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?

Stand Pat

Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone has agreed to testify to the January 6 select committee in the House after refusing to testify for three months.  He will do so tomorrow, which should help the committee - and, accordingly, pressure the Justice Department to investigate Trump's efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election - considerably. And while all of this is going on, another public hearing is scheduled for July 12. 

Meanwhile U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has been subpoenaed by Fulton County (Georgia) District Attorney Fani Willis and refuses to do so, even though he spoke to Georgia election officials on Trump's behalf and he represents South Carolina and not Georgia.  But Willis has subpoenaed so many other Trump intimates in the process that Graham may have to capitulate just like Cipollone did. 

All of this makes it clear that the nose around Trump is tightening, but given the trouble President Biden and the Democrats are in, it may be Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential prospect Ron DeSantis who would benefit the most from the trap door being released.  He may even release it himself.  

The January 6 Hearings - Part Six

And what did we learn at yesterday's hearing? Donald Trump not only loves violence done in his name, he does it in his own name.  He even likes to throw his lunch against the wall when he gets news he doesn't like.

I've heard of average men (Leon Czolgosz, Lee Harvey Oswald) who murdered Presidents, but I'd never heard of a President who attempted to murder an average man. And while Indian leader Indira Gandhi may have been killed by her own bodyguards, I could not, until now, imagine a bodyguard being killed by his own leader.  

Or a leader accused of an attempted carjacking.

But we all know now that Donald J. Trump encouraged violence by allowing the crowd that assembled for his fight speech on the morning of January 6, 2021 to attend his rally without surrendering their weapons so they could use them when they approached the Capitol.  We know that his promise to go down to the Capitol with his supporters was not an empty promise.  He wanted to go and ordered his Secret Service man to take him there in the presidential monster wagon.  When the agent refused, Trump reiterated his order, yelling, "I'm the f**kin' President!"  When the agent refused again, Trump tried to hijack the vehicle and grab the agent by the collarbone . . . and could have possibly choked him.  

And then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows just sat back and took it all in stride.  And White House Counsel Pat Cippolone had to bend over backwards to keep Trump from going down to the Capitol and open up himself and the administration to a whole slew of crimes. 

And we all know this thanks to Mark Meadows' deputy, Cassidy Hutchinson.

My heroine!

It should be only a matter of time before Trump's rear end is hauled into a federal courtroom for indictment.

The good news is that Trump is likely not going to be able to run for President in 2024.  The bad news? Hell, we'll get DeSantis!