Wow, when you’ve offended the sensibilities of the New York Post, you know you’ve really done something. That doesn’t happen every day, although in all truth, the Post got Donald Trump’s number many decades ago, long before the era of Rupert Murdoch.
This is a real classic. At times it makes you wonder if it intended to be parody or if that part is unintentional. In all fairness, since we deal with Trump as the subject, all normal considerations do tend to get thrown off.
Enjoy the comedy, deliberate or not. Savor the fact that the message is “enough” and it’s interesting that a Murdoch tabloid would decide to throw out the trial balloon of “the GOP is done with Donald, and we’re moving on.” New York Post:
The Jan. 6 Commission is a Democratic campaign ad, a thinly veiled partisan exercise — aired in primetime, with the cooperation of a liberal press — to bolster a failed Joe Biden presidency.
But rather than ignore it or look to the future, Donald Trump, the King Lear of Mar-a-Lago, decided to tweet — er, Truth — yet another statement confirming that he refuses to accept reality. “January 6th was not simply a protest,” he wrote, “it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”
It wasn’t, of course. It was a national shame. One that neither Democrats nor Trump can stop obsessing over. It’s time for Republicans to move on. […]
But Trump has become a prisoner of his own ego. He can’t admit his tweeting and narcissism turned off millions. He won’t stop insisting that 2020 was “stolen” even though he’s offered no proof that it’s true.
Respected officials like former Attorney General Bill Barr call his rants “nonsense.” This isn’t just about Liz Cheney. Mitch McConnell, Betsy DeVos, Mark Meadows — they all knew Trump was delusional. His own daughter and son-in-law testified it was bull.
Trump’s response? He insults Barr, and dismisses Ivanka as “checked out.” He clings to more fantastical theories, such as Dinesh D’Souza’s debunked “2,000 Mules,” even as recounts in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin confirm Trump lost.
Meanwhile, reports that Trump was pleased that the Jan. 6 crowd chanted for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged — a truly reprehensible sentiment — makes him unworthy for the office. Trump can’t look past 2020. Let him remain there.
Woot! That’s pretty strong stuff! Let that sink in a moment. Without question, Trump looks like a fool for doing all these things. Nothing new there. The editorial board here, interestingly, has decided to draw the line at the Big Lie. It sees that as the anchor holding the GOP down and that is spot on. Whether anybody is going to heed this editorial, I don’t know, but the basic premise behind it, that continuing to embrace the Big Lie is death, not only to the GOP but to the smooth workings of a functioning democracy, is beyond dispute.
Let us return to this organ of wisdom and see what else they had to say.
The motivations of the Democrats are purely political, but that doesn’t make the events of January 6 right. The best argument Trump’s people can cling to is that the Capitol building wasn’t properly secured. The committee would look far less partisan by scrutinizing these claims. But what’s the logic? You knew Trump was going to incite a mob, so you should have brought in more troops? Trump himself doesn’t deny that he wished the rioters had succeeded in overturning the election.
The Post then goes on to lump Trump in with Joe Biden as two failed statesmen and demand a solution in government that involves neither.
Tune out the Jan. 6 hearings and binge-watch the new season of “Stranger Things.” Unsubscribe from Trump’s daily emails begging for money. Then pick your favorite from a new crop of conservatives. Look to 2022, and 2024, and a new era. Let’s make America sane again.
It will be interesting to see what the Wall Street Journal chimes in. Frankly, I’m surprised that we read this here in the Post and not Murdoch’s other paper, the Journal.
As stated, the real issue here is that Trump can’t continue without the Big Lie. And the GOP can’t afford to invest in the Big Lie. So the decision has been made somewhere in Trump world that the Big Lie needs to go and if Trump won’t let it go, then leave Trump at the side of the road.
It makes you wonder if this wasn’t explained to him beforehand? Perhaps. We’ll never know. But it defies common sense to think that it wouldn’t have been, at the very least by Jared and Ivanka.
The message between the lines here is, “Trump is not teachable. Ergo, he goes before he drags the rest of us down with him.” Let’s see what happens. Or, maybe this is just an isolated, regional sentiment. After all, it’s common knowledge that New York hates Trump and vice versa.
Later in your article you noted the NY Post’s comments on inadequate security, blaming Democrats in the process. It’s a slick piece of misdirection that’s been out there and will I’m certain be getting a lot more play as a GOP talking point. I’m not sure how much the Jan. 6 Committee will get into this but they need to even though it will raise some bruises. There are two separate issues – the Capitol Police leadership’s actions/inactions (both being properly staffed up and coordinating with DC police for backup if necessary) and obtaining support from the National Guard.
The first issue is the tough one. There is NO doubt the then top brass of the Capitol Police screwed the pooch and the question, the very tough question that has to be explored is whether it was incompetence or intentional. Given how many Capitol Police Officers exhibited extraordinary bravery and devotion to duty that day I can understand the Committee not wanting to tarnish the overall image of the Capitol Police. On a related front there are some pretty tough questions that Chris Wray and the FBI need to answer too – because the leaders of the Capitol Police that fucked things up will point the finger at the FBI and perhaps Homeland Security too for “faulty intelligence” regarding the level of the threat.
As for the DC National Guard, unlike in the 50 states and even U.S. Territories it isn’t under the command of the top elected official. The DC Mayor has NO authority to call up the DC National Guard. That falls under the control of the Executive Branch and it’s clear (and was right away) that Trump had installed enough lackeys across the river at the Pentagon to gum up the process of authorizing even putting the DC Guard on standby and set up for riot response! Then there’s the whole Chain-of-Command issue I raised in a comment last night. Under our system the only person who could legally issue the order to the DOD to have the DC Guard respond was Trump. It’s a serious thing that Pence was the one trying to activate them, and it put General Milley in a terrible position and one which could still wind up biting him in the ass and ruining what has been quite a career since he eventually chose to try and figure out some type of workaround for Trump’s inaction.
I can actually see how in the leadup to that awful day the brass at the Capitol Police might have, considering that the DC Guard wasn’t being prepped for possible response might have been lulled into accepting faulty intelligence from other agencies despite all the public noise being made about a huge crowd coming to raise hell.
So again, even if some bruises are raised with the Capitol Police (and let’s not forget that SOME rank and file Officers were ok with what went on and maybe even helped in the planning) the Committee will get out in front of this before conservatives start defining their “It’s the Democrats fault for bad security” narrative with their media megaphone. Because they are warming up to do exactly that.