Nevermind Dave their own skins, I think some of them were trying to do that alrea…dy.
Walk? That far? Maybe there’s a hill on Pennsylvania Avenue. (J/k)
Northern_Piper is right. He had no intention of being there. He just wanted to watch the show. He knew there were violent, distructive elements in the crowd. He knew that the crowd would not be content with merely rallying around Capitol grounds to be seen and heard. He just said he would go with them because it sounded good at the time.
I’m hoping the House can provide compelling evidence of Trump’s awareness of the presence of the destructive ones like the Proud Boys. It’s all well and good to show what happened and the danger, but to really sink it in requires solidly connecting Trump to the outcome.
I think any reasonable people can easily see how he spun up the crowd, and he had to have foreseen that there would at a minimum be a violation of the Capitol grounds, that there would be a violent conflict with Capitol Police. But we aren’t talking reasonable people here, we are talking Republicans. So far, they have always allowed him to hide behind his mob-like vague suggestions and hints at every turn. They will let him slide on this, too, because he didn’t actually say “and be sure to hang Mike Pence if you find him.”
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat, was shown approaching the group of colleagues and offering blue surgical masks. The video, shot from inside a safe room where the lawmakers gathered during the chaos, was published on Twitter by Punchbowl News.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud and California Rep. Doug LaMalfa were captured unmasked and gathered closely together. They all refused the masks.
I’m still pissed as hell about this, and regard these six Congresspersons as part of a treasonous fifth column. We’re in a war with a deadly virus that’s killed a half-million Americans, and they were directly aiding the virus which is our mortal enemy. IANAL, but that sure seems to fit within the Constitutional definition of treason. They should, at a minimum, be kicked out of Congress.
In the video footage from the impeachment trial, when the mob started to march on the Capitol, some were shouting that there were only 2,000 police, and many more protesters. This was repeated in other footage, with folks yelling that “there are more of us than of you”. But what struck me was that early on, some in the mob knew exactly how many police there were, and that there were no reserve forces or other police on close standby. How did they know this? WHO exactly told the mob leaders about the number of police who would stand against them? WHO exactly was feeding information to the mob leaders?
There needs to be a major investigation about this, which includes WHO exactly funded the leaders, WHO gave them maps and other intel about the building, WHO exactly gave tours to mob leaders before the event, WHO exactly made sure the police presence was minimal, WHO exactly tweeted the locations of Democrat leaders… and on and on. Investigate who was on the inside of this attempted coup.
If the president is at the head of a mob, and he tells the Capitol police to stand down and open the barricades and doors, what do they do?
I mean, they are not answerable to him, they are answerable to congress, so they shouldn’t listen, but what actually ends up happening in that situation?
It won’t happen on the impeachment, but if the rumours are correct that the federal DOJ is thinking of using RICO prosecutions, that information will come out eventually. The statute was designed to ferret out the financial connections of the mob and the godfathers, by putting serious pressure on little birds to get them to sing about the big birds.
Different mob and different godfather in this case, but the principle is the same.
In any sane world1, they tell him when he gets to the fenceline that crossing it is trespassing, and the Secret Service strongly advises him to shamble run for cover when his mob supporters begin to riot. The tell him when he gets to the barricade the same thing they told the rioters - you can’t come in.
He’s only the Commander in Chief of the military. Civilian police don’t answer directly to him. He may oversee the Attorney General and the DOJ, but he can’t direct individual cops to do anything he wants.
1 I know that doesn’t apply here.
I don’t think the Impeachment trial is really the venue for the investigation of those elements. Too messy risking immunity without getting guarantees on results. The DOJ certainly needs to dig in to those questions with fervor and alacrity. RICO is a better path.