I assume it’ll be the DOJ under Biden but I don’t know the full jurisdiction of the capitol police.
Yes good observation.
It was a bit weird at times where political pundits were (quite rightly) blowing a gasket talking about how abhorrent the whole thing was, and then it was interspersed with clips of just some idiots wandering around the senate floor picking up pens and such, unsure of what to do next.
God, he is a supine, pathetic piece of crap. He’s decrying Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, praising Mike Pence for “standing up against the unconstitutional request” to overturn the electoral count. It’s like Graham just can’t get through life without having somebody whose boots he can lick.
Aye; no way I want this action to stand without repercussions; that is unacceptable. The offense was so severe I cannot even come up with terms to adequately describe it without deteriorating into a rant; the consequence should be commensurable.
I do not think it was as lame assed as you suppose. Let’s run this slightly differently - the protesters get in, and using the tie wraps they had brought specifically for this purpose, they take hostages - their demand would be for the certiying to be ruled in favour or Trump.
Perhaps we can also add a few dead senators, and congresscritturs.
All this emboldens the extremists who decide to take over other state capitols, especially Georgia - where similar things happen, dead representatives, hostages and many many more guns.
Its now clear that this nationwide disorder is beyond state or federal law-enforcement agencies.
We all saw how a number of isolated nutjobs can hold out and create local mayhem ad Waco - think how this would play out - large buildings, far more armed terrorists both inside and outside the cordons, and lets face it an unusually sympathetic police force - especially in certain states.
What do we need at that point ?
We need a national saviour, one who can de-escalate by simple speeches, this saviour declares national disunity and national disorder that can only be brought together through national force - cue the state of emergency, cue the use of military, cue the temporary (permanent) suspension of the ecently “failed” elections.
You still sure about that lame ass coup? No harm in Trump trying, nothing to lose has he?
Question:
I do remember that the president can not pardon an office holder being impeached to avoid the impeachment, would that limit in the pardon power apply to him?
As I pointed out yesterday, they also insist it was antifa doing the storming. So…
thank you for the video link and thank you for that excellent summation for those who might not want to watch for themselves. I did watch the video and can vouch for the accuracy and thoroughness of your written description; fantastic job, eh.
Part of the risk here is that, because it WAS so farcical as an attempt to actually overturn the results of the presidential election, that Republicans will increasingly try to portray yesterday’s events as “no big deal.” A few hot heads that got out of hand, and isn’t the real outrage how law enforcement was so poorly prepared?
And then it just becomes another step on the way to normalizing political violence.
That’s the M.O. tho, isn’t it? “What? I was just joking!” 
No. Not acceptable.
This is wrong; even dangerously wrong.
Seconded. That video gives the clearest view of what actually happened.
I think rather than being shocked that one person was shot, the rest of that mob should be grateful at the restraint that was shown.
Biden’s speech. Could be one for the history books.
As I said, I can easily imagine Trump attempting something so hare-brained but not anybody else. You can’t have a successful coup just holding on to a few capitols, even DC; certainly no liberal state would stand for it. You need the ability to enforce it and that would almost certainly require the military. The only way you could somehow hold on to power would be the military reluctant to get involved and a very large percentage of police across the whole country.
The coup almost certainly wasn’t coordinated so they’re just banking on what they hope others (like generals and police) will do. Would these knuckleheads risk prison sentence for that? Trump, sure. Others? I say doubtful.
If it turns out this really was a lame-ass coordinated coup attempt then people will likely go to prison for a long time.
The Proud Boys said they were going dress like ANTIFA and raise hell. So ANTIFA beat them at their own game! Or was it, indeed, PBs who were so convincing that CTers believe it was ANTIFA. **? The mind boggles.
On a serious note - I’m pretty shocked that there weren’t more firearms seen or used. This could have been much, much worse.
I’m not the greatest writer and have a tendency to be ambiguous so let me be clear: every person who stepped in the building and many (if not most) of the rioters should be tried and (hopefully) do some time, regardless of whether is was a coordinated coup or not. The leaders in charge of security better have a really good (and documented) reason for having such light security or they should lose their jobs.
Trump is a blustering incompetent; the mob yesterday were a disorganized rabble of ignorant deplorables. So it’s hardly likely that any collusion from law enforcement involved some tactical mastermind who had a serious well thought out plan to overthrow the government. I’m not suggesting that. At this point, supporting Trump is pretty much 100% correlated with being a complete fucking idiot.
But being an idiot who is unlikely to succeed is no more a defense to treason than it is to any other crime.
Clearly there was a failure to properly plan and coordinate ahead of time for the security. The proper thing to have done would have been to coordinate in advance for DC Metro to be controlling an outer perimeter and Capitol Police a middle and inner perimeter, and have the cooperating backup control/intervention units from friendly states and federal LEAs standing by close, at the ready to move in where needed. That did not happen. The support was only called when things began escalating and that is already too late.
Also evidently there was some sort of 180 turn from the summer, to make it a point to have no show of overwhelming force, because, “hey, why give these silly yahoos more importance than they should have?”. Seeing as the Capitol Police responds to both Houses I’m sorry but both Mitch and Nancy should have had them take this security scenario more seriously. Good if heads will roll but too late, lives could have been saved by a good security policy that made it clear any assault would be repelled hard so don’t bother.
As the actual Members were safely removed and secured by the time the chambers were entered, the smaller group who were showing up with zip-ties and such to try and grab at them had lost their target. Meanwhile the also small group who would know what sensitive info or correspondence or really valuable stuff to grab and how would be busy trying to do that. That left the rest who were basically cannon fodder to build up a mass of bodies for the breaching, and who once left to their own resources were like the dog who catches the car: “Now what?” The abovementioned people with actual ill intent were able to channel the crowd numbers into a succesful breach while they were whipped up by DJT’s nonsense but once they realized all they had taken were empty offices, they abandoned the leader role and left the mass to wander with no real plan. Seems that fortunately the vast majority of them were really interested in disrupting for disrupting’s sake and once that was achieved were satisfied.
While I agree that the security really was puzzling, I think it is important to remember that the Capitol is a place that is regularly visited. It is not an army base, or other tightly secure location. It is a place that is made to allow people in, so although what happened yesterday is puzzling and should not have occurred, it should be kept in mind that unless they had planned on a complete lock down that day, they probably believed, incorrectly, that their usual measures, with a few additions was all that was needed. Measures that involved letting people in, as is usually the case even when congress is in session.
//i\\
One of the reasons for getting him out now, is that he is talking self pardoning immediately. The 25 would have that power taken away from him while it goes through the hoops.
Seriously, invoke the 25th, call him delusional, put him in Walter reed, and stall ‘til the 20th.