It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that I watched online at pbs.org Wednesday’s televised hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The testimony and video footage were gripping. I frequently closed my eyes during the scenes of police officers being repeatedly assaulted by — there’s no other word for them — thugs. They certainly were not patriots.
What I didn’t realize at the time was the weeks-long orchestration behind the assault, having generally dismissed the chaotic predictions that “All hell is going to break loose,” according to rabble rouser Steve Bannon. I had assumed the gathering was called for President Donald Trump to present his swan song before he officially transferred the presidency to Joe Biden.
Boy, was I wrong.
I still have a hard time understanding the crowd’s willingness to attempt the coup all on the directive of one man.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Trump lost the election — even his daughter, Ivanka, said as much when called to testify before the Congressional committee — the crowd took Trump’s word that the election had been stolen from him. Blind loyalty is indeed dangerous.
During the interim of Jan. 6 and today, it’s since been discovered that Trump has spent millions of dollars in campaign funds to spread the lie even further that the election was rigged.
Under oath, William Barr, his former attorney general, said Trump’s claims were “bull****.”
“And I didn’t want to be a part of it, and that’s one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did.” Barr resigned Dec. 23, 2020.
Barr was not alone. In the aftermath of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, dozens of Trump’s cabinet members and administrators resigned in protest, even though it was only 14 days before Biden took office, including Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation, Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff, Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services and Robert O’Brien, National Security Advisor.
OTHER THAN the police officers, the other hero to emerge on Jan. 6, 2021, was former Vice President Mike Pence, whose job was to officially certify the Electoral College vote count validating Biden’s overwhelming victory.
Trump had pressured Pence to block the counting of the votes and during the rally leading up to the riot told participants as much.
When the rioters had moved to the Capitol grounds, they erected a gallows complete with a noose. Chants of “Hang Mike Pence” pierced the air.
Aware of the rioters’ chants, Trump, safely ensconced in the White House, responded, “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it,” according to last week’s testimony.
Pence regarded Trump’s request as nothing short of treason, saying “there is almost no idea more un-American.”
“Trump is wrong,” Pence said at a Federalist Society event in Florida this past February. “I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone.”
THAT PENCE stood up to Trump at such a critical juncture will go down in history as saving our democracy.
