We have lived through one of the most crucial episodes in American history and we have managed to hang onto the republic, albeit by a thread. Whatever else Donald Trump is remembered for, he will go down in history as the one president who refused to step down when voted out of office and attempted a coup d’etat to stay in power. Hell of a legacy. And right now he thinks he has a good shot at reelection running on his “life saving” “miracle” vaccines — which he did not develop, but that’s beside the point — and that will be how he’ll be remembered. That is, if the GOP is able to sweep both the Capitol riot and the insurrection under the rug. And certainly they’re going to try.
The question has been posed over and over and will be posed again, “What if Mike Pence had decided to embrace a totally illegal proposition, a ‘stolen election’ without evidence?” We will never know.
Daniel Goldman, one of the attorneys on Trump’s impeachment, explains how Rudy Giuliani cobbled together a straw man, while John Eastman put together a totally bogus rationale as to why the straw man would work, and the fake elector slate was put together.
The fake electors were, as you know, subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee Friday and this is where the focus on the Capitol riot is focused now.
It’s interesting how the investigation has shifted direction. Goldman is undoubtedly right, that the fake electors are going to cooperate in order to save themselves.
Mike Pence jumped off of this train wreck. That’s the only reason that his name isn’t going to go down in history as a traitor along the lines of Benedict Arnold.
John Eastman began almost immediately to walk back his own liability, by saying that his memo was never intended to be taken literally.
Look for a lot of people to be taking the 5th Amendment. And once more, we look to Mark Meadows. Meadows is the key to a lot of this. A lot of people were talking to Meadows on January 6. His testimony is key. And as has been said before, both on this site and elsewhere, Mark Meadows is not going to go to prison for Donald Trump.
Meadows is the guy who can illuminate the national emergency that was planned, and the declaration of martial law, not to mention all the nutty Kraken allegations of Venzuela taking over the voting machines in various states. That’s where I see the investigation going next, is a laser focus on Meadows. And I’m sure he has to know it’s coming, it’s just a question of how long he can stall.
The committee apparently has spoken to Meadows’ aides – they may not need his testimony. If he has competent counsel, he should already be talking to the feds to get the best deal he can. I don’t see how he totally avoids jail considering how involved he was in the whole insurrection.
The ‘Rule of Law’ hangs in the balance. If Meadows and the rest of these traitors don’t go to jail, why should any of us care about rules or laws? Nixon getting off is what triggered the moral decline of this country. There never should have been a Reagan or a Trump. Bush I was not only mixed up in Reagan’s sins, but was involved in Nixon’s, too. And Bush II launched an illegal war and then tortured people. Republicans are why the rest of the world doesn’t trust us. Blatant fascism doesn’t look good to others. Of course, other fascist love Trump and the GOP. If Trump and his little helpers are punished, then our own citizens as well as the rest of the world will have a higher opinion of the US government and maybe won’t laugh us out of the UN again.
“Blatant fascism” is right; I fail to understand why that title isn’t being yelled from various pulpits by everyone concerned about the inherent corruption of the GOP. Everything the Trump Republicans do is in the furtherance of a Fascist America and 6 January was simply their most obvious, unsubtle move. The self-styled mainstream GOPers go along, cowed by Trump’s power, saying nothing, so afraid of losing their sets aboard the gravy train that they’ll sacrifice anything, including whatever ethics and morality they once might claim to possess.
I believe that the moral decline started on 11.22.1963.