The January 6 Hearings - Part Seven

The latest public January 6 hearing was full of more incredible revelations, not the least of which was Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone walking into a rambunctious White House meeting on the plot to help keep Trump in power and wondering what the hell members of Trump's kitchen Cabinet - including the guy from Overstock.com - were doing there.  (At one point, the use of the military to seize voting machines was discussed.)  Just before the certification of the electoral vote in Congress, Trump loyalists openly discussed online the idea of committing bloodshed and murder against political enemies.  Stephen Ayres, the live witness with the Archie Andrews hair and the Dilton Doiley glasses, was very contrite in having gone to Washington on January 6 to take part in a demonstration only to get sucked up in the insurrection, and he apologized to Harry Dunn, a police officer who had been on duty that day.  (Officer Dunn still can't accept his apology.)

But none of this compares to Donald Trump encouraging supporters to come to Washington armed and dangerous and ensuring that the National Park Service, which takes care of the public space in the middle of town, would not learn of Trump's plans to send the MAGA mob to go to the Capitol.  It was not a spontaneous insurrection; it was carefully planned by a megalomaniac who couldn't accept the fact that he lost a presidential election and kept insisting that it was stolen.   

Liz Cheney said it best when she said that Trump, as a septuagenarian who is capable of understanding that he's not an impressionable child, he should have known better and accepted his loss.  Even Trump's 2016 campaign manager expressed regret for helping him defeat Hillary Clinton.  But something else Representative Cheney said was a signal to the Justice Department to go after Trump.  She revealed that a witness no one has heard from yet received a call from Trump and was pressured not to testify against him.  So, Trump committed the crime of witness tampering.     

If we don't stop Trump now, how will we be able to stop him later?