January 6th Was an Inside Job
Federal authorities were not guarding the Capitol at the time of the attack, leaving the job to the Capitol Police, who were quickly overrun by the mob.
President Trump reportedly refused initial requests to send in the National Guard, with Vice President Mike Pence ultimately interfacing with Defense Department officials and giving the order to mobilize units.
Hogan, a Republican, called for President Trump’s removal in the wake of the attack. "I think there's no question that America would be better off if the president would resign or be removed from office,” he said.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/01/07/maryland-governor-says-pentagon-repeatedly-denied-approval-to-send-national-guard-to-capitol
It’s not clear what caused this upending of the chain of command, which came after President Trump encouraged protesters to head to the Capitol to protest the certification of election results, did not explicitly condemn the attack, and said in a video that he “loves” his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
Pence’s order came hours after the president condemned him for not having “the courage” to stop the certification of the election in Congress on Wednesday — a power that the vice-president does not possess. In his speech before protesters early on Wednesday afternoon, Trump also lashed out at his vice-president before encouraging the crowd to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to the U.S. Capitol, where a handful of Republican senators and more than 100 House representatives planned to object to the election results. The symbolic process was interrupted by the violent act of Trump supporters, which has reportedly resulted in one death.
Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/pence-not-trump-activated-the-national-guard-report.html
Democrat members of Congress have questioned whether police officers aided the invasion of the Capitol Building as they demanded access to all police communications during the riots.
A number of Democrats have raised the possibility that the pro-Trump mob that broke into the Capitol building on Wednesday could have had outside assistance as they questioned how swiftly rioters were able to identify and target individual lawmakers' offices in the labyrinthine building.
It came after footage of the riots showed some officers making no attempt to stop the flood of people entering the building while at least one officer posed for a picture with the rioters.
One of the rioters claimed in an interview with the New York Times that a Capitol Police officer had actually directed him to the office of Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate. The office of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, was also targeted.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/09/democrats-call-investigation-police-conduct-claims-inside-job/
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There is no doubt the Capitol was left purposefully understaffed as far as law enforcement and there was no federal effort to provide support even as things turned very dark. This contrasts sharply with all of other major protests we have attended.
A lot has been made of the contrast to the overwhelming police presence at Black Lives Matters protests in the fall, and this is certainly true. But there was also A LOT more federal law enforcement presence at every single previous protest we have attended in DC.
Most of these protests involved tens of thousands of mostly white, middle-aged people (meaning race wasn’t the only reason for the disparate police presence). Even the March for Science had far more police for a non-partisan event featuring “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
By contrast, there was a tiny federal police presence at “Stop the Steal” despite weeks of promises of violence spread on social media by well-known far-right radicals, many of whom had long histories of inciting violence.
When we arrived, the only forces present were the clearly overwhelmed Capitol Police. The only reinforcements that arrived were other Capitol Police. There were a handful of DC Metro police, but they had accompanied the ambulances to take away the injured.
The only other federal law enforcement presence was an FBI Swat team of about eight officers who arrived to provide cover for the Capitol Fire and EMTs there to extract Ashli Babbitt, the QAnon radical who was shot inside the Capitol Building.
Once the FBI team got Babbitt out, they left and no other federal officers arrived in the more than two hours that followed. The small Capitol Police force was left to deal with the chaos by themselves.
(snip) There were also no clear crowd rules imposed for Stop the Steal like there were for all the other protests we have attended. All of the “liberal” protests of the last four years we attended had a long list of things you could not bring that were enforced at the Capitol.
At these protests, there were no poles or sticks, no backpacks, no weapons or body armor, etc. There were sometimes security check points to go through to get onto the mall or Capitol grounds.
None of these standard rules applied to Stop the Steal. There were poles and flags and backpacks and body armor EVERYWHERE. We didn’t see any guns or knives. But there were certainly people brandishing flag poles as if they were weapons.
These people are serious and they are going to keep escalating the violence until they are stopped by the force of law. There were many, many people there who were excited by the violence and proud and excited about the prospect of more violence.
And it wasn’t just the white nationalists, Second Amendment radicals, and QAnon boneheads. I can’t adequately describe the blood lust we heard everywhere as we walked over the Capitol grounds, even from mild-mannered looking people.
The most alarming part to me was the matter-of-fact, causal ways that people from all walks of life were talking about violence and even the execution of “traitors” in private conversations, like this was something normal that happened every day.
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Seth Abramson on Trump's astonished lie-filled propaganda speech right before the Capitol attack:
Media has yet to do a deep dive on precisely what Trump *said* in his January 6 speech in DC—a speech now called an "incitement to insurrection," and the basis for an article of impeachment coming Monday. This thread unpacks the speech. I hope you'll read on and RETWEET.
First, many don't realize that while the name of the *rally* was "Stop the Steal," Trump spoke flanked by banners that read "Save America March"—Save America being the PAC Trump has used since the election to scam voters out of more than $300 million for "election defense."
It appears, therefore, that the link between Trump, his opposition to Biden's January 6 certification in Congress, and the insurrectionist march on the Capitol is one that comes, incredibly, with a paper trail—as it appears Trump *paid for* the seditious "Save America March."
Seconds into his speech, Trump says, "These people are not going to take it any longer. They're not going to take it any longer...They came from all over our country. I just really want to see what they do." It's an astonishing admission he thinks something is going to happen.
Trump then seems to catch himself, repeating the phrase "I just really want to see" but now adding "how they [media] cover it [the Save America March]." It's hard to know, therefore—perhaps deliberately—whether "what they do" means "what media does" or "what the marchers do."
He then falsely says "media and Big Tech" together "rigged" the November 2020 election *and* the Georgia run-off, suggesting—in the context of past Trump remarks—that a combination of pre-vote polling and post-vote vote-manipulation explains GOP losses in those two elections.
"All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical Left Democrats, which is what they're doing, and stolen by the fake news media, that's what they've done and what they're doing. We will never give up." The verb tenses here are *key*. Remember, Trump excitedly tweeted about this event on December 19—the day it was moved to January 6. Trump scheduled his speech for an hour before the election certification was due to start. His words were *timed* to coincide with the "Save America March" he was paying for. So when Trump speaks in the present tense of the election being "stolen" by Democrats and the media—it's "what they're doing"—he means it literally: he's telling the "Save America March" that he and they are *imminently* facing a "stolen election" due to events at the Capitol. He then switches to the future tense: "We will never give up. We will never concede." He's directing the Save America March he paid for, which he'll shortly launch at the Capitol explicitly, to future conduct that'll encapsulate a shared commitment not to "give up or concede." "You don't concede when there's theft involved." He's telling the crowd that they *can't* do anything but march on the Capitol (as he will shortly tell them to do), and that they *must* not do anything on January 6 that would "concede" to the vote taking place at the Capitol.
Trump clearly sees the crowd as an army. He crows about the size of the crowd, claiming it is "hundreds of thousands" strong. That's important for his "mens rea" (mental state) as a criminal actor: he believes he's commanding the actions of a *massive* force near the Capitol. "Our country has had enough. We *will not* take it *any more*. And that's what this [the Save America March] is all about." Trump is *unambiguously* tying his speech to the March, and the March to a dramatic action—not a metaphor or merely symbolic one—that's about to happen. "And to use a favorite term that all of you really came up with, we will 'Stop the Steal.'" Trump connects the march to the rhetoric of Ali Alexander—who we now know coordinated the "Stop the Steal" march on the Capitol with Trump Congressional allies Gosar, Biggs and Brooks. In fact, "Stop the Steal" was not a grassroots slogan, but was created by Ali Alexander in conjunction with Trump's allies, one of whom (Mo Brooks) had just spoken before Trump, exhorting the crowd to start "kicking ass." But we also must consider the word "stop." It matters. The action Trump is demanding isn't a "protest"-type action. It's not a let-your-voice-be-heard action. It is *explicitly* an *intervention*—the "steal" will be "stopped" by the assembled army marching on the Capitol as Trump will shortly direct them. There's no fuzz on this.
Trump says he'll "prove" he won the election in a "landslide." He cites the "real pollsters"—presumably he means internal ones he paid for—who assured him he'd win if he got a certain number of votes. It confirms the media "theft" he refers to has to do with polling/coverage. Trump says Biden didn't get 80 million votes, he got "80 million computer votes"—thus returning to his "media and Big Tech stole the election" theme by implying that the big tech companies he's been fighting with somehow helped rigged the vote tabulation via criminal hacking. He calls the hacking—which he now takes as a given—a "disgrace," says nothing like it has happened before, and notes that it wouldn't even happen in "third-world countries." He makes clear he's referring to *both* the White House loss (November) and Senate loss (January 5). "We will not let them silence your voices." Interestingly, he is focusing (with "them") as much on media and big tech as on Democrats, which certainly helps explain the attacks on *journalists*—and their equipment—that accompanied the insurrection that would begin soon after. "We're not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen." Pronouns matter here. Trump repeatedly says "we"—over and over in his speech, he puts himself in the midst of his army. It matters because he shortly will *falsely* say "we" are going to march on the Capitol now.
Media reports confirm Trump was told *days* before the Save America March that he couldn't accompany the rally-goers to the Capitol. So his "we" is consistently rhetorical: he is strengthening his army's backbone to do the unthinkable by deceitfully saying he'll go with them.
Trump now—for the first time—lets his speech be interrupted by an extended chant from his army, and it's because it's a chant he approves of and that matches what he wants: "FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP!" He grimly soaks it in, letting it carry on awhile.
I just want to pause here to say that, knowing what we know now—5 dead; 50+ injuries; looting; countless assaults; a hostage plot; guns and bombs; an officer crushed in a door; shots fired; elected officials hiding—it is *really* terrifying to watch what Trump is doing here.
"If those tens of thousands of people would be allowed—the military, the Secret Service, the police, law enforcement, you're doing a great job—but I'd love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up please?" Uh...what?
This is—beyond any doubt—the strangest line in the speech. When he says "come up here with us" he *couldn't* be referring to the stage he's standing on, as he says he's referring to "tens of thousands" of military people and cops. So where does he want them to "come up" *to*?
The obvious answer—indeed, the *only* answer—is that, as he's about to reveal, he is *well aware* (and was pre-speech) that the Save America March he paid for is a march on the Capitol to "stop" the certification, and that "we"/"us" will be making that march. And therefore......he is asking "the military, the Secret Service, the police, [and] law enforcement" (his words) to march with "us" to the Capitol. Given the historic security failure we'll ultimately see at the Capitol, and DoD refusing to release the Guard, and Trump refusing to do so......this line in the speech will naturally cause federal investigators to wonder if elements of Team Trump had been in contact with Capitol Police and (far more likely) Trump's stooges at DoD about his plan to march on the Capitol. But it gets even worse than this, I'm afraid.
We now know from several major media reports that Trump wanted to *increase* the military presence at his Save America March as a way to "stop antifa." Seems... odd, right? There was no intelligence about antifa showing up to his Save America March, only far-right extremists. So why would Trump want *more* military? Well: "If those tens of thousands of people would be allowed—the military, the Secret Service, the police, law enforcement—I'd love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up?"
Every indication here—I know it seems incredible, but realize how deranged Trump became post-election—is that Trump wanted the ranks of his army to be swelled by *actual military* and *armed law enforcement* before his army marched on the Capitol. This is a *full-blown coup*.
Had Trump's army been joined by soldiers and cops, its ability to access the Capitol would've been assured. There's simply *no other logical explanation* for what Trump says here other than that he wants soldiers and cops to "come up [to the Capitol] with us"—and imminently.
Oddly, he switches from this thought directly to "And Rudy you did a great job. He's got guts. Unlike a lot of people in the Republican Party." Remember, Rudy had just publicly demanded "trial by combat." Why did Trump address *Rudy* immediately after addressing the military? That Trump is thinking about what Rudy just said on-stage is made clear by his next words, which both (a) paraphrase Rudy's exhortation, and (b) directly reference the fact that Rudy just spoke. Of Rudy he now says, "He's got guts. He fights....that's a tough act to follow.:"
This is way too deep a dive for this thread, but I must say—because I wrote three books about Rudy—that investigators will want to look into whether Rudy was in touch with Kash Patel at DoD about the march, and whether that's why Trump strangely connects Rudy to the military.
What we know for sure is Rudy helped coordinate the insurrection, making calls to the Capitol in mid-coup to try to get Trump's allies to artificially elongate the vote—which would've given rioters more time to breach the House/Senate chambers. But who else did Rudy speak to?
I mention the Giuliani-Kash Patel connection because the two men secretly worked together as part of the "BLT Prime" team that tried to help Trump shake down the Ukrainian president during the Ukraine scandal. (Events discussed in detail in my 2020 book Proof of Corruption.)
In discussing Rudy Giuliani, Trump in his speech also introduces another figure, John Eastman, who had spoken before him. Eastman is the law professor infamous for falsely claiming that Kamala Harris was not eligible to serve as VP because of the circumstances of her birth.
Trump uses Eastman as a segue to discussing Pence, noting that Eastman had told him what was happening (the "theft") was incredible. Trump says, "I hope Mike Pence will do the right thing." Note that Pence had *already told Trump* he'd *not* be interrupting the certification.
"Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we'll win the election. All he has to do—this is from one of the top constitutional lawyers in our country [Eastman]—he has the absolute right to do it, he's supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our... "...Constitution and protect our Constitution. States want to revote–the states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to re-certify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to re-certify....And we become president and you are the happiest people." Trump is falsely building up hope about what Mike Pence can do and will do, and he *knows* it. And this very incitement is why the crowd chants "Hang Mike Pence!" at the Capitol and then starts *hunting* him there.
"I just spoke to Mike [Pence] and I said, 'That doesn't take courage, what takes courage is to do *nothing*.'" I have to unpack this, because it is an *extraordinary* threat against the Vice President that *many* people will miss. Do folks realize what Trump is saying here?
Trump is telling the crowd he threatened Pence. He's telling them—an army he's about to send to the building Pence is in—that he told Pence that if he does *nothing* to help Trump win it's that act that shows courage. Why? Because Trump is saying Pence is endangering himself. And Trump is *right*. As within an hour, Pence is being evacuated from the House chamber, crowds are chanting for his death, armed invaders are hunting him in the hallways of the Capitol. These events were foreseen and expected by Trump when he—apparently—threatened his VP.
This is consistent with all the major-media reporting, which tells us that Trump had been treating Pence "horribly," tried to "order him" to complete a "coup," told him he "didn't want to be his friend, he wanted Pence to be his VP," and that Pence was *livid* at the Capitol.
It's clear Pence feels Trump was trying to stir violence against him—and thus his family, which was with him in the Capitol. This is why this Trump speech is perhaps the sickest speech ever given by any American president. No wonder the two men haven't spoken since Wednesday.
"We're just not gonna let that happen." Trump is referring to... incredibly... Biden being president. Trump is *directly asserting* that "we" (including himself) are "not gonna let" Biden be POTUS. These are seditious words—especially in the context in which he's saying them. "You hurt our monuments, you hurt our heroes, you go to jail for 10 years." Trump had begun rambling at this point, but his brief reference to an EO he signed is particularly ironic here as he's literally *in the midst of sending an army against our heroes and our monuments*.
"We're gathered...for one very very basic and simple reason: to save our democracy." It's really important that we understand exactly what Trump is saying here: he's trying to convince his army that *what they're about to do imminently* is no less than "saving our democracy." / I'd say that all this chilling rhetoric is leading up to Trump's "ask"—a march on the Capitol—but that's not really true, is it? It's not an "ask." This is literally the "Save America March." Everyone here already *knows* that this speech culminates in a march on the Capitol. "They've lost control...They've used the pandemic as a way of defrauding the people in a proper election."
Trump now switches to the Democrats—and if you understand propaganda, you understand how subtle and vile this speech is. Notice Trump is saying the problem is "control."
What Trump is telling his army is that they're not only about to "save democracy" but reassert "control" over the government, which the Democrats presently have (not true, of course) and have used to "defraud" Trump's army. This speech—my God, it's truly an evil construction.
He then tells a bizarre "Sir" story—a story that gives him an excuse to pretend to be someone calling him "sir"—in which unnamed government officials are telling him that the election theft "will never happen again" and that "in four years" he is "assured [the presidency]."
I call this "Sir" story bizarre because, well, I've made a study of Trump's "Sir" stories. Trump uses different "voices" to pretend to be different types of people calling him "sir," and the "voice" he is using here is his "military voice." Huh? That makes... no sense, right? Why is Trump pretending that (it *appears*) a member of the military has acknowledged to him that the November 2020 election was stolen, and promised him that he will be president again beginning in 2024? Why create this false narrative of a military backing for his position? / That's why I call this speech evil, and why I think university courses in propaganda will be discussing it—I'm serious—for decades to come. Trump is masterfully weaving a narrative for his army, and sometimes he is doing so (as in this "Sir" story) indirectly, but powerfully. "Let's go back 8 weeks. We want to go back—and we're going to get this right." Trump now plays to his army's fantasy: that time can be unspooled and the election redone. He's trying to put his minions in that headspace that says that their imminent actions can change history.
"We have someone in there who should not be in there and our country will be destroyed and we're not going to stand for that." What's bizarre here is that he's talking about *Biden*, who isn't "in" anywhere yet—he's only president-elect. But the metaphor Trump's using is key.
Trump is telling his army that "someone" is "in there"—as in a building—who "should not be in there" and that what they are doing [in that building] is "destroy[ing]" America and that "we're not going to stand for that." And he's saying this in sight of the Capitol building. His army must've wondered why Trump said "someone" instead of Biden. Was he scared of openly preaching insurrection against a president-elect (a man he knows won the election—as reports say he conceded privately)? Or is it because he wanted his words to have double-resonance?
Propaganda profs who teach this speech in the coming decades will note how Trump's words are calibrated to apply *equally* to Biden, Pence, and Democratic members of Congress. This sort of drift and generative ambiguity is common in propaganda—particularly fascist propaganda.
How do I know he wants his army to be thinking of (1) Pence and (2) Democratic members of Congress, as well as Biden? Well look at his *very next words*: "For years Democrats have gotten away with election fraud and weak Republicans—and that's what they are, there's so many."
So in the event his army thought "someone" only meant "Biden," Trump now makes clear that, by proximate association, he was also referring to "Democrats [committing] election fraud" and "weak Republicans [like Pence]." Conveniently, all of whom are now "in there"—the Capitol.
Trump's propaganda scaffolding is masterful. "Many of the [weak] Republicans I helped get elected," he adds. See what he did there? *Now* he's simultaneously talking about (1) Pence, who was on the ticket with him, and (2) GOP members of Congress about to certify Biden's win.
"They're weak Republicans. They're pathetic Republicans. If this happened to the Democrats, there'd be hell all over the country going on." Trump is not so subtly telling his army what *should* be happening right now, not just in DC but in capitals all around America: "hell." His reference to "hell" is glorious from a propaganda standpoint, as it echoes the repeated phrase "fight"—as in "fight like hell"—and if you think that's a coincidence, you probably haven't studied propaganda. But it also gives his army license for a certain level of mayhem. "There'd be hell. All over the country. But just remember this: you're stronger, you're smarter, you've got more going...they try to demean everybody having to do with us, and you're the real people—the people that built this nation. Not the people that tore down our nation."
Trump, who started his speech obsessed with the idea that his words were being carried across the nation—he kept talking about the cameras—is now painting a picture of "hell all over the country," a sort of hell raised by "the real people" of America. That is, *his* people. But he also does something else—he underlines to his mob that what they're about to do is a mere *fraction* of the "hell all over the country" that *should* be breaking out. It's an effort to make them feel better about what they're going to do *and* underline its importance. He rants about "weak Republicans," invoking lost jobs, immigration, the military, America First, and other conservative rhetorical touchstones. Then: "You have to get your people to fight. And if they don't fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don't fight." Keep in mind "your people" means the members of Congress congregated—at that very moment—in the Capitol a short walk away. He's telling his mob that they must "get" "their" people to "fight." In other words, these "people" must be *compelled* to change their planned actions. Now he briefly returns to his prepared remarks to rant about the election "theft," almost immediately turning from his script to add, "That election was *over* at 10PM." He calls the mail-in ballots for Biden that came in thereafter "explosions of bullshit." The crowd roars.
Trump's calculated use of vulgarity, intended to rile up the crowd, works perfectly—as they break into their third prolonged chant of the speech (which he lets build for a while): "STOP THE STEAL! STOP THE STEAL! STOP THE STEAL!" When Trump speaks again, it's on an odd topic.
Trump now talks about Romney with an evil smirk. "I hope he enjoyed his flight in last night." The comment does two things: reminds the mob of the viral video of Romney getting harassed (something he wants them to do right now), and reminds them that Romney is in the Capitol. Trump now does an impression of Romney, which to progressives seems childish but is a mainstay in far-right propaganda (Rush Limbaugh, who Trump gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom to, is famous for his preposterously dumb-sounding "impressions" of anyone he disagrees with). Trump talks about how Romney got "slaughtered" in the 2012 election, a remark that returns him to a propaganda technique he's often used: applying *violent imagery* (particularly verbs) to his enemies as a way of implying the degree of hate his listeners should feel for them.
Trump talks about how in the past America was "blessed" (*religious rhetoric*) but now doesn't have "free and fair elections" or a "free and fair press"—a reference to the far-right canard that Democrats want to bring *godless* communism (and control of the press) to America.
He says that the media—in cahoots with Democrats—"suppresses thought, suppresses speech, and it's become the enemy of the people" (the "real people" of America Trump referred to earlier—an echo of the "real Germans" of Hitler's and Goebbels' World War II-era Nazi propaganda).
He says Republicans are like a "boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice—we want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder." He's telling them only suckers don't *fight*.
"And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn't"—he gives a tiny shrug—"that'll be a sad day for our country." Remember, Pence has *already told Trump* he's not going to "come through." But Trump wants and needs his mob to be surprised and outraged. He makes clear that if VP Pence doesn't shut down the certification of Biden's win, he's violating his oath to the Constitution (an offense which, if real rather than imaginary, would of course warrant his removal from office, which a mob like Trump's could only do by force).
Now Trump comes to the volta—the turn. The fulcrum of his incitement to insurrection. He has to get explicit about what he wants, and how, and when, and where, and by whom. I'll quote the entirety of this section of Trump's speech—as it's absolutely critical to Trump's crime.
"Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy." This is masterful. Trump attributes to *Congress* an "egregious assault on our democracy" at the *very moment* he's going to ask an armed mob to commit an egregious (literal) assault on democracy. "And after this [speech], we're going to walk down—and I'll be there with you—we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down, any one [street] you want, but I think right here {he looks off-stage to make sure he has it right}, we're going to walk down to *the Capitol*.....{crowd roars}...and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."
*None* of the people Trump is speaking about would *hear* any such "cheering"—and Trump knows it, and the mob knows it—unless the mob were *inside the Capitol*. As if to underscore this, Trump frames what they're doing in physical, "present" terms: "take" our country back. You can't "show strength" in the "taking" of something—especially not something as big as control of country—by "cheering" from many blocks away. Trump knows this. And the mob knows it. And they all know, too, what the "not cheering" they'll do for Trump's enemies looks like. "We have come [to the Save America March and, impliedly, momentarily, the Capitol] to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated—lawfully slated." Notice that the prior "cheering on" has quickly turned to... "demanding."
"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building..." Notice that Trump really is treating his speech like merely a prelude to a *march on the Capitol* that he wants to certain "everyone" (the "hundreds of thousands" he mentioned earlier) joins. Note too that that "everyone" would necessarily (and presumably deliberately) include the soldiers and cops he specifically called out and *pointed to* earlier in his speech. He wants "everyone" to be marching on the Capitol, and in fact he "knows" that that's what'll happen. "...to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." This is Trump's first mention of the coming action being "peaceful." But *here's the problem*: we now know from media reports that when the march *wasn't* peaceful Trump was "pleased," "excited," and "enthusiastic." So is "peaceful" earnest, or like Trump committing on video to a "peaceful transition of power" 2 days ago and then the NYT reporting yesterday that Trump "regretted" "committing" to a "peaceful" transition? We can only say the word is incongruous with the rest of his speech.
"Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for [the] integrity of our elections. But whether or not they stand strong for our country—our country—our country has been under siege for a long time. Far longer than this four-year period." This is such an odd phrasing. So as Trump is exhorting his mob to put the Capitol under "siege," he does what he always does: put the idea in his listeners' heads to do something by—remarkably—attributing that idea or concept (paradoxically) to his enemies. It's like, "If they're doing it, why can't we?"
He now outlines a string of his "accomplishments." They're all either exaggerated, imaginary, or destructive, so I won't recite them here. The only odd element of this part of the speech—or odd in a way that stands out—is that Trump imagines a bad employee at the VA being fired and he says, "Joe, you're fired, get out of here!" Even in lying about the VA, he wants the mob to be thinking about removing Joe Biden.
"Now we're out here fighting," he tells the crowd, using the word "fight"—or violent imagery—for the umpteenth time (against one use of "peaceful"). This part of the speech is sluggish; now he's ranting about how well he did in the November 2020 election. But then he pivots. Before I unpack the pivot, I want to underline a lie: "Everybody had us down for a victory..." Remember, he'd said the media lied via polling. *Now* he's saying—falsely—that "everybody" predicted pre-election that he'd win. In fact, he was believed to be heading for a loss.
The pivot—a second pivot to what he needs the mob to do—"Today we see a very important event, though. Because right over there {points to the Capitol} right over there we see the event [that's] gonna take place—and I'm gonna be watching, because history is going to be made."
This is so key, as remember he's told the mob that *they'll all be together*—that he'll be with them. So when he says "I'm going to be watching," it implies he'll be inside the Capitol. And if he's going to be inside the Capitol, the mob will be too. And if you doubt that......if you doubt that Trump is now placing the mob *inside the Capitol* (a federal crime: trespass), look at his *very next words*: "We're going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders who should be ashamed of themselves."
Trump says "we." He tells the mob that at the end of the Save America March that *he paid for*, "we" are going to "see" our "leaders" and how they act. Not a single person in the crowd would take that to mean "cheering" from blocks away from the Capitol. Not *one person*. "Throughout history, throughout eternity, they [Republicans] will be ashamed [if they don't contest Biden's win]. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget. With only 3 of the states......in question, we win the presidency of the United States. And by the way, it's much more important today than it was 24 hours ago." My God, he's making it sound like this *is* election day—and the election is about to be decided at the Capitol depending on what a mob does.
Keep in mind that all this is a lie, too, as just minutes after this, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani calls Sen. Tommy Tuberville to get him to contest *ten* states—including states Trump has never talked about—in order to artificially elongate the insurrection at the Capitol.
He calls the runoff a "setup." I've no idea what he means, but the upshot, he says, is that with the Senate lost "the only line of demarcation—the only line we have—is the veto of the president of the United States." He's framing his election as the life or death of America. "So this is now, what we're doing, a far more important election than it was two days ago."
I don't know how to emphasize this enough: he's telling an armed mob that January 6 *is* election day. He says "what we're doing" is an "election." It's beyond lying about November. Trump is framing the march on the Capitol as a "patriotic" event that's literally the opportunity for the mob to—how do I put this—vote again? He has mentioned "re-voting" multiple times, and that appears to be the frame here. The invasion of the Capitol *is* an "election."
"I want to thank the more than 140 members of the House—those are warriors; they're over there working like you've never seen before, studying, talking, actually going all the way back, studying the roots of the Constitution—because they know we have the right.....to send a bad vote that was illegally gotten [back to the states]." Note: Trump again frames this as war. He's telling the mob that *at that very moment* there are "warriors" fighting for America inside the Capitol. Warriors he has told them they're all about to go join.
He's also telling the mob it has the "right" to force the action it's to going to try to force: "sending a bad vote that was illegally gotten" back to state legislatures. (Of course this is a lie—not only is there no such "right," it's not what was happening at the Capitol.) "I want to thank all those Congressmen and women. I also want to thank our 13 most courageous members of the U.S. Senate {he names them, mispronouncing 'Loeffler'}." He reminds the mob the GA runoff was "rigged," saying the GOP "never had a shot" because of the "equipment." "I actually think, though, it takes more courage *not* to step up." Incredible. Trump *repeats* the creepiest threat of his entire speech. Perhaps he does so because this time he refers to *Congress*, not Pence. He's saying opposing him is a bigger risk than opposing Biden. "And I think a lot of those people are going to find that out. And you {addressing mob} better start looking at your leadership, because your leadership has led you down the tubes." His scariest line yet: Congress is "going to find out" opposing him is their *biggest risk*.
I mean it—that's his most chilling line yet. "A lot of those people are going to find out" that "it takes more courage *not* to stand up." Because a mob is coming. He makes clear he refers to something that's going to happen soon. Within an hour, the Capitol is besieged.
He now rants for quite a while about the stimulus checks and the rigged election, emphasizing that he wants to be sure the "hundreds of thousands of people" in the mob he's speaking to "don't get bored." He obviously can't have that—he's about to launch them at the Capitol.
He now confirms that when he was talking about the media "silencing" people, he was referring to the media—in cahoots with Democrats—being Communist. And again he's using violent imagery: the alternative to Communism is "fighting," he says. He speaks wistfully of "fighting."
He now spreads Russian disinformation about Ukraine, adding—incredibly—"if I said that [what he falsely says Biden said to Ukrainian officials], it would be a whole different ballgame." He *did* say to the Ukrainians what he claims Biden did. His gall is... galaxy-spanning.
Keep in mind that this whole speech is being delivered from behind the Seal of the President of the United States. He says media has gone "dead." More violent imagery ("Romney got slaughtered") associated with his enemies. "We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we've been forced to." He calls the election "fake." (Thus, January 6 is the *real* election.) He says Democrats "cheated like hell" in the GA runoff. No evidence offered, needless to say. He then—knowing he's speaking to a mob with many white supremacists—attacks four people (see if you can spot a trend): Stacy Abrams; Oprah; Michelle Obama; "Barack Hussein Obama." He notes how "unhappy" he is with SCOTUS, and how he "fought like hell" for three of them to get on the court—see, I said the phrase would pop up—including Brett Kavanaugh, who Trump's allies told him was "killing" the GOP (violent imagery). Calls Kavanaugh's accusers liars. Of the Supreme Court he says—effortlessly spinning a conspiracy theory—"It almost seems they're all going out of their way to hurt all of us. And to hurt our country. To hurt our country." He says they can't rule for him because they'll lose friends on "the social circuit." He lauds media for accusing their enemies of doing what they're doing, and then says that "if I were media, I'd do the same, hate to say it." But... he *is* doing the same. This *whole speech* is him doing the same. He's meta-meta-attacking the media. An extraordinary move.
"For the sake of our Constitution, for the sake of our children, we [hereby] lay out our case [for election fraud]..." I'm not going to repeat the "case" he thereafter supplies. It's all gibberish and lies.
Keep in mind how *historically extraordinary* this rant is. The election ended 60 days ago. Trump thereafter lost 65 state and federal lawsuits. Every state certified the election results and told him—often via calls with election officials—that all his fraud claims were BS.
Trump's rant—and it's long—is delivered despite *every word he says* having been rejected in conversations *he was present for* with elections experts and election law attorneys. Trump has been told over and over and over that everything he's saying is a lie and he persists. But the rant is *necessary* because remember the theme of the speech: January 6 is the *real* election day, as the November election was "fake."
"The only way [Pennsylvania can recertify their electors] is if Mike Pence agrees to send it [the electoral slate] back [to PA]." Understand what Trump is telling the mob: that state elections officials *believe he won* and are simply asking for the right to *get their electoral slates back* so they can recertify the election with Trump winning. He's saying his loss was a paperwork error a mob can fix. "Mike Pence has to agree to send it back. {He's interrupted by a new chant—one I can't make out.} And many people in Congress want to send it back. Think of what you're doing. Let's say you *don't* do it....let's say they're stiffs, and they're stupid people, and they say.....Pennsylvania and other states want to redo their votes, they want to see the numbers—they already have the numbers—very quickly, and they want to redo. Their legislature! Because many of these votes were taken, because it wasn't approved by their legislature." Got that?
I wrote that out to underscore that it's gibberish. Whenever Trump gets into the weeds of election law or elections process he—how do I put this—simply *makes no sense whatsoever*. He babbles. Because the goal here is just to leave a cloud of doubt about a "fake" election.
"If you don't do that [send the slates back to the state legislatures], you will have a President of the United States for four years—with his wonderful son—you will have a president who lost all of these states....a president who was voted on by a bunch of stupid people."
I know this rhetoric is confusing. To simplify: 1) "Stupid people" means Congress. 2) Trump is saying the real "vote" for president happens on January 6—not in November of the year prior. 3) He is saying Congress' "vote" must reflect what GOP legislatures (not voters) want.
This is insurrection. Trump is preaching the overthrow of a democratically elected government, arguing for a new system of government in which voters don't decide who the POTUS is, but rather GOP state legislatures—whose political judgment is then rubber-stamped by Congress.
One of you already intuited where this is headed. The reason Democratic members of Congress say that the insurrectionists were trying to "burn the ballots"... ...is because they were. That's why they wanted to get to the House chamber. Because that's where the ballots were.
Sure, the insurrectionists would have settled for simply breaking up the joint session of Congress—but one of the *key targets* of their armed invasion was to get the ballots that were *in* that joint session, because Trump had convinced them the slates were fraudulent ones.
Fortunately, aides took the ballots as Congress was fleeing Trump's mob. But if you watch video of the insurrection you hear a lot of "we're gonna burn this place down." The mob needed to interrupt the "vote"—the election day Trump told them of—and hopefully get the slates.
"You will have an illegitimate president. That's what you'll have. And we can't let that happen." The call to action—the incitement to insurrection—couldn't be clearer. He then says that it's *this* truth the media is trying to "suppress"—a verb he's attached, in his speech, to Communism—and "promises" the mob that as soon as he began revealing the electoral slates were fake many of the media cameras at the speech "were turned off." Insane.
"These are the things you don't hear about. You don't hear about it from the people who want to deceive you and demoralize you and control you." He's falsely telling the mob that he's just *revealed* something incredible about the election, and the law, and the Constitution. More conspiracy theories. He says media (mainly Big Tech) is trying to suppress him getting this truth out, and his supporters from spreading the truth, by reconfiguring algorithms—sort of like he says they did with the election—to ensure the truth is suppressed (Communism).
"Let the weak ones get out [of the Republican Party]. This is a time for strength." This calls to mind Donald Trump Jr.'s prior message to the crowd, which was that it's not the Republican Party anymore, it's *Donald Trump's* Republican Party. Straight-up fascist propaganda.
Another specter-of-Communism meme: "They want to indoctrinate your children." "It's all part of a comprehensive assault on our democracy. And the American people are finally standing up and saying no." Lest you wonder who's "standing up" his next words are: "This crowd..."
He now disavows any knowledge of how "this crowd" came to be. He lies and said he "did no advertising" to get the crowd to come (he repeatedly and frantically advertised the Save America March through the very Twitter feed he moments earlier had said he "didn't care about"). "We didn't do anything. This [mob] just happened." A bald-faced lie. Ali Alexander says he worked with Trump Congressional allies Reps. Gosar, Biggs and Brooks to make the rally happen. Trump was in touch with DoD about whether the Guard would come. He manufactured the mob.
"We have nothing to do with it." This is like the fourth straight—false—denial that he had anything to do with the mob. It's almost like he knows the speech is wrapping up; the mob is headed to the Capitol; he's going to flee to the White House; and he's washing his hands.
"They're forming all over the United States." Remember when he said there should be "hell all over the country" on January 6 over the "fake" election? Well that was exactly his goal—and that's what he's pumping up here: the idea that there are Trump mobs forming everywhere.
He's on a bizarre digression involving foreign wars, now. He's saying that "in a year" his mob must vote out all the "weak Republicans," for instance Liz Cheney, who apparently stands in for "the neo-cons." Hence his self-congratulation for "mostly" bringing the troops home. He returns to his script, now, and the script says he should be talking about "dropbox" fraud in Wisconsin—including "human drop boxes"(?)—and his "great" conversation (which people "love") with the "crooked" Georgia SoS. Not going to summarize these bizarre, debunked lies.
Trump now casually implies that Brad Raffensperger might actually be a *secret Democratic spy and colluder* who spent 2020 and 2021 trying to help the Democrats win in Georgia. Raffensperger is a far-right conservative. These lies are so bizarre and unhinged—he's deranged. He says Georgia must "find" the votes he "needs," as "tens of thousands" of fake votes were added to the Democrats' tally. He has been repeatedly told that this is a lie. "Willful ignorance" is no defense under the law, yet he repeats lies Raffensperger and others debunked.
"The radical left knows exactly what they're doing. They're ruthless—and it's time somebody did something about it. And Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not, I'm gonna be......very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now. I'm not hearing good stories." Pence had already told Trump in a face-to-face conversation that he wouldn't be "stand[ing] up," so the "it's time somebody did something" piece would have to—Trump knew—fall to the mob.
Trump is speeding up significantly now. He realizes he's losing the mob. He's now engaged in a massive data dump regarding Georgia and Arizona. Little crowd reaction. He's mainly sticking to the teleprompter, which is what he does when he knows he needs to speed things up.
Oh my god. So many numbers. No one could be following what Trump is saying here. He's rushing, and the lies he's delivering are very confusing and are delivered in a way that doesn't clarify them. He's nervous. He rushes through Nevada and then says, "In Michigan—quickly..." He keeps emphasizing that all the supposed widespread fraud (NB: there was no evidence of widespread fraud) was in large cities. Note that Trump never comes close to the "ten states" that Rudy Giuliani will shortly plead with Sen. Tommy Tuberville to contest. He's at 4, now. Trump says the fraud was "only in a few states"—underscoring that when Giuliani calls Tuberville *less than an hour later* asking him to contest "10 states" as a "strategy" to "draw this out," it's because the rioters need time to sack the Capitol and maybe find the ballots.
Great—we've reached the "Dominion" part of the speech. I'm not going to summarize this idiocy. Note that Trump scheduled this speech for two hours before the "vote" he wanted interrupted because he knew his speech was long. The speech ends up being ~75 minutes. Trump is leaving just enough time for the mob to get to the Capitol by 1PM—when he needs them to be there.
He says he's going to wrap up his "evidence" because he knows that it's cold (he's just reading his speech; he doesn't skip ahead). This earns him a chant of "WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU!" from the crowd. He says that what he's described is a "criminal enterprise."
"I could go on for another hour reading this stuff to you." (No—he couldn't.) "The Republicans have to get tougher. You're not going to have a Republican Party if you don't get tougher." (Trump has a long history of associating "toughness" with physical strength and force.) "They [the Republicans up at the Capitol] want to play it *so straight*." He implies that the mob needs to play it... less "straight." Then: "When you catch someone in a fraud, you're allowed to go by {he pauses} very different rules." God, that's another chilling line.
"So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn't listen to the RINOs ['Republicans in Name Only'] and the *stupid* people." No wonder the mob shows up at the Capitol obsessed with *finding*—and possibly detaining—Mike Pence. They were induced.
Trump falsely claiming that voters around the country were sent "4, 5, 6, in one case I heard 7" absentee ballots is so ridiculous that it'd be funny if it weren't leveraged here in service of deliberate incitement to insurrection against the government of the United States. "This is the most corrupt election in the history of, maybe, the world." Note the verb tense—he remains in the present, as he has to convince the mob that the election is still an open question, not a past-tense event. Remember: his theme is that election day is *January 6*.
"It's so crazy [the election's corruption] that people don't believe it. 'It can't be true!'" This is a propaganda technique—putting the preposterousness of what you're saying in service of its alleged veracity. He invites the mob to be awed by the novelty of the corruption.
Surprise reveal! "This is not just a matter of domestic politics, it's a matter of *national security*." He's deputizing the mob to consider itself advocates for not just their own highly emotionalized partisan wishes, but also the defense of the country's national security. He demands "sweeping election reforms," telling Congress "you better do it" before "we have no country left." "Today is not the end—it's just the beginning." Then: "With your help..." He often does this: applies a phrase to its current sentence *and* the sentence prior. What the mob hears is, "With your help [today], today [will be] not the end—but just the beginning." And I say "hear" in the literal sense, i.e. the words are arranged so that the mental impression the listener receives is that the words have been said as I wrote them above. He uses the word "challenge" three times in quick succession, and then says "Our fight...is just getting started." Then: "We must 'Stop the Steal,' and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again." Another call to mob action. Imminent action.
"We're going forward [with election reform]. We'll take care of 'going forward.' We [you and I] need to take care of going back [to the November election]." Trump is asking the mob to, alongside him—remember, he's promised to march to the Capitol—"take care of" the "steal."
He follows this immediately with, "Don't let them talk..."—soon clarifying that what he means is that people talk about polls and approval ratings but all he is really "interested" in is {he attempts to gesture to the Capitol but points in the wrong direction} "right there."
What comes next is really bizarre. He... how do I explain this?... outlines an entire political agenda involving election reform... as though he isn't 14 days from the end of his term. He really wants the mob to *feel* like there's going to be a second Trump administration.
He keeps saying, "We will do this..." and "We will do that..."—I swear this sounds like a State of the Union address. Honestly, listen for yourself. It does. There's absolutely no recognition in his tone or his words that his term as president is literally just about to end.
In propaganda terms, what Trump is doing is outlining the "promise" of his quid pro quo of incitement to insurrection. He's asked the mob—directly and indirectly—to interrupt what's happening at the Capitol, but now he must underline *what they'll get from him* if they *do*.
"If these people had courage and guts, they would finally get rid of Section 230." By using "these people"—the word "these"—to refer to members of Congress a mile away, Trump underscores that he considers himself to be speaking to this mob in the very shadow of the Capitol. "It [Big Tech 'interfering in our elections'] has to be stopped, and Republicans have to get a lot tougher....they [Big Tech companies] should be regulated and investigated and brought to justice." There's a *lot* more "Big Tech" focus in this speech than you'd ever expect. It's almost like Trump feared the events of January 6 would sever his relationship with several social media platforms? I'm not saying we know that—I don't even mean to speculate—but I just don't know how to account for Trump's obsessive focus on social media companies here. He points to three entities stealing elections and assaulting democracy: media (the press), the Democrats, and Big Tech. He is elevating Big Tech to one of the main "enemies of the people." I think he felt Twitter captioning some of his tweets was a sign of the end for him.
In the last 24 hours, media has reported that Trump and his team *anticipated* Trump would eventually be banned from Twitter and other platforms—especially as he got close to the end of his term. That's the most likely explanation for his aggressive "Big Tech" rhetoric here. He says he wants Big Tech "brought to justice" to "the fullest extent of the law. They're totally breaking the law." He says that this and "draining the swamp" hasn't happened yet and will be a "dirty business." What happens next is truly bizarre.
Trump says, "Looking out at the crowds all over the country..." Uh... what? This suggests that Trump has been monitoring *coordinated* pro-Trump rallies all over the country, i.e. he knew and expected and planned that January 6 would see large-scale actions all over America.
This matters because if you've been reading the news, there were pro-Trump actions on January 6 in state capitals all across America that involved threats, evacuations, and in one case the breaching of a government facility. Trump saw his insurrection as a *national* event.
"If we [the mob] allow this group of people [Congress] to illegally take over our country [today]—'cause it's illegal when the votes are illegal, when the way they got there [to the Capitol] is illegal, when the states that vote are given false and fraudulent information..."
I'd finish the sentence I just ended with an ellipsis, but Trump didn't. He just said, "If we allow this group of people...", then left the consequences unsaid. His next words are, "We're the greatest country in the history of Earth and we're headed in the right direction."
I want to remind everyone *how far we've now come* from *any* idea that the mob is going to simply walk to within a couple blocks of the Capitol with Trump and just "cheer." How *far* we are from any sense of the "peaceful." What Trump wants from the mob is *crystal clear*.
He briefly rambles about his vanity "Wall" and, if you can believe it, migrant "caravans." It's clear that he's pulling out every single buzzword he's ever used to incite a crowd. "As this enormous crowd shows, we have truth and justice on our side." He's reading this text. I note that he's reading this text to underscore that his team *knew* there would be an "enormous" crowd because—contra Trump's claims—they'd worked hard to *ensure* it would be enormous, large enough Trump could have on his teleprompter a claim about how vast the mob was.
"Together we are determined to protect and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people." He already said "people" means "real" people (his term)—Trumpists. Imagine how little the speech ("we") would work if the mob knew he was about to flee to the WH.
"Our brightest days are before us. Our greatest achievements await." This carries an echo of the fact that Trumpists consider their siege of the Capitol—at this point, minutes away—the greatest "achievement" of Trump's "movement." I'm not sure that resonance is an accident.
He says one of the "achievements" that lies ahead for Trumpism is "election security"—which in this context of course refers *both* to his State-of-the-Union-like election reform agenda but *also* the "national security"- and "election"-related mob action he is now inciting. "We fight. We fight like hell [for election security]." There can be no mistaking that he's talking about *right now*. As in, "we"—him and the mob—are *about* to "fight like hell" for "election security" by ending the Save America March where it was *always* slated to end. "And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." Incitement to insurrection. "Our most exciting endeavors, and our boldest adventures, have not yet begun." But they're about to—and he knows it. Is counting on it. Incitement to insurrection.
"My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country—and I say this despite all that's happened—the best is yet to come." Watch what comes *right* after he says "the best is yet to come": "So we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue..." "and we're going TO THE CAPITOL" (my emphasis) "and we're going to try and give our Republicans—the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help—the kind of pride and boldness that they need to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY" (my emphasis). Incitement. Insurrection.
"So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you—and God bless America! Thank you all for being here. This is incredible." He then jumps into his up-armored limousine and flees to the White House. The mob was already on its way to the Capitol.
The closing song is "YMCA"—famous for getting people who listen to it moving physically, as there's a dance associated with it that involves you swinging your arms. The mob is electric, with giant SAVE AMERICA MARCH ("Save America! March!") banners above them all the while.
Thanks to all for reading this. I'm overwhelmed by the response. If you haven't already, I hope you'll go back to the first tweet—my pinned tweet—and RETWEET it. America must know what this man did/said. He incited insurrection. Just as the article of impeachment says. /end
It's really hard to describe how deranged, delusional, deeply dumb, childish this speech is but at the same time such effective propaganda for deeply misguided, stupid and deranged people.
posted by spooked at 8:15 PM
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