January 6th
Today in a joint Congressional session mandated by the Constitution, American leaders met to tally the electoral college votes. An archaic throwback to a time without instant communication, this meeting is a perfunctory administrative action. Not much actually happens and in the past, it was common there would be no news stories regarding the ballot counting.
Donald Trump’s terrorist supporters changed that 4 years ago.
That’s a word you don’t see often any more when describing the people who attacked the joint session of Congress in an attempt to stop the mostly ceremonial gathering - an attempt to keep Donald Trump in office via violence.
The reason you don’t often hear the word terrorism to describe what happened is because within a few short weeks the Republicans launched a successful campaign to downplay the events of that day. Were it not for those efforts, Donald Trump would not be taking office again this month.
A plethora of op-eds and newsletters have been written on the January 6th attack. Rather than waxing philosophical without giving you any new information. I’m simply going to leave you with the words of Republican leaders at the time.
They knew what this was. They knew who he was. They knew Donald Trump was a criminal threat to the United States. They knew his supporters had carried out the largest domestic terrorist attack in US history.
But in less than a month, they also knew they could rebrand what happened and face zero consequences for it.
Every Republican you are about to hear from eventually relented on their characterization of the attack, and eventually supported Donald Trump.
Ted Cruz
"It [1/6] is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol."
Kevin McCarthy
Madam Speaker -- Let me be clear: last week’s violent attack on the Capitol was undemocratic, un-American, and criminal.
Violence is never a legitimate form of protest. Freedom of speech and assembly under the Constitution is rooted in nonviolence.
Yet the violent mob that descended on this body was neither peaceful nor democratic. It acted to disrupt Congress’s constitutional responsibility.
It was also an attack on the people who work in this institution -- members, staff, and the hundreds who work behind the scenes so that we can serve the American people.
The greatest statesmen in the history of our country understood that the most dangerous threat to freedom is lawlessness.
Mitch McConnell
“January 6th was a disgrace.
American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.
Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President.
They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.
Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.
The House accused the former President of, quote, ‘incitement.’ That is a specific term from the criminal law.
Let me put that to the side for one moment and reiterate something I said weeks ago: There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.
The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President.
And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.
Lindsey Graham
If you're a conservative, this is the most offensive concept in the world that a single person could disenfranchise 155 million people.
There are plenty more where this came from, but you get the idea. The Republican Party knew this was an atrocious attack on our country orchestrated by Donald Trump. They knew it was terrorism. They knew it was profoundly immoral.
And it only took them a few weeks to realize they’d have to convince everyone none of that was true because they wouldn’t be able to stop supporting the most profoundly immoral man to ever hold office the United States - Donald Trump.
So don’t do their job for them. Do not sanitize the 1/6/2021 attack. Use the word terrorists. When you see people supporting this man or this party, ask them about the attack. Remind them the Republicans in Congress recognized it for what it was.
I only learned tonight, from the op-ed I am about to share with you, that Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to put up a plaque honoring the 140 police officers attacked by Trump’s supporters. They are desperate that our memory of that day be changed. I refuse to let them.
Aquilino Gonell was one of the officers attacked on 1/6/21. Today he published an op-ed about the experience:
Donald Trump ran for a second term to avoid accountability for his crimes. Republicans in Congress are complicit in his contempt for the rule of law. They don’t just want to move on from Jan. 6 — they want to suppress the indelible mark this blatant attack has left on American history. They can’t face the fact that their lies incited a fatal insurrection, and their negligence is a betrayal to the more than 140 police officers who were injured or died in the aftermath of the attack.
Until Donald Trump and the American people truly come to terms with how close we were to losing our democracy, the date may as well continue to read 1/6/2021.
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