Trump's Putsch to overturn our election was American
fascism's most powerful assault on our Constitution.
So far.
Trump's Big Lie and
violent mob of terrorists ended the nations proud history of peaceful
transition of power.
Instead of abandoning and denouncing Trump, the
Republican Party deflects and turns away, or openly embraces the perpetrators. The poison of
the Big Lie continues to rot out the core of the republic as a Republican tool
to seize party control of elections. What remains of a representative
democratic republic to slowly suffocated to death.
American ideals like consent of the governed and the will
of the people are not the values of the radical Right, They are fascists.
Taking and holding political power by force, as it dismantles
democratic representation, is how fascism strangles a republic.
What it was:
Insurrection: an act or instance of revolting against
civil authority or an established government.
Merriam-Webster- Coup d'état: a sudden decisive
exercise of force in politics, especially the violent overthrow or
alteration of an existing government by a small group.
Merriam Webster- Terrorism: the unlawful use or threat of
violence especially against the state or the public as a politically motivated
means of attack or coercion
(FBI) Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts
committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming
from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social,
racial, or environmental nature.
United States military’s Guide to Terrorism in the 21st
Century defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat
of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate
governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political,
religious or ideological.”
Under the Terrorism Act 2000 terrorism is currently
defined as “the use or threat [of action] designed to influence the government
or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and the use or threat
is made for the purposes of advancing a political, religious or ideological
cause.”
What is is:
Fascism.
American Heritage Dictionary Definition
“A system of government marked by centralization of
authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent
governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a
policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. A political philosophy or
movement based on or advocating such a system of government. Oppressive,
dictatorial control.”
And:
"Fascism is not a specific ideological system with
particular content. It's just a strategy for taking power and maintaining power
against the rule of law, and against the majority in a democracy." -
Rep. Jamie Raskin
Orwell’s conclusion on fascists, from his 1944 piece,
“What is Fascism?”
By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something
cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and
anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist
sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for
‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has
come.
~~~~
Sean Illing:
When you use the term “fascism,” what exactly do you
mean?
Madeleine Albright:
Well, first of all, I’m troubled by how thoughtlessly
people throw around that term. At this point, anybody who disagrees with us is
a fascist.
In the book, I try to argue that fascism is not an
ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power. A fascist is somebody
who identifies with one group — usually an aggrieved majority — in opposition
to a smaller group. It’s about majority rule without any minority rights. Which
is why fascists tend to single out the smaller group as being responsible for
or the cause of their grievances.
The important thing is that fascists aren’t actually
trying to solve problems; they’re invested in exacerbating problems and
deepening the divisions that result from them. They reject the free press and
denounce the institutional structures within a society — like Congress or the
judiciary.
I’d also add that violence is a crucial element of
fascism. Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of
violence to achieve political goals and stay in power. It’s a bully with an
army, really.
~~~~~
Timeline: January 6, 2021, an American fascist coup.
8:17 a.m.: Trump tweets: "States want to correct
their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus
corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do
is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for
extreme courage!"
10:00 a.m.: Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally is
underway. Addressing the crowd, Donald Trump Jr. says, "If you're going to
be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you, and we're going to have a
good time doing it."
11:15 a.m.: A mile-and-a-half from the rally, a group of
200 to 300 protesters arrives at the Capitol reflecting pool area near the west
side of the building.
10:50 a.m.: Speaking at the rally, Trump's personal
lawyer Rudy Giuliani says, "Let's have trial by combat."
Noon: Trump begins to address the mob and continues
speaking for more than an hour.
"We will never give up. We will never concede.
It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved."
"We won this election, and we won it by a landslide.
This was not a close election."
"I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I
hope so. I hope so, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the
election… All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to
recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people."
12:30 p.m.: As Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) enters the Capitol
for the joint session of Congress that will certify Biden's election, he gives
a thumbs up, a fist pump, and a wave to Trump's mob.
1:00 p.m.: While Trump continues his rant to the mob,
some members of Trump's crowd have already reached the US Capitol building
where Congress assembles in joint session to certify President-elect Joe
Biden's victory. An initial wave of protesters storms the outer barricade west
of the Capitol building. As the congressional proceedings begin, Pence reads a
letter saying that he won't intervene in Congress's electoral count: "My
oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming
unilateral authority."
1:09 p.m.: DC Capitol Police Chief Sund tells his
superiors – House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms
Michael Stenger — that he wants an emergency declaration and to call in the
National Guard.
1:11 p.m.: Trump ends his speech by urging his followers
to march down Pennsylvania Avenue: "We fight like hell. If you don't fight
like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore… Our exciting adventures
and boldest endeavors have not yet begun… We're going to the Capitol. We're going
to try and give them [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they
need to take back our country."
The Attack
If the District of Columbia were a state, its governor
alone could have deployed the National Guard to crush the riot. Instead, Trump
and his Defense Department had that responsibility, and an unprecedent assault
on a sacred institution of government succeeded, if only for a few hours.
(DoD Memo) 1:26 p.m.: The Capitol Police orders the
evacuation of the Capitol complex.
Among those later arrested is Federico Klein, who is a US
State Department political appointee with a top-secret security clearance. In
March 2021, Klein, a former Trump campaign employee before joining the State
Department in January 2017, is charged with numerous felonies that include
storming the Capitol and assaulting an officer with a riot shield.
1:30 p.m.: The crowd outside the building grows larger,
eventually overtaking the Capitol Police and making its way up the Capitol
steps. Suspicious packages – later confirmed to be pipe bombs – are found at
Republican National Committee headquarters and Democratic National Committee
headquarters in Washington.
As the attack unfolds, Trump is initially pleased
and disregards aides pleading with him to intercede. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE)
later says that, according to Trump aides, he is "delighted," while
"walking around the White House confused about why other people on his
team [are]n't as excited." Trump initially rebuffs and resists requests to
mobilize the National Guard.
(DoD Memo) 1:34 p.m.: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asks
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy – who reports to Miller – for more federal help to
deal with the mob.
Bowser is told that the request must first come from the
Capitol Police.
(DoD Memo) 1:49 p.m.: The Capitol Police chief asks the
commanding general of the DC National Guard for immediate assistance.
*The commanding general, Maj. Gen. William Walker, later
testifies that he immediately notifies Army senior leadership of the request.
The previous day, he had received an unusual restriction on deploying any quick
reaction force service members unless Army secretary McCarthy explicitly
approves is. Anticipating such approval, Walker begins to move National Guard
members closer to the Capitol.
Also at 1:49 p.m.: Trump retweets a video of the rally,
which includes his previous statements that: "our country has had enough.
We will not take it anymore and that's what this is all about. To use a
favorite term that all of you came up with, we will stop the steal. . . You'll
never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you
have to be strong."
1:59 p.m.: Sund receives the first report that rioters
have reached the Capitol's doors and windows and are attempting to break at
least one window.
2:10 p.m.: Text and email alerts to all congressional
staff warn those inside to stay away from windows and those outside to seek
cover.
2:11 p.m.: Trump's mob breaches the Capitol building –
breaking windows, climbing inside, and opening doors for others to follow.
2:13 p.m.: Pence suddenly leaves the Senate floor and is
moved to a nearby office.
2:14 p.m.: Rioters chase DC Capitol Police officer Eugene
Goodman up a flight of stairs and arrive on the landing near the office where
Pence and his family are hiding. Goodman runs in the opposite direction –
luring them away from Pence and the Senate chamber.
2:18 p.m.: Another text alert goes out to Capitol staff:
"Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take
emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter."
Around 2:20 p.m.: Hiding in a barricaded room, members of
Congress and their aides make pleas for outside help. Among them is a senior
adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who reaches a former
law firm colleague, Will Levi. Levi had served as Attorney General William
Barr's chief of staff. From his home, Levi then calls FBI Deputy Director David
Bowdich at the command center in the FBI's Washington field office. Bowdich
dispatches the first of three tactical teams to the Capitol, including one from
the Washington field office and another from Baltimore.
During the attack: Among the members of Congress
appealing directly to Trump for help is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
(R-CA). According to a later statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA),
"When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to
publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the
falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol. McCarthy refuted
that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when,
according to McCarthy, the president said: 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people
are more upset about the election than you are.'" [Emphasis in original]
(DoD Memo) 2:22 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy discusses
the situation at the Capitol with Mayor Bowser and her staff.
They are begging for additional National Guard
assistance. Note the time. It's been almost an hour since Bowser requested
help.
2:24 p.m.: Trump tweets: "Mike Pence didn't have the
courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our
Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not
the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify.
USA demands the truth!"
After erecting a gallows on the Capitol grounds, the mob
shouts, "Hang Mike Pence." Rioters create another noose from a camera
cord seized during an attack on an on-site news team.
2:26 p.m.: While the senators are in a temporary holding
room after the Senate chamber is evacuated, Trump tries to call Sen. Tommy
Tuberville (R-AL), but mistakenly reaches Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who hands the
phone to Tuberville. Trump then tries to convince Tuberville to make additional
objections to the Electoral College vote in an effort to block Congress'
certification of Biden's win. The call is cut off because senators are asked to
move to a secure location. "Mr. President, they've taken the vice
president out," Tuberville says. "They want me to get off the phone,
I gotta go.'"
2:26 p.m.: Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund joins a conference
call with several officials from the DC government, as well as officials from
the Pentagon, including Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff.
Piatt later issues a statement denying the statements attributed to him.
"I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for
National Guard assistance," Sund says. "I have got to get boots on
the ground."
The DC contingent is flabbergasted when Piatt says that
he could not recommend that his boss, Army Secretary McCarthy, approve the
request. "I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police
line with the Capitol in the background," Piatt says. Again and again,
Sund says that the situation is dire.
The commanding general of the DC National Guard, Maj.
Gen. William Walker, later testifies that the call includes Lt. Gen Charles
Flynn – brother of former national security Mike Flynn, whom Trump pardoned
after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during the special counsel
investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump
campaign. Piatt and Flynn relay to Walker: "It wouldn't be their best
military advice to send uniformed guardsmen to the Capitol because they didn't
like the optics. And they had also said that it could 'inflame' [the
protesters]."
2:28 p.m.: Rioters storm House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
(D-CA) suite of offices, pounding the doors trying to find her.
(D0D Memo) 2:30 p.m.: Miller, Army Secretary McCarthy,
and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff meet to discuss Mayor Bowser's
request.
2:33 p.m.: A broadcast on the emergency management agency
channel in DC requests that all law enforcement officers in the city respond to
the Capitol.
2:42 p.m.: As lawmakers are evacuating the House chamber
using the Speaker's Lobby, rioters breach the Lobby threshold.
2:52 p.m.: The first FBI SWAT team enters the Capitol.
2:53 p.m.: The last of a large group of House members has
been evacuated and is headed for a secure location.
(DoD Memo) 3:04 p.m.: Miller gives "verbal
approval" to full mobilization of the DC National Guard (1,100 members).
It has now been more than 90 minutes since Mayor Bowser
first asked Army Secretary McCarthy for assistance. It took an hour for Defense
Department officials to meet and another half-hour for them to decide to help.
And Bowser still doesn't know the status of her request.
(Memo) 3:19 p.m.: Pelosi and Schumer call Army Secretary
McCarthy, who says that Bowser's request has now been approved.
(Memo) 3:26 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy calls Bowser to
tell her that her request for help has been approved.
The Defense Department's notification of approval to
Bowser came two hours after her request.
While Miller and his team were slow-walking Mayor
Bowser's request, she had sought National Guard assistance from Virginia
Governor Ralph Northam (D) and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R). At about the
same time, Speaker Pelosi called Northam directly for help and he agreed.
3:29 p.m.: Governor Northam announces mobilization of
Virginia's National Guard. But there's a hitch. Federal law requires Defense
Department authorization before any state's National Guard can cross the state
border onto federal land in DC. That approval doesn't come until almost two
hours later.
(DoD Memo) 3:47 p.m. Governor Hogan mobilizes his state's
National Guard and 200 state troopers.
The Defense Department "repeatedly denies"
Hogan's request to deploy the National Guard at the Capitol. As he awaits
approval, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) calls Hogan from the
undisclosed bunker to which he, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D-NY) have been evacuated. Hoyer pleads for assistance, saying that
the Capitol Police is overwhelmed and there is no federal law enforcement
presence.
4:17 p.m.: Trump tweets a video telling rioters, "I
know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us.
It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side…
It's a very tough period of time. There's never been a time like this where
such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us — from me,
from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play
into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you.
You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are
treated that are so bad and so evil."
(DoD Memo) 4:18 p.m.: Miller gives voice approval to
notifying surrounding states to muster and be prepared to mobilize their
National Guard personnel.
(DoD Memo) 4:32 p.m.: Miller gives verbal authorization
to "re-mission" DC National Guard from city posts where most have
been directing traffic and monitoring subway stations "to conduct
perimeter and clearance operations" in support of the Capitol Police
force.
4:40 p.m.: More than 90 minutes after Governor Hogan had
requested federal approval to send his state's National Guard troops to DC,
Army Secretary McCarthy calls and asks, "Can you come as soon as
possible?" Hogan responds, "Yeah. We've been waiting. We're
ready."
5:08 p.m.: More than three hours after Maj. Gen. Walker's
request for approval to deploy the National Guard at the Capitol, he receives
approval.
5:20 p.m.: After being ready for hours, 155 members
of the National Guard arrive at the Capitol. According to Maj. Gen. Walker's
later testimony, earlier assistance "could have made a difference" in
pushing back the crowd.
(DoD Memo) 5:45 p.m.: Miller signs formal authorization
for out-of-state National Guard personnel to muster and gives voice approval
for deployment to support the Capitol Police.
The first Maryland National Guard personnel don't arrive
at the Capitol until January 7 at 10:00 a.m. The first Virginia National Guard
members arrive at Noon.
6:01 p.m.: Trump tweets: "These are the things and
events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so
unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been
badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace.
Remember this day forever!"
7:00 p.m.: Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,
intends to call Sen. Tuberville but, like Trump five hours earlier, he reaches
Sen. Lee. Unaware that he has reached the wrong number,
Giuliani leaves a voicemail message saying, "Sen.
Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the
President's lawyer. I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how
they're trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican
friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get
more information to you. I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the
only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so
that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow."
When Congress resumes the session at 8:06 p.m.,
Tuberville votes in favor of objections to certifying Biden's election.
(DoD Memo) 8:00 p.m.: The DC Capitol Police declare the
Capitol building secure.
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