Jan. 6, 2021: A new Day of Infamy
It didn’t seem to matter that the arguments put forth by the president and his enablers --- that votes cast for him on the same ballots in the same swing states were legitimate because they were for him, while like all dictators, votes cast against him by voters in the same state were somehow illegal --- never made any sense and defied logic. (Republicans down the ticket also won numerous seats in Congress in the same states that voted for Biden, but that never seemed to matter to Trump and his enabler-apologists).
So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the lies would further poison our democratic system, and lead to what amounted to a bloody, violent attempted coup d’état, despite these facts:
* About 60 lawsuits were thrown out by a host of courts for lack of evidence and the U.S. Supreme Court twice rejected challenges, including a bizarre attempt by Texas to toss out votes in several swing states.
* The head of the United States cybersecurity agency declared the election to be the most secure ever – and then was promptly fired by President Trump for telling the truth.
* Former Attorney General William Barr declared that Justice Department investigators found no evidence of fraud on the scale that it would have taken to tip an election that wasn’t all that close. Barr stuck by that declaration before he resigned on Dec. 23 over his boss’ attempts to bully him into falsely declaring that the election results weren’t accurate.
The lies persisted and things were expected to come to a head on Jan. 6 when the House and Senate convened in a joint session to formally count and certify the Electoral College votes that had been previously certified in each state on Dec. 14, because 12 Republican senators and up to 140 GOP House members had said they’d challenge selective states’ votes.
That process had just gotten under way when our worst fears were realized:
An out-of-control mob, egged on by the president of the United States’ barrage of false allegations, started marching on the Capitol. Trump vowed to never "give up" and told his supporters in a speech to be strong and "fight like hell." But his supporters did much more than just march on the Capitol: They forced the first major breach of the Capitol since 1814, when the British burned it down during the War of 1812. They ransacked offices, vandalized the building and physically attacked police. Some roamed the building shouting the names of Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom they had targeted for harm.
To date, six people, including a Capitol police officer, died, including a protester who was fatally shot after refusing to yield after entering the Capitol as she began to climb through the broken part of a door leading into an area of the Capitol known as the Speaker’s Lobby; hundreds of others broke windows and climbed through them.
And make no mistake: These were not all merely Trump voters who did this – far too many of what amounted to an invasion force represented hardcore extremist, White supremacist groups.
The Capitol storming was the inevitable result of four years of members of his party and others enabling a man who has never accepted the rule of law, who bullies people into bending to his will and who thinks he can do anything he wants to do without consequences as he treats the United States of America like one of his companies.
A new Day of Infamy
As a result, Jan. 6, 2021 will go down as the saddest and most tragic day in American history since 9/11; on that day, foreign terrorists slammed three jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and would have rammed a fourth into either the White House or the Capitol were it not for that fourth plane’s brave passengers, who forced the plane to go down in a Pennsylvania field.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I stood in the newsroom of The Sun Chronicle as I watched in horror and disbelief as I saw the planes being crashed into one of our proudest centers of commerce and our defense department’s headquarters. I wrote a column saying it was our generation’s Day of Infamy.
Now, more than two decades later, I watched hordes of Americans invade the Capitol Building with disgust.
But the horror at the Capitol also was the legacy of our venomous social media-driven society where lies, conspiracy theories and falsehoods are routinely accepted as news. Trump has been a prime contributor to this, but he’s not the only one to blame: Americans who have failed to support legitimate news organizations are to blame, too, because that has left a void where people turn to social media and believe everything they see on face value; they no longer want to be patient while rumors are checked out before being printed or broadcast.
Some heroes of the siege
But that’s a story for another day. Today, we should salute some of the heroes who prevented what could have been a catastrophe and instead saved Jan. 6 and the early-morning hours of Jan. 7 for democracy:
* The National Guard, which finally quelled the riot and pushed the intruders out of the Capitol offices. It will require a thorough investigation to explain why the Capitol Police were woefully unprepared for the mob even though their intentions to disrupt the vote-counting had been well planned and posted on social media.
* The congressional clerks who acted swiftly to grab the Electoral College votes before they were destroyed by the rioters.
* Vice President Mike Pence: His faith in our laws and his resolute refusal to do the president’s dirty work – to break the law and not certify the election – is commendable. He realized he had no power to do what Trump demanded, and he did his job as he moderated the debate as Congress examined the Electoral College votes from each state. Pence also patiently shepherded Congress through a long day and night, which included two lengthy challenges (senators dropped their challenges on the other states after the sad events of the day left most congressmen numb). When Pence gaveled the joint session closed at about 3:45 a.m. Jan. 7, I was relieved. He had done the right thing – and that’s something that so many of his party had failed to do as the election lies got way out of hand.
* U.S. Sen Mitt Romney, R-Utah: The former Massachusetts governor once again distinguished himself by giving an emotional and powerful speech urging his colleagues to tell the truth about the election. He had said it before, but his remarks, coming after the tragic events earlier that day, were especially poignant.
* Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had congratulated Joe Biden on Dec. 14 after the formal Electoral College vote, ripped the conspiracy theories and challenges in an impassioned speech.
In addition, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s comments in finally breaking with Trump and saying the events at the Capitol were enough and in essence the last straw for him as he declared the election legitimate --- were commendable. But his remarks were clearly way too little and entirely too late.
But at least Graham became one more GOP official who has seen the light about Trump. It’s just too bad that it took what amounted to a virtual coup d’état attempt by extremist groups and Trump backers to jolt so many of the president’s enablers out of their blind loyalty.
Let’s hope and pray that the dastardly events of 1/6/2021 will lead to a greater will for both Republicans and Democrats to treat each with respect and will spawn a renewed desire to cooperate to solve the many challenges we face – above all the raging coronavirus pandemic and its soaring death toll (more than 380,000 Americans as of this writing).
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