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Almost four years on, Americans may have forgotten the details of that horrific day in January 2021. Perhaps they remember watching the riots on TV, the Congress held hostage, the chaos and confusion, the desecration of the U.S. Capitol.
Some high-ranking Republicans, including the vice presidential nominee, would like to have you forget what happened and “focus on the future.” Then there’s Donald Trump, who from his self-interested universe has completely upended reality and now calls the events of that day “peaceful” and “beautiful.”
Millions of Americans have a distinctly different memory … one of horror and fury as we witnessed a violent mob set to destroy the cradle of our democracy and stop the peaceful transfer of power. It was anything but peaceful.
It was “a conspiracy to defraud the United States” and “a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct … a congressional proceeding,” according to the indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
We need to take a moment to salute what Smith and his team have accomplished, despite all the obstacles thrown their way.
Some of us may be reluctant to praise a civil servant for doing his job, but the prosecution of the former president has been challenging at every turn. Smith has endured highly partisan jurists — including some on the Supreme Court — an enraged defendant who has promised to go after his political enemies if reelected, and the wrath of the MAGA right, who, along with the Republican nominee, continue to disparage the investigation. What Smith and his team are doing is courageous. Even heroic.
For Trump, the 165-page brief compiled by the special counsel and just released by Judge Tanya Chutkan is about as welcome as a roach in the punchbowl at a Mar-a-Lago garden party. Dropped just a month before the election, Smith gives us new information about the events leading up to the insurrection, Trump’s movements, whom he called, and which websites he was watching on his phone. It is a compelling narrative that pieces together the conspiracy to overthrow the election. The aim is to show that Trump’s actions were personal, in contrast to the official duties the Supreme Court says grant him immunity.
If you don’t want to talk about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — and if you’re Donald Trump, you shouldn’t — this hasn’t been a great week. Trump wants to keep the focus on his opponent. And, as you might imagine, insurrection polls terribly for him. Even now, most Republicans don’t support the actions of the rioters that day. Only a third of Republicans polled characterized the attack as a “peaceful protest.”
Trump’s bad week started on Tuesday night, during what was one of the defining moments of an otherwise sleep-inducing vice presidential debate. When asked about election integrity, Tim Walz said, “He is still saying [Trump] didn’t lose the election.” Turning to JD Vance, he asked, “Did he lose the 2020 election?” After a long pause, Vance replied, “Tim, I’m focused on the future.” A slightly incredulous Walz turned to the camera and said, “That is a damning non-answer,” and followed up with “America, I think you’ve got a really clear choice of who’s going to honor that democracy and who’s going to honor Donald Trump.”
The Harris campaign has quickly capitalized on the exchange with a new ad.
A quick reminder that the reason Vance was even on that stage is that the previous vice president, Mike Pence, refused to go along with Trump’s big lie. Vance has indicated he is willing to push legal boundaries for his boss, which seems to have been a litmus test for the job.
Then, just 24 hours after the debate, Smith’s brief was made public. Its purpose was twofold: first, flesh out the case that Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election. And second, argue why Trump should not be immune from the charges, despite the Supreme Court ruling granting presidential immunity.
On the immunity issue, Smith laid out evidence including conversations and meetings in which he says Trump was acting as a candidate and not as the president, thus a private citizen, who is subject to the law just like anyone else.
In the case against Trump, Smith provided new — in some cases, jaw-dropping — details, demonstrating that Trump’s only objective was to stay in power and not, as he has often said, to protect the country from election fraud.
Here are few salient points:
When Trump was told that Mike Pence’s life had been threatened and the Secret Service had evacuated him from the Capitol, he reportedly said, “So what?” This was after Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” He wanted Pence to stop Congress’s certification of the election results.
When told by numerous advisers that his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud wouldn’t hold up in court, Trump allegedly told them, “The details don’t matter.”
Two hours after Trump spoke with Steve Bannon on January 5, Bannon said on his podcast, “All hell is going to break loose” tomorrow.
To his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Trump reportedly said, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
It looks like that was the second time that day Trump spoke those words. At a rally urging his supporters to march on the Capitol, he told them,“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
In addition to Smith’s brief, an even more graphic reminder of that day’s events comes from a new documentary titled “Fight Like Hell.” It was just released, streaming for free on YouTube. The documentary has never-before-seen-footage of the insurrection and pulls no punches.
Win or lose, the events leading up to and including January 6 are a blueprint for what Trump intends to do. If elected, he has said he will pardon the January 6 rioters and go after his perceived political rivals. If he loses, he has threatened violence and will likely not accept the results of the election.
There is a lot not to like about Donald Trump, but his treasonous actions on January 6 top a lot of people’s lists. If you do nothing else between now and the election, remind your family, friends, even strangers if you can, about what Trump did on that fateful day. And vote like hell.
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Stay Steady,
Dan
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