“We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.”
– Liz Cheney

“Every American must consider this. Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”
– Liz Cheney

“No person is above the law in this country.”
– Attorney General Merrick Garland

By Glynn Wilson –

If you were looking for a historical analogy to describe what Donald Trump did on January 6, 2021, you might compare Trump to Nero. But that would not go far enough.

According to his biographer Suetonius, the Roman emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus “practiced every sort of obscenity,” ranging from incest to cruelty to animals to homicide. Nero was such a bad guy, in fact, that he may very well have been the first Antichrist in the Christian tradition, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, not known for zany conspiracy theories.

But did Nero actually fiddle while Rome burned? In strictest terms, no. In slightly less strict terms, probably not. In very loose terms, perhaps so.

Ancient tradition says that Nero was so moved by the sight of the great fire that swept across the capital of his empire in the summer of 64 CE that he climbed to the top of the city walls and declaimed from a now-lost epic poem concerning the destruction of Troy. It is said that he wept copiously while reciting lines describing the conflagration that the Greeks put to the fallen city of Troy. Suetonius tells us that Nero wore theatrical garb to fit the occasion, while the later historian Dio Cassius added the detail that Nero dressed in “cithara player’s garb.” The cithara was a forerunner of the lute, which in turn gave rise to the modern guitar.

What Trump did was far worse. At least Nero loved Rome, and was sad to see it burn. Trump clearly hates American democracy, and will go to any lengths to destroy it.

You don’t have to believe me. Look at new reporting just out from Axios, a news website started by two of the editors who were involved in creating Politico but left in disagreement to start the newer site.

A radical plan for Trump’s second term

Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios.

The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say.

During his presidency, Trump often complained about what he called “the deep state.”

The heart of the plan is derived from an executive order known as “Schedule F,” developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump’s term and launched 13 days before the 2020 election.

Hearing Eight Summary

As a mob of his supporters assaulted the Capitol, former President Donald J. Trump sat in his dining room off the Oval Office watching the violence on television and chose to do nothing for hours to stop it, according to testimony from many former administration officials loyal to Trump before the eighth hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. The committee is also looking into Trump’s role in leading a seditious conspiracy to overturn democracy and incite an insurrection to lead to a coup to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.

“In a final public hearing of the summer and one of the most dramatic of the inquiry, the panel provided a panoramic account of how, even as the lives of law enforcement officers, members of Congress and his own vice president were under threat, Mr. Trump could not be moved to act until after it was clear that the riot had failed to disrupt Congress’s session to confirm his election defeat,” according to coverage in the national newspaper of record, The New York Times.

“Even then, the committee showed in never-before-seen footage from the White House, Mr. Trump privately refused to concede — “I don’t want to say the election’s over!” he angrily told aides as he recorded a video message that had been scripted for him the day after the attack — or to condemn the assault on the Capitol as a crime.”

To corroborate the Times version of the story, here’s what The Washington Post reported on deadline.

Trump ‘chose not to act’ as mob stormed Capitol, committee says

House member Elaine Luria of Virginia, who led much of the questioning on Thursday night in prime time, said and tweeted that Trump was clearly “responsible for the attack on the Capitol.”

“President Trump did not offer a stern rebuke of the rioters as they continued their attack on the Capitol,” she said. “Instead, he told them he loved them.”

President Trump did not offer a stern rebuke of the rioters as they continued their attack on the Capitol.

Instead, he told them he loved them.

— Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) July 22, 2022

For the record, Elaine Luria is also a native of Birmingham, Alabama, now also making a difference in the world.

House member Adam Kinzinger, a veteran along with Luria, also questioned witnesses, and concluded.

“The (electoral college) count ground to an absolute halt and was ultimately delayed for hours. The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he didn’t intervene,” Kinzinger said in his closing statement. “President Trump did not fail to act… He chose not to act.”

Multiple witnesses told the committee that Trump did not call the Defense, Justice or Homeland Security departments — or any other agency — to coordinate a response as the attack unfolded. Instead, Trump was calling Republican senators to urge them to object to the electoral vote count.

“For 187 minutes on Jan. 6, this man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved,” Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, the Democrat from Mississippi, said in opening remarks. “Not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chance of rioters, or the desperate pleas of those facing down the mob. He could not be moved.”

Thursday night’s presentation unprecedented in the history of Congress is the culmination of weeks of gripping public hearings designed to document for the public, and for history, the relentless efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election — efforts that led to a violent mob assaulting the Capitol in a desperate bid to stop the election’s final certification.

Using testimony from some of Trump’s top aides — including his deputy national security adviser, his top lawyer, his spokeswoman and others — the committee on Thursday accused the president of having been derelict in his duty to protect Congress, saying he did nothing to help for more than three hours as he watched the attack play out live on television from just outside the Oval Office.

The accusation of inaction by Trump in the face of a threat to one of the country’s democratic institutions was the final piece of a narrative they insist Americans and the Department of Justice must not ignore. And it represented the most direct attempts by the bipartisan members of the committee to lay responsibility for the day’s assault on democracy.

Key Developments

A White House national security official, testifying anonymously, said that members of the vice president’s security detail at the Capitol were “screaming” as they tried to get the vice president out of the building safely and were so worried about their safety that they radioed goodbyes to their family members. “On the ground, the vice president’s detail thought that this was about to get very ugly,” the witness said.

Two people on Thursday night backed up testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, about Trump’s demands to go to the Capitol with protesters. A national security aide said the protest would have become an “insurrection, coup, whatever” if the president had been allowed to go. A retired D.C. police officer who was part of the president’s motorcade, said he was told there was a “heated argument” about whether to go.

In live testimony, two of Trump’s aides said they resigned after being horrified by the president’s tweet criticizing Vice President Mike Pence during the attack on the Capitol. Matthew Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser under Mr. Trump, and Sarah Matthews, the deputy press secretary, both said the tweet was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Although Thursday’s hearing had been expected to be a capstone in the series of hearings throughout June and July, Mr. Thompson said the panel plans to reconvene for more hearings in September as it continues its investigation and works toward the release of a preliminary report.

Other Key Quotes from Statements by Committee Members

Chair Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi

“Over the last month and a half, the Select Committee has told the story of a President who did everything in his power to overturn an election,” Thompson said. “He lied. He bullied. He betrayed his oath. He tried to destroy our democratic institutions.

“He summoned a mob to Washington,” he said. “Afterward, on January 6th, when he knew that the assembled mob was heavily armed and angry, he commanded the mob to go to the Capitol. And he emphatically commanded the heavily armed mob ‘TO FIGHT LIKE HELL.’

“For the weeks between the November election and January 6th, Donald Trump was a force to be reckoned with. He shrugged off the factually and legally correct sober advice of his knowledgeable and sensible advisors,” he continued. “Instead, he recklessly blazed a path of lawlessness and corruption; the costs of which democracy be damned!”

“For 187 minutes on January 6th, this man of unbridled, destructive energy could not be moved—not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters or the desperate pleas of those facing down the riot,” he continued. “And more tellingly, Donald Trump ignored and disregarded the desperate pleas of his own family, including Ivanka and Don Jr. Even though he was the only person in the world who could call off the mob he sent to the Capitol, he could not be moved to rise from his dining room table and walk the few steps down the White House hallway into the Press Briefing Room. Where cameras were anxiously and desperately waiting to carry his message to the armed and violent mob savagely beating and killing law enforcement officers, revenging the Capitol, and hunting down the Vice President and various members of Congress. He could not be moved.”

***

“We also remind you of what was happening at the Capitol, minute by minute, as the final, violent, tragic part of Donald Trump’s scheme to cling to power unraveled while he ignored his advisors, stood by, and watched it unfold on television.”

***

“But as that work goes forward, a number of facts are clear. There can be no doubt that there was a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn an election overseen and directed by Donald Trump. There can be no doubt that he commanded a mob—a mob he knew was heavy-armed, violent, and angry—to march on the Capitol to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. And he made targets out of his own Vice President, and the lawmakers gathered to do the people’s work. These facts have gone undisputed,” Thompson continued.

“And so, there needs to be accountability. Accountability under the law. Accountability to the American people,” he said. “Accountability at every level: from the local precincts in many states where Donald Trump and his allies attacked election workers for just doing their jobs. All the way up to the Oval Office where Donald Trump embraced the illegal advice of insurrectionists that a federal court judge has said was ‘a coup in search of a legal theory.’”

“Our democracy withstood the attack of January 6th,” he concluded. “If there is no accountability for January 6th—for every part of this scheme—I fear that we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy. There must be stiff consequences for those responsible.”

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming

“Today, we know far more about the President’s plans and actions to overturn the election than almost all members of Congress did when President Trump was impeached on January 13, 2021, or when he was tried by the Senate in February of that year, (when) 57 of 100 Senators voted to convict President Trump at that time, and more than 20 others said they were voting against conviction because the President’s term had already expired.”

“At the time, the Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate said this about Donald Trump, she said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reached those conclusions based on what he knew then, without any of the much more detailed evidence presented in Thursdays hearing.

“Lawlessness and violence began at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 before 1 p.m. and continued until well after darkness fell,” McConnell said in the Senate floor. “What exactly was our Commander in Chief doing during the hours of violence?”

Cheney pointed out that we already knew Trump’s goal – to halt or delay Congress’ official proceedings to count certified electoral votes … to pressure his Vice President to illegally reject votes and delay the proceedings … to convince state officials and state legislatures to flip their electoral votes from Biden to Trump … Trump tried to corrupt our Department of Justice to aid his scheme.

“But by January 6th, none of that had worked,” she said. “Only one thing was succeeding on the afternoon of January 6th. Only one thing was achieving President Trump’s goal. The angry armed mob President Trump sent to the Capitol broke through security, invaded the Capitol, and forced the vote counting to stop. That mob was violent and destructive. And many came armed … Secret Service Agents protecting the Vice President were exceptionally concerned about his safety, and their own…. Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was scared. As were others in Congress, even those who themselves helped provoke the violence.

“Donald Trump’s own White House Counsel, his own White House staff, and members of his own family, all implored him to immediately intervene, to condemn the violence, and instruct his supporters to stand down and leave the Capitol, and disperse,” she continued. “For multiple hours, he would not. Donald Trump would not get on the phone and order the military or law enforcement agencies to help. And, for hours, Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party, and from all across our nation to do what his oath required. He refused to defend our nation and our Constitution. He refused to do what every American President must.”

House Member Elain Luria of Virginia

“Article II of our Constitution requires that the President swear a very specific oath every four years. Every President swears or affirms to ‘faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States’ and, to the best of their ability, ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ The President also assumes the Constitutional duty to ‘take care’ that our nation’s laws be ‘faithfully executed,’ and is the ‘Commander in Chief’ of our military.”

“Our hearings have shown the many ways in which President Trump tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the days leading up to January 6th,” Luria said. “With each step of his plan, he betrayed his oath of office and was derelict in his duty.

***

“Early that afternoon, President Trump instructed tens of thousands of supporters at and near the Ellipse rally, a number of whom he knew were armed with various types of weapons, to march to the Capitol. After telling the crowd to march multiple times, he promised he would be with them, and finished his remarks at 1:10 p.m. (quotes played).

“By this time, the Vice President was in the Capitol, the Joint Session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s victory was underway, and the Proud Boys and other rioters had stormed through the first barriers and begun the attack,” she continued. “Radio communications from law enforcement informed Secret Service and those in the White House Situation Room of these developments in real time. At the direction of President Trump, thousands more rioters marched from the Ellipse to the Capitol and they joined the attack.

***

“Virtually everyone told President Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms. And those on Capitol Hill, and across the nation, begged President Trump to help,” she said. “But the former President chose not to do what all of these people begged. He refused to tell the mob to leave until 4:17, when he tweeted out a video statement filmed in the Rose Garden. By that time, two pipe bombs had been found at locations near the Capitol, including where the Vice President-elect was conducting a meeting. Hours of hand-to-hand combat had seriously injured scores of law enforcement officers. The Capitol had been invaded. The electoral count had been halted as members were evacuated,” she continued.

“Rioters took the floor of the Senate they rifled through desks, and broke into offices, and they nearly caught up to Vice President Pence. Guns were drawn on the floor of the House and a rioter was shot attempting to infiltrate the chamber. We know that a number of rioters intended acts of physical violence against specific elected officials. We know virtually all the rioters were motivated by President Trump’s rhetoric that the election had been stolen, and they felt they needed to take their country back.”

House Member Adam Kinzinger of Illinois

“One week after the attack, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledged the simple truth—President Trump should have acted immediately to stop the violence. During our investigation, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also remarked on the President’s failure to act.

***

“I can tell you that General Milley’s reaction to President Trump’s conduct is 100 percent correct, and so was Leader McCarthy’s.

“What explains President Trump’s behavior? Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis? Because President Trump’s plan for January 6th was to halt or delay Congress’ official proceeding to count the votes. The mob attacking the Capitol quickly caused the evacuation of both the House and Senate. The count ground to an absolute halt and was ultimately delayed for hours. The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he did not intervene.

Watch the hearing for yourself here on C-SPAN, not a partisan news network.

___

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