“Democracy is coming
to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To
the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls
of Hate
Sail on, sail on”
From “Democracy” by Leonard Cohen
To me, Donald Trump is a liar, a divider, an incurable narcissist, and a disgrace to the country. If you want to know why I learned to hate Trump, you would have to listen to many reasons; however, I can give you, perhaps, my biggest reason in this single blog entry – Donald Trump led a deadly attack on American democracy on January 6, 2021.
The 2021 United States Capitol attack occurred when an angry mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump and others attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. They sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes that would formalize President-elect Joe Biden's victory
The Capitol Complex was locked down and lawmakers and staff were evacuated, while rioters assaulted law enforcement officers and occupied the building for several hours. Five people died either shortly before, during, or following the event: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three succumbed to natural causes. Many people were injured, including 138 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. The January 6 insurrection caused at least $1.5 million worth of damage to the Capitol and untold devastation to the country’s foundation.
On October 31, The Washington Post released a three-part investigation into the forces that led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and the growing distrust in America’s elections that has spread in its aftermath titled “Democracy Dies In Darkness: The Attack: Before, During and After.” It reveals through new reporting how law enforcement officials failed to heed warnings of impending violence in Washington, documents the bloody consequences of President Donald Trump’s inaction during the siege, and shows how a deep distrust of the voting process has taken root across the country.
Matea Gold, national political enterprise and investigations editor, said of this investigation – “An event of the magnitude of the Capitol attack demands deep and revelatory reporting.”
The investigation reports the following conclusion:
“Trump was the driving force at every turn as he orchestrated what would become an attempted political coup in the months leading up to Jan. 6, calling his supporters to Washington, encouraging the mob to march on the Capitol and freezing in place key federal agencies whose job it was to investigate and stop threats to national security.”
(Written by Aaron C. Davis and reported by Hannah Allam, Devlin Barrett, Aaron C. Davis, Josh Dawsey, Amy Gardner, Shane Harris, Rosalind S. Helderman, Paul Kane, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Nick Miroff, Ellen Nakashima, Ashley Parker, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, and Craig Timberg. “Democracy Dies In Darkness: The Attack: Before, During and After.” The Washington Post. October 31, 2021.)
Access the investigation by clicking here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/jan-6-insurrection-capitol/
For his involvement in the attempted coup alone, Donald Trump should be held accountable, prosecuted, and never again trusted to render political opinion or to hold political office.
Findings
As confirmed in the investigation, for months, Trump had been priming his supporters to believe that the election was rigged, that he was the rightful winner, and that Joe Biden’s victory was illegitimate and the product of a conspiracy by Democrats and the media.
Trump leaned on election officials in states such as Georgia and Arizona with a blizzard of tweets and personal phone calls, trying to get them to undo the results of the election.
And, when that failed, he turned his focus to Jan. 6, historically a pro forma ritual by Congress.
“His words triggered rapid action by angry supporters who made plans to go to the nation’s capital, fusing together in a dangerous call-and-response.
Come to Washington, Trump tweeted to his supporters on the Saturday before Christmas, issuing a clarion call for them to gather and protest on Jan. 6: 'Be there, will be wild!'”
In response, tens of thousands of Trump supporters flocked to D.C. to protest claiming Trump had lost to Biden only as a result of widespread ballot fraud in a number of swing states, a belief that has been embraced by many Republicans. It became evident many of them were there to stop Congress' certification of Democratic rival Joe Biden's presidential victory by violently and illegally storming the Capitol.
For more than an hour in his speech at the rally, Trump made the case that he and his supporters at the rally had been “cheated” and “defrauded” in the “rigged” election by a “criminal enterprise” made up of some of the “weak” legislators the insurrectionists were about to confront.
In his speech at the rally, Trump roused his followers with words such as these:
“Let the weak ones get out. This is a time for strength.” This was in reference to Republicans in Congress who weren’t going along with his effort to subvert the election.
“You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” That was to the marchers specifically.
“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules.”
“You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen.” A reference to Biden’s ascendance to the presidency if he wasn’t stopped.
“We are going to the Capitol,” Trump told his followers, to “try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” Actually, he didn’t go with them.
The president’s sole “peaceful” gesture in the speech was this passing remark, lost in the winds of that day’s rage: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
There were no other approximate appeals for calm, order or respect for the institutions that Trump assailed in the speech as a “swamp.”
In addition, Trump thanked supporters when they chanted: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”
“That was the one time, the only time, President Trump used the word ‘peaceful’ or any suggestion of non-violence,” Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the Democratic impeachment managers, said during the trial. “President Trump used the word ‘fight’ or ‘fighting’ 20 times.”
To be sure, not all of Trump’s “fighting” words were about the march to the Capitol. Some were about the political struggle to reverse a fair and certified election that he lost or about his other struggles in Washington.
But he sent his followers off to the Capitol with these words: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
This, after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani had told the crowd: “Let’s have trial by combat.”
During the melee that ensued, Trump made a video telling the attackers it was time to “go home.” Only when the violence was underway did he stress the need for “law and order” and “peace.” But he added: “We love you. You’re very special people.” Others are “so bad and evil.”
(Calvin Woodward. “AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s team glosses over his Jan. 6 tirade.” Associated Press. February 12, 2021.)
“Democracy Dies In Darkness” documents the following facts:
Trump had direct warnings of the risks but stood by for 187 minutes before telling his supporters to go home
For more than three hours, the president resisted entreaties from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, other Republican lawmakers and numerous White House advisers to urge the mob to disperse, a delay that contributed to harrowing acts of violence.
His allies pressured Pence to reject the election results even after the Capitol siege
John C. Eastman, an attorney advising Trump, emailed Pence’s lawyer as a shaken Congress was reconvening to argue that the vice president should still reject electors from Arizona and other states.
Republican efforts to undermine the 2020 election restarted immediately after the Capitol attack
Eight days after the violence, state Republicans privately discussed their intention to force a review of ballots cast in Maricopa County, Ariz., setting in motion a chaotic process that further sowed doubt in the results and a wave of similar partisan investigations in other states.
False election claims by Trump that spurred the Capitol attack have become a driving force in the Republican Party
Nearly a third of the 390 Republicans around the country who have expressed interest in running for statewide office this cycle have publicly supported a partisan audit of the 2020 vote, downplayed the Jan. 6 attack or directly questioned Biden’s victory.
They include 10 candidates running for secretary of state, a position with sway over elections in many states.
Trump’s attacks have led to escalating threats of violence
Election officials in at least 17 states have collectively received hundreds of threats to their personal safety or their lives since Jan. 6, with a concentration in the six states where Trump has focused his attacks on the election results.
Ominous emails and calls have spiked immediately after the former president and his allies raised new claims.
First responders are struggling with deep trauma
Those who tried to protect the Capitol are contending with serious physical injuries, nightmares and intense anxiety. “Normal is gone,” said one Capitol Police commander.
(Written by Aaron C. Davis and reported by Hannah Allam, Devlin Barrett, Aaron C. Davis, Josh Dawsey, Amy Gardner, Shane Harris, Rosalind S. Helderman, Paul Kane, Dan Lamothe, Carol D. Leonnig, Nick Miroff, Ellen Nakashima, Ashley Parker, Beth Reinhard, Philip Rucker, and Craig Timberg. “ “Democracy Dies In Darkness: The Attack: Before, During and After.” The Washington Post. October 31, 2021.)
Fritz Fischer, Ph.D. – Award-winning University of Northern Colorado Professor of History Chair and Director of Teacher Education – puts the insurrection in perspective to help people contextualize the event. Fischer says …
“The riot itself wasn’t the most shocking thing; the most shocking thing was that it was our own president who directed an attack on our Congress, and that has no precedent in U.S. history and surprisingly few in world history. To have one part of our government attack another part of the government is totally insane, and it was dangerous and antithetical to any traditional understanding of how our government should work.”
And, the main cog and initiator of the attack was none other than the then-president Donald Trump. Trump was in change. But, of course, he never claims responsibility for his grievous errors and purposeful divisions. In the first week of October, he threw another fit about the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump blasted Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), lead manager of Trump’s first impeachment, calling him “shifty” and demanded that the “partisan” committee investigating the riot “stop at once.” The committee has seven Democrats and two Republicans and is not partisan, despite Trump’s complaints.
Trump also delivered a curious gripe given his own position on the events of Jan. 6, writing:
“What happened to the Capitol would have never happened if the people in charge did their job and looked at the intelligence. They abandoned the officers on the ground, just like Biden abandoned Americans in Afghanistan. Instead of holding bad leaders accountable, the Democrats are going after innocent staffers and attacking the Constitution.”
(Ed Mazza. “Trump's Latest Jan. 6 Riot Meltdown Gets Brutal Fact-Check, Courtesy Of Adam Schiff.” Yahoo News. October 12, 2021.)
It was Donald Trump who spent months spouting false claims about the election, and on Jan. 6 egged on the crowd and sent it to the Capitol as Congress met to certify the election results.
Did I mention that Trump is a liar and a shameless demagogue? Oh, perhaps I did. If you want to know why, please read the entire article “Democracy Dies In Darkness: The Attack: Before, During and After.” I believe you will find the truth both deeply revealing and sadly painful … so disturbing that you will likely shed a tear for the recent and, hopefully, temporary demise of the government of the people. Sail on, sail on.
“Truth exists; only lies are invented.”
– Georges Braque, major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor
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