Rome was once sacked by the goths and vandals and Washington, D.C. was sacked by the vulgarians, long before the MAGAs began smashing the doors and windows of the Capitol. The appearance of the first, Donald Trump and his aides, his first wave of shock troops as it were, made possible the appearance of the second. One of Trump’s most disreputable aides was Joe diGenova. DiGenova was a late addition to the Trump regime, made at a time when he was casting around desperately for “TV lawyers. I need more TV lawyers,” and a “killer.” “Where are my killers?” he lamented, when Jeff Sessions didn’t want to help him overthrow the government and toilet patenter Matthew Whittaker turned out to be a dismal disappointment.
Trump saw diGenova on Fox News, naturally, and asked him to come to the White House. The two did not hit it off in real life, surprisingly, but as both became more desperate for what the other could potentially do for him, they eventually got together, an alliance born transactionally as all of Trump’s are.
DiGenova puttered along nicely for a while, spewing disinformation on TV and raising the toxicity level of the national discourse and then he stepped in it big time on Newsmax. He said in an interview about the Big Lie aired November 30, that former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Christopher Krebs “should be drawn and quartered” and “taken out at dawn and shot,” after Krebs went on “60 Minutes” to expose Trump as a liar and dispute that the election was rigged. DiGenova made his horrific statement and Krebs sued him. Axios:
Details:Â The lawsuit claims that diGenova, the Trump campaign and Newsmax are “engaged in a conspiracy to defame and inflict severe emotional distress on” Krebs and other Republicans “who refuse to subserviently hew to the [Trump] campaign’s false narratives” on election fraud.
- The lawsuit also says that the defendants knowingly defamed Krebs by suggesting that he committed treason — and provoked threats from users on social media — to cause Krebs “so much pain and suffering that he … fall in line.”
What they’re saying:Â “Newsmax, the campaign, and diGenova have a symbiotic relationship,” the lawsuit reads.
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“Newsmax disseminates and amplifies the [Trump] campaign’s and diGenova’s attacks on perceived political threats and allegations of election stealing, which pleases viewers, prompts endorsements from President Trump, increases ratings, supports the political goals of the campaign, and helps raise more money from duped supporters.”
That was the state of play the end of last year and it seems like ages ago. And here’s the great part: diGenova had to eat crow publicly. This will not in and of itself unravel the Big Lie, but it is a loosening of the skein, let’s put it that way.
“During the show, I made regrettable statements regarding Christopher Krebs, which many interpreted as a call for violence against him,” diGenova said.
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“A few days later on Newsmax, I apologized for my grossly inappropriate statements, and today I reiterate my public apology to Mr. Krebs and his family for any harm my words caused.”
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“Given today’s political climate, I should have more carefully expressed my criticism of Mr. Krebs, who was just doing his job,” he concluded.
Now here’s the takeaway and it says everything about Trump’s fascist empire and the people who join up to help run it: diGenova didn’t just realize this a few days ago. He knew this all along. He knew full well Krebs was just doing his job and that the Big Lie was a farce. He deliberately chose to push the envelope as far as he could in order to further Trump’s sick agenda and toxify the national discourse. That’s the simple truth. And diGenova’s ugly, violent statement was just one more brick in the road to the Capitol riot.
It’s good that he’s forced to back down, as we knew he would be when Krebs filed his suit, but it is tragic that things in this country have taken this kind of a downward turn and gotten to this level in the first place.
DiGenova is a fool. Saying stuff like that in public gets you sued.
And he knows that. That’s what scares me. On some level, he thought, or wished or hoped he was going to get away with that level of malfeasance. Truly scary. If you read about Hitler’s early days, this is the same kind of stuff.
With any luck, Krebs will NOT stop his lawsuit.
All of the tRump supporters were (and many still are) drunk on the kool aid, on the illusion of power, not thinking clearly or considering the consequences of their actions. The insanity of Jan. 6. Can you even imagine considering, let alone going to the Capital, to riot and ransack? How out of it do you have to be to do it, then think you can get away with it? They were on a massive high of propaganda, nuttery, lies. It has taken the reality of being sued to get a few of these dumbasses to get their feet on the ground. Krebs should continue his suit, as should Dominion, all the injured LEO’s from the Capital, and the House and Senate. These people need to be brought down, laid low, have a meaningful face to face relationship with reality. Somehow we need to get the crazies back on track. Maybe it’s a stay behind bars, maybe some meaningful time spent in therapy, whatever it takes. We can’t have 40% of the country pulling this shit on a regular basis, and it looks like that’s exactly what they are planning to do, trying to keep us from the work of moving the country forward. I’m glad Joe Biden is moving ahead without worrying about what the right likes or doesn’t. Eff them.
Agreed 100%, Carol O!
You didn’t even mention the good part: they plastered their mugs all over social media, took their personal cell phones with them and left a digital backtrail that Stevie Wonder could see. Like Denzel Washington put in American Gangster, they might as well have hung signs around their neck saying “Arrest me.”
Grift, Ursula, not takeover. He was saying what he thought would get him paid and he thought he’d get cover for it. After 20 years of watching Republicans consistently and progressively fail at being Nazis, I am considerably less scared.