After more than a year and a half of investigating, and just weeks before Republicans take control of the House, it’s finally here: The January 6 Select Committee’s final report.
The depth and breadth of the madness pervading the Trump administration is staggering to me.
You look at all of this, and you recall that the GOP’s rebuttal to all of this will be an investigation into security measures taken (or not) at the Capitol on that January 6th. Get ready for that one, y’all!
How easy will that one be for Dems to reply to? “Hmm, GOPers–what led up to these people marching to and then storming the Capitol in the first place?”–and then point to this report.
The GOP is in an awkward position: Gee folks we really need to prepare better for the next time we sell people a lie that gets them so angry they march on the Capitol.
Kudos to Josh Kovensky and John Light for their all-night journalism!
FIFY.
They must be dealt with now!
Random thoughts:
—What a massive success the J6 Committee has been. Truly, they uncovered profound evidence throughout of what happened and presented it to the public in “must-see TV” that in retrospect did an amazing job of creating the narrative that will stick in the public mind, despite the complexities of all that happened.
—The J6 Committee demolished the efforts of Republicans to put the focus on “antifa,” present the assaulters of the Capitol as “tourists,” or both-sides the J6 attacks as equivalent to the Black Lives Matter marches. Just think of all the evasions that have been attempted—from lionizing Ashley Babbitt to presenting the imprisoned J6 attackers as political prisoners. Only a few crazy people now believe these things.
—The J6 Committee lit the fire under the DOJ. We don’t know what would have happened or not happened had the Committee not done their significant work, but the hearings, especially, made it impossible for the DOJ to roll up the foot soldiers and call it a day. I like to think the DOJ was right there the entire way, but who knows?
—Cassidy Hutchinson, though deluded or foolish to have gotten in with the Trumpists, deserves huge credit for her decency and bravery in standing up for the truth. Total agreement with the comment I read yesterday that warned the Trump people never should have trusted her. When she didn’t know what to do, she looked for an analogous figure and landed on Alexander Butterfield of the Nixon administration and read, and re-read, his book, took notes on his book. I’m searching my mind for any mention of reading a book in the entire Trump administration. That’s the only one I can recall offhand.
—Should not get distracted by the lack of Ginni Thomas in the report. The Committee was focused on what they could prove, and while there was smoke around Ginni, which we should not forget, there was not ultimately any substantial fire uncovered. Just the way it goes.
Absolutely crazy and stupid at the same time. And to think that they thought they could pull it off — and almost did. Absolutely mind blowing.
The unreality-Cult-Land these people live in, told them that their sitting vice president had the authority and the power to unilaterally choose himself and his ticket-mate as the winners, completely ignoring the votes of not only 81 million democratic voters, but also 74 million R-voters.
Add to that: When Eastman was asked if Kamala Harris could then do the same thing in January, 2025, he answered “no.”
And it’s not just the fury of the moment of losing an election which made them act this way. They STILL believe that only they (and nobody else) have the constitutional authority to do it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your 2022 “Law-and-Order Party.”
Also, we know that Trump talked with RNC head McDaniel about her assistance in the fake-elector scheme.
And one of the idiots who carried this out actually called their electors “fake.”
This was not a few rogue actors. This came from the top(s) eschelons of the R-party and soaked through all the way to the bottom.
The Republican Party was actively engaged in overthrowing the government. This is not hyperbole nor an opinion. Mitt must be so proud of his niece. His family is starting to resemble a mafia crime family. To think that his father was somewhat of an honorable man.
To go from that to Ronna in two generations. What a shame.
Maybe it is in the report, but I go back to the deposition of Mayra Rodriguez, a fake Michigan elector, who on pages 27 and 28 said that a Monica Palmer said the president had spoke to her. While Rodriguez could not be 100 percent certain, she thought Palmer had said she was introduced to the president in that phone call by Ronna McDaniel.
It looks to me as though Ronna was making the calls to key swing-state figures she knew as the connector of Trump to these people.
Per the report, Eastman and Trump spoke over the phone for 23 minutes on Dec. 23, 2020 — the same day that the right-wing attorney drafted a memo outlining the theory.
Footnotes to the report say that Eastman also spoke with Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn the same day, and also had lengthy calls with Chesebro.
Now we see the precise reasons behind all those “fifth” pleadings…
Eastman knows he broke the law. And he knows he was in conspiracy with Trump at the time.
I had to read takeaway #3 twice before I comprehended that argument. I figured I hadn’t had enough coffee yet. So the plan was that they could just claim to be fighting “socialism” and get away with anything and everything?
Just bizarre.
Can this really all go back to a drunk Giuliani, on election night, gurgling “Just say we won” over and over again, to Trump?
The GQP rebuttal will be full of lies and misinformation, which will get far more airplay than any efforts to publish and announce the truth.
First on the list will be the accusation that Pelosi failed to secure the Capitol.
I suspect the focus will be on the “politicization” of the Committee, and its “oranges.” Just like the Mueller report. (The GQP always goes with its golden oldies.)
That Powell convinced trump that Hugo Chavez, who is still dead, was “fixing” Dominion voting machines says to me all anyone should need to know about trump’s competence.
I’m guessing the DOJ will be eager to speak with Ginni Thomas in front of a Grand Jury.