The January 6 Capitol riot hearings are devolving in the media as you’d expect. FOX News millstone Tucker (“Typo”) Carlson managed to find someone who called the violence “a clear hoax”.
All hoaxes, apparently, have death tolls. They said much the same thing about Sandy Hook. Carlson also complained about being lectured by “our moral inferiors”. …And so on. (How the hell can anyone, including a house brick, be morally inferior to FOX News?)
In a word, “Meh”.
This hearing isn’t about political spin. It’s certainly not about a simplistic scripted political vocabulary that refuses to process facts. The hearing is about a deliberate attempt to overturn the legal process of certifying an election with violence.
The hearing started with a Republican saying the hearing would see evidence of a plan to prevent the transfer of presidential power. The news so far indicates that Congress members and Trump are definitely not on the same page on any subject related to Jan. 6. Congress for some reason didn’t – and still doesn’t – like the idea of having a mob with zip ties calling for executions in the building.
Ivanka Trump meanwhile has been making a small forest of headlines. Most of the headlines relate to her not believing in Trump’s electoral fraud claim. Her testimony is extremely relevant in terms of real time developments on January 6. This is about who did what and when, and it’s pretty much an eyewitness account.
What could have happened on January 6? Yet another national disaster.
The sheer idiocy and irresponsibility of the riots is the key. The January 6 riots never had any chance of success. People were always going to get hurt. If the rioters had entered Congressional premises, the Congress could have called for troops. (It eventually did have troops sleeping in the building.) The bloodshed could have been much worse in any further escalation.
On the national level, overturning the election would never have been accepted anyway. Nationwide spread of violence may or may not have occurred, but a massive backlash, a counter-demonstration at the Capitol, would have been the absolute minimum response.
You could have had two groups of rioters fighting each other in the Capitol building. You’d probably have had dead bodies all over the place.
As an aesthetic representation of the utter inelegance of Trump’s “presidency” (110 days spent playing golf is a presidency?) this vision of venality would have been apt. As a way of electing an American president, definitely not.
Worse by far – If the election result was overturned, another 4 years of Little Donny Disaster would have ensued.
I’ve seen American presidents hated, loathed, and ridiculed worldwide. …But I’ve never seen an American president so utterly despised by the rest of the world. Trump dragged America through the sewer. He lied on record tens of thousands of times in a few years. He insulted allies on a routine basis. Many of those allies have been fighting in America’s wars for generations. They didn’t appreciate it.
Putin was his friend, despite indictments of 12 Russian operatives for interfering in a US election in 2016 and Russia’s track record around the world. He gave Afghanistan to the Taliban, at the cost of a lot of American lives over many years. America didn’t even have to negotiate, but he did, and achieved that. The Taliban couldn’t have done it without him. Even Kim Jong Un treated him like a fool.
January 6 was the defining moment of Donald Trump. A predestined failure, which could only have got worse, not better. He threatened and verbally attacked so many people. The riot would also be effectively treason under US Federal law. That’s what “sedition” means, and it’s what several members of the Proud Boys are charged with.
The apparent line of defense is that Jan. 6 never happened. The election was fraudulent, and Georgia isn’t investigating Trump’s actions on that day. Donny boy is peachy keen according to FOX. It’s only just about everyone who’s worked with him or had to clean up after him who have had a problem, so everything’s sweet.
Which leads to the rather apt question – “So what?” What does such blatant drivel have to do with anything? When does the fan get hit?
Trump’s trail of destruction through his business life and presidency from 2016 to 2020 says it all. Denial won’t work. There’s no point in telling anyone it didn’t happen. All this is a matter of public record. Trump put it on record himself. The buzzards are coming home to roost.
The moral of the story is “Live by the BS, die by the BS.” Sooner or later, it will happen.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
