Did President Trump send these people to overthrow our government?
By Nicole Manning
Only eight days into the new year, and ten days before Trump would leave office following the inauguration of our 46th President, millions of Americans were hoping that the woes of 2020 would diminish in 2021. However, when the departing president launched a surprise attack against our democracy, our lawmakers, and our Capitol Building on January 6th, that hope was rudely shattered. Was it just one person, or one motivation that led to this unthinkable event? No. This act of domestic terrorism was a collective fantasy formulated by white supremacist Trump supporters and like-minded insurgents desperate to preserve an illusion of dominance. And no one enjoyed or encouraged this fantasy more than Donald J. Trump.
The beginning of this fateful day seemed bright with promise as Capitol Hill prepared to welcome newly elected Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. The Georgia Senate Runoff was very important to the democracy of America because, as Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote in The New Yorker: “If both Democrats win, they will give the Party, improbably, control of the U.S. Senate in January and President-elect Joe Biden a much better shot at passing meaningful legislation.”
This amazing win for the Democratic Party was largely due to the hard work of political activist Stacey Abrams and her voter-advocacy group Fair Fight, together with other civil rights organizations. As I discussed in my previous article “Election 2020: How Stacey Abrams Led a ‘Blue Wave’, ” their grassroots organizing in Georgia led to a huge voter turnout, with reportedly over 4.4 million people casting ballots in the November election.
But the joy of that triumph soon faded when a mob, fired up by Trump’s seditious rhetoric, brought hate and violence into the Capitol Hill rotunda. Holding an outdoor rally mere blocks away from where a joint session of congress and the Vice President met to ratify Biden’s electoral college votes, Donald Trump, “…not only summoned his supporters to Washington, organized them to march on the Capitol, and [stirred] them up. He watched what they did… CNN reported that he was so excited by the action it “freaked out” some staffers around him” (Nuzzi). That afternoon Trump’s mob broke windows, trashed offices, read private documents, and were aggressive to journalists and the few Capitol Hill police that tried to oppose their invasion. But this was no spontaneous uprising. This coordinated act of domestic terrorism was planned for weeks, maybe even months according to evidence the FBI and other watchdog agencies have discovered.
Actually, Trump and his cronies had been giving extremist elements within the Republican Party verbal permission to “make war on” Trump’s opponents for years, and thereby paved the way for the January 6th terror attack in Washington. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, many lawmakers in the House, the Senate, and even people in his cabinet and minor White House staffers gave him license to exercise and promote white privilege and power, no matter what harm this might ultimately inflict upon the American people. In a Washington Post article, Eugene Robinson stated: “But blame Trump above all. And blame the Republican members of Congress who sought to boost their own political fortunes by validating Trump’s self-serving paranoid fantasies.”
Important sectors of our government must have suspected, or even been aware of the coup Trump and his supporters were planning, since he repeatedly refused to agree to submit to a “peaceful transition of power” whenever the press asked if he would accept a Biden win at the polls. From the very beginning of the 2020 election, Trump drilled into his supporters’ heads that the election was going to be “stolen” from him, and that if he didn’t win, they would need to take action.
Because a deluded public is easier to control, Trump spread many conspiracy theories, such as that both COVID-19, and climate change were elaborate hoaxes. Trump, his children, and even his lawyer Rudy Giuliani were intentionally pushing (or perhaps brainwashing) his supporters and pre-existing white supremacist groups Into losing all sense of restraint. He deliberately primed them to take extreme actions when he warned them from the podium of his “Save America Rally” held earlier that day: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” To make matters worse, he also jumped on Twitter to tell his followers to: “Be wild.”
While watching Trump’s self-appointed defenders with their Confederate flags, urban combat gear, MAGA hats, and Trump banners push past, batter, or pose for pictures with the police as they forced their way into Statuary Hall, thoughts of how differently many BLM (Black Lives Matter) Movement demonstrations are treated come to mind. The glaring proof of the white privilege enjoyed by Trump supporters during Wednesday’s riot was embarrassing, especially with the whole world watching. At this sight, many news outlets told television viewers “this is not who we are” as if speaking for the entire U.S.A. But at some point we have to actually acknowledge the racial gap that still exists in this country. If my generation and future generations can see the need for unity and fairness when applying the laws of the nation to her citizens, why then should we as a nation have to put up with the negative, biased rhetoric that continues to divide our nation.
Furthermore, the destruction of federal property during the riot (which was documented in pictures by journalists as well as by the rioters themselves on social media) was a federal offense. The violent invasion of Capitol Hill specifically to disrupt a joint session of Congress, was an unmistakable act of sedition that led to four people’s deaths, many injured Capitol police, and a historic government building desecrated. Our government cannot afford to excuse this insurrection just because the perpetrators believe they belong to a permanently entitled white-majority ruling class that is exempt from criminal prosecution. In this time of national and international distress, our government needs to be unified in their thinking … now more than ever.
On January 6th, lawmakers gathered in a scheduled joint session on January 6th with the intention of voting to formally certify the electoral college votes in all fifty states. This was expected to make the announced win of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris official. Where was Donald J. Trump while all of this was going on? Certainly not walking up to Capitol Hill with all of his supporters like he promised he would during his incendiary “Save America Rally.” As his son Don Jr. live-streamed the weaponized MAGA mob he, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Ivanka Trump, and many in Trump’s inner circle were relaxing far away, having a watch-party. We are told that President Trump did not call for the National Guard to defend threatened members of the Congress and Senate, nor did he respond when members of his own party—fearful of the rioters—tried to phone or text him for help.
Trump had already begun turning against a few people formerly close to him, like Vice President Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham. He urged his supporters to turn against them as well. Shortly before sending them up to “The Hill,” Donald Trump told rally attendees: “Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us… and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country.” Later, when they spotted Lindsey Graham at the D.C airport, many of Trump’s supporters started screaming at him and calling him a traitor.
On the evening of January 6th, VP Mike Pence stepped up to help facilitate the late night ratification vote after the riot. Returning after police and National Guardsmen finally managed to disperse lingering hooligans, Pence did the job his elected office required of him. Biden and Harris also stepped up to speak in calming, uplifting terms to the American people during a time when most of us were looking for reassurance. Many were calling on Trump to speak up to condemn and defuse the chaos. But Trump’s initial silence during the breaking and entering of the legislative building made him appear complicit with the anarchic mob.
When Trump finally decided to speak up—not on a formal platform, but through his (now abolished) Twitter account, his message served no useful purpose. He began talking to these insurgents (some of whom had smeared feces on walls and shattered windows inside Capitol Hill) as if they were all cult members, telling them, “We love you, you’re special…I know your pain, I know you’re hurt.” He continued to add fuel to a hate-filled fire that he’d started as far back as the Obama Presidency. The people who went to the Capitol at Trump’s invitation that day had utter belief that they were in the middle of a Revolution, that the presidency was stolen from Trump, and that they were defending their leader.
Trump’s supporters spent hours vandalizing private offices, decorative hallways, and the large senate chamber, before wandering back outside to circle the building Or return to their hotel rooms in small groups like tourists. Journalists reported: “Only after the D.C National Guard had been activated and political leaders in both parties had condemned the rioting and appealed for calm did authorities declare the Capitol was secure.”(Helderman, Demirjian, Kim, DeBonis).
Members of Congress from both parties were understandably shaken up, scared and angry in the immediate aftermath of the riot. Many of their views on Trump became less easy to predict along party lines. Several members of Congress belonging to the Republican Party even began to change their perspective with the unexpected help of a suddenly outraged Senator Mitch McConnell. A Washington Post article emphasized: ”As lawmakers returned to work following the riot, the tone of their [debates] turned more somber and impassioned than before the interruption, with a number of Republicans who had planned to slow the proceedings with objections, announcing they would stand aside” (Helderman, Demirjian, Kim, DeBonis). The Republican Mitt Romney was brave enough to admit, “We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action [this] very morning… What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.”(Helderman, Demirjian, Kim, DeBonis).
On Friday January 8, 2021— the same day Twitter permanently stripped Trump of his official account—Congress began threatening to invoke the 25th Constitutional amendment to remove Trump from office for being “unfit to serve.” Their other option was to impeach Trump for the second time (mere days before Biden’s official inauguration). Either or both actions seemed necessary to ensure the outgoing president could no longer cause damage to our democracy and our country.
A surprisingly large number of Republicans still voted against both these plans. But with the Congressional voting majority retained in the November election, the Democrats were able to successfully move to impeach Trump in Congress on a single count of “inciting an insurrection” against the U.S. government. Now Trump may, or may not, have to endure a formal Senate trial for being a mentally and morally unfit president. To avoid the unseemly and distracting public spectacle of a lengthy Senate trial, Senators and Congresspeople may choose to “censure” Trump instead. The terms of such a binding censure would probably include denying Trump the right to hold any public office in the future.
Many social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google, and YouTube have already deleted Trump’s accounts, depriving him of the viral ability to spread destructive lies and conspiracy theories. In Donald Trump’s mind, being “robbed” of his online megaphones may be more humiliating than any impeachment. January 6 , 2021 was an unprecedented day in American history that no one will forget. And whether or not he is convicted during a Senate trial, that day’s events will be perhaps the most infamous part of Donald J. Trump’s bizarre legacy.
Works Cited