices in the Pentagon prior to and during the riots. Trump had installed some hacks (it seems NOT limited to civilian officials I should add) to gum up any response and by god they did slow-walk sending help to DC. Don’t get me wrong – I have been quite happy with the public hearings so far and was riveted last night. It’s crucial to paint a bold picture (as they did last night) of what went on in the WH that day – both Trump’s inactions and actual actions the latter of which were to add fuel to the fire he started.
Still, there’s a hearing I hope to see and IT will focus on who did or did not do what when it comes to preparing for Jan. 6 and the fucked up response. Heads need to roll. Civilians need to be investigated and charged. There are also commissioned Officers and some high ranking NCOs who displayed loyalty to Trump instead of the Constitution and their true duty to the country who need to be Court Martialed and sent to the brig. The rot runs wide and deep and it ALL needs to be exposed to a degree there’s no choice but to yank it out by the roots.
But in the end and getting back to why I’ve responded to you, the DC Guard was limited because the Trump administration’s coup plotters went to some tangible effort to limit it. And there’s nothing the Mayor of DC (who could have had the Guard memebers deployed just OFF federal property making arrests, especially when the rioters finally dispersed) or the CO of the DC Guard could do. They had to have authorization from the Pentagon do do ANYTHIANG and the Trump admin. did a great deal to make sure they couldn’t do anything. And THAT extends to the DC police in substantial and practical ways. Without significant help from the Guard they didn’t have the ability to both cover the entire city and also deal with the rioters. Had they tried there’s no telling how many would have been injured or even killed.