TRUMP. DID. ALL. OF. IT.
On Tuesday, the January 6 Committee connected some dots. And even if you knew the basic outlines of Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election, the committee drew a dramatic timeline of the attempted coup:
December 14 Electoral College votes - five days later...
December 18 The Craziest Oval Office meeting ever...
Early a.m. December 19 Trump tweets about January 6 “Be there, will be wild”
then...
Right-wing media amplifies Trump’s call
Mobilization of Domestic Violent Extremists
meanwhile...
Trump plans March to Capitol - he refuses to notify anyone in government so that any protection can happen. This is known by the conspirators outside and inside the White House.
And finally...
January 6 Insurrection…
America’s 45th president oversaw and directed a multipart plan to violently overturn the 2020 election. Texts and testimonies of those in Donald Trump’s inner orbit have shattered every excuse that the former president’s supporters had publicly broadcast since that awful ay.
“Donald Trump directed and coordinated all of it,” in the words of Liz Cheney.
The 2020 election ended when the Electoral College voted in mid-December. Trump was told repeatedly by his campaign, his staff, and the DOJ, that it was over. But he was determined to hang onto power, anyway. The result was an Insane White House Meeting on December 18 featuring screaming arguments, personal insults, suggestions that the military seize voting machines; naming Sidney Powell special counsel. If I had ever written a scene like that in a screenplay, I’d have been laughed out of the professional fiction business.
The meeting lasted for more than six hours with shouts that others could hear outside the room. Participants hurled insults and there were invitations to step up and fight it out physically.Even by the standards of the Trump White House, where people screamed at one another and President Donald J. Trump screamed at them, the December 18, 2020, meeting became known as an “unhinged” event - that was the word used to describe it by people who had withstood all the other crazy-ass crap that happened there over the previous four years.
And an hour and 45 minutes later, Trump sent the “Be there. Will be wild.” tweet.
For the past 18 months Trump and his gang have disclaimed any responsibility for the insurrection. They point out that neither the December 19 tweet nor Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on the morning of January 6 contains any explicit reference to violence.
But the hearing this weeks presented solid evidence that Trump and his allies intended to summon as large a crowd as they could muster to Washington as a way of pressuring Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election during the formal counting of Electoral College ballots on January 6.
On December 21, two days after The Tweet, Trump met with ten House Republican co-conspirators to strategize for January 6. Trump also planned to call on his supporters to march to the Capitol, according to a draft tweet revealed during the hearing. It was never sent, but a text sent by rally organizer Ali Alexander suggested that he and those he was working with were aware of the president’s plans. Notably, Trump went to pains to make sure no one in the government knew that was his plan.
“Be there, will be wild,” was sent at 0142 on December 19.
The MAGAMedia immediately recognized Trump’s call to action. (Transcript via NPR):
ALEX JONES: It's Saturday, December 19th. The year is 2020, and one of the most historic events in American history has just taken place. President Trump, in the early morning hours today, tweeted that he wants the American people to march on Washington DC on January 6th, 2021.
TIM POOL: And now Donald Trump is calling on his supporters to descend on Washington DC January 6th.
ALEX JONES: He is now calling on we the People to take action and to show our numbers.
MATT BRACKEN: We're going to only be saved by millions of Americans moving to Washington, occupying the entire area, if — if necessary storming right into the Capitol. You know, they're — we know the rules of engagement. If you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall.
TIM POOL: This could be Trump's last stand. And it's a time when he has specifically called on his supporters to arrive in DC. That's something that may actually be the big push Trump supporters need to say this is it. It's now or never.
SALTY CRACKER: Ya better understand something, son. Ya better understand something. Red wave, bitch. Red wed — there's gonna be a red wedding going down January 6th. [Raskin explained that "red wedding” was “a pop culture reference to mass slaughter.]
TIM POOL: On that day, Trump says show up for a protest. It's gonna be wild. And based on what we've already seen from the previous events, I think Trump is absolutely correct.
SALTY CRACKER: Motherfucker, you better look outside. You better look out January 6th. Kick that fucking door open, look down the street. There're gonna be a million plus geeked up armed Americans.
ALEX JONES: The time for games is over. The time for action is now. Where were you when history called? Where were you when you and your children's destiny and future was on the line?
Trump's “Be there” tweet excited and united violent groups on the far right. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers had never worked together before, but now there is a recording of a Zoom call between the leaders of both organizations, discussing what they will do - together.
One asked “Is the 6th D-Day? Is that why Trump wants everyone there?”
Another asserted “Trump just told us all to come armed. Fucking A, this is happening.”
A third took it even further. “It will be wild means we need volunteers for the firing squad.”
Trump himself planned the March on the Capitol
In a draft tweet Trump approved but that ultimately was never sent out, he urged supporters to come to Washington on January 6, 2021, to attend a rally near the White House and then head toward Congress where lawmakers were set to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
“I will be making a Big Speech at 10 a.m. on January 6th at the Ellipse. Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the steal!”
After speaking with Staff Mark Meadows on January 2, Katrina Pierson emailed fellow rally organizers: “POTUS expectations are to have something intimate at the ellipse, and call on everyone to march to the capitol.”
An email message from Kylie Jane Kremer to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell on January 4 said: “It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’”
Ali Alexander texted a conservative journalist on January 5: “Tomorrow: Ellipse then US capitol. Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol at the end of his speech but we will see.”
He planned it. They all knew it.
Trump spoke to Steve Bannon twice on January 5. Fresh off his 11 minute first conversation with the president, Bannon told listeners:
“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. It’s all converging. And now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack. Right. The point of attack tomorrow. I’ll tell you this. It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen. It’s going to be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is strap in.”
This is incredibly important because it cuts off all the arguments that Trump is an unwitting stooge manipulated by other more nefarious and intelligent individuals.
Trump controls what he says in his speeches - no one else. It is clear in his speech that day at the rally that he went off-script three times to fire up the crowd against Pence, to tell them to fight, and then to tell them to go to the capitol. If it can be proven the speech was manipulated to make the call to go to the capital seem spontaneous, that shows clear premeditated intent on Trump's part.
It puts him at the center of the conspiracy.
Where he was. From the beginning.
Once again, the most damaging evidence comes from inside TrumpWorld. Everyone who testified was either a Trumpist or Trump-adjacent.
While it’s great that former aides are now testifying, why didn’t they take public action between December 14 and January 6 to stop or hinder the impending violent coup? Why didn’t more of them speak out during impeachment? Why didn’t they Do The Right Thing when it would have mattered?
History’s verdict will not be kind to these people, no matter their rationalizations and excuses.
The point that must be remembered and held above all is this:
None of this would have happened without Trump.
He wasn’t passively advised of his ill-considered actions. At every crucial decision point, he actively sought out yes men and women. He relentlessly pursued people who told him what he wanted to hear, who would do as he ordered. How else does Steve Bannon ever get close to power?
Trump did it.
All of it.
He told the lies about voter fraud. He gave a speech on election night saying he won. His name was on all the bullshit lawsuits. He allowed Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani to represent him. He threatened to blow up the Department of Justice to set up a sham investigation.
Trump told Eastman to push the fraudulent false electors scheme.
Trump dangled pardons for those who conspired with him.
Trump attacked and targeted Mike Pence.
Trump summoned the mob.
Trump pointed them at the Capitol and told them to fight.
Rachel Maddow discussed the revelation that Trump kept his plan to march to the Capitol on 1/6 a secret from the U.S. government.
“... it was the plan all along for Trump to tell them unexpectedly that they should leave that rally site and walk to the congress. Walk to the U.S. Capitol building across town where congress was meeting to count the electoral votes. That had not been put in the rally application, that was not been something that was discussed in the upper echelons at all, to make a movement like that safe, or anything approaching safe, it was going to be a surprise.
“The rally organizers were told; people like Mike Lindell were told that these were the president’s secret plans. But the actual government was not told. Because they knew in advance that if those agencies had a word out they would try to stop it. So this was a private plant among the president and the people he was using to summon the crowds to Washington. One that needed to be kept secret from the government because of course what it was, was a plan for a physical overthrow of the government.
“Trump’s call for the crowd to march to the Capitol wasn’t spontaneous. Trump always planned to get his supporters to attack the Capitol. The rally was held to mobilize his supporters in Washington to stop the election from being certified for Joe Biden.”
The point of the rally was to turn the people who responded to his call into an army to use to attack the Capitol, and it was all planned by Trump.
“Donald Trump directed and coordinated all of it.”
There is a clear case for Trump to be charged with sedition. He alone was the author of the entire thing.
Trump did all of it.
If any of you free subscribers want to give me a birthday present, signing up for “two Ventes a month” would be just the thing to keep things going here.
Comments are for the Paid Subscribers.
Excellent, cognizant summary, TC. It’s difficult keeping things organized when it’s such an inflammatory, intense subject. Who in the sam heck ever thought such fiction into reality?
I especially appreciated the testimony from Stephen Ayres at the Tuesday, Jan 6th Committee hearing. He went to Washington DC on Jan 6th as he felt it his duty, called by “his” president. He did not expect the call to march to Capitol, but he went along. He did not know the plan to overcome police and enter the Capitol. He went along. He followed tweets and commands coming in from “his president”. He left following command to “go home”.
But charged, he has lost job and home. He alluded to difficulty of being de-programmed and leaving social media. No self deprecating remarks. Pretty straight forward and perhaps accurate snapshot representation of thousands of people there that day.
Unita.🗽
Weeks ahead of January 6 my Trumpie sister told us ( her 4 sisters) to " get ready", that something big was happening. She felt it was her duty to warn us. We dismissed it as right wing social media Kracken stuff. But, even she was surprised by the level of violence on Jan6, though she then backtracked to maintain it was just a " tour".
Lots of ordinary people like Stephen Ayres and my sister got caught up into the Trump vortex. I think Ayres' presence at the hearings represents the reality that the violent extremism has moved way out of organized groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys and has spawned individuals who now feel it is legitimate for them to take their own violent action for the sake of the trumpian cause of distorted patriotism.
Everyone keeps saying Trump is just a symptom but once he got the power of the presidency he became the prime instigator of so much destruction.
I am so tired of having to live in a world made unsafe by the out of control egos of sociopathic, dysfunctional males like tfg and his ilk. I think it was Bannon who, in one of his online rants, talked about how Trump was on his way to making himself King and then " no more elections", no more fear of losing. I thought the whole idea was to get away from crazy Kings like George III........
Trump can never, ever be allowed even to run for any public office again!