I understand if you're a little jaded about the January 6 insurrection. I mean, we've already seen more than enough evidence that Republicans were initially appalled by the whole thing and only later decided to pretend it was a big nothingburger that Democrats were ginning up for partisan reasons.
But CNN has gotten hold of a couple thousand text messages sent to Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff at the time, and they make for some dispiriting reading:
"He's got to condem (sic) this shit. Asap," Donald Trump Jr. texted at 2:53 p.m.
"POTUS needs to calm this shit down," GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina wrote at 3:04 p.m.
"TELL THEM TO GO HOME !!!" former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus messaged at 3:09 p.m.
"POTUS should go on air and defuse this. Extremely important," Tom Price, former Trump health and human services secretary and a former GOP representative from Georgia, texted at 3:13 p.m.
"Fix this now," wrote GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas at 3:15 p.m.
There's much more at the link, including the fact that nearly everyone who texted Meadows (a) thinks Trump could have stopped the rioters, and (b) stands by what they said in real time. The whole piece is worth a read, even if it's just for the entertainment value because you've already heard enough about what happened that day.
Isn't the point here that Meadows got all these texts and did nothing, and was demonstrably working with the rioters, so that if they ever do get around to indicting anyone in the White House they'll invariably start with him, which will then implicate Trump in court?
I've heard enough about 1/6 to know that the DoJ should bring charges against Trump and his cronies who let it happen, if only for criminal neglect of their duties under their sworn oaths.
So many right wing pansies who know better are refusing to go on the record. Pathetic.
Don't worry, all of the relevant Republicans have learned their lessons from January 6th and won't make the same mistakes again. Not that it is a good thing for democracy, but they've learned well.
They were panicky because they were afraid their constituents would find insurrection a bridge too far. Once it became clear that most Republican voters are just fine with some Constitution-shredding if it pwns the libs, well, it was a nothingburger to them.
Until they are being killed. The collectivist patriarchy will slaughter those useless fools.
Don’t feed the troll.
Absolutely correct. That is EXACTLY what happened. Political opportunism and disregard for constitutional democracy laid bare.
Political orientation can be inferred from brain scans,
https://www.braintomorrow.com/brain-scans-political-party/
I was initially surprised and impressed by the seemingly heartfelt and outraged speeches that many Republican senators gave as they cast their votes in Impeachment II: the Coup. Mr McConnell, in particular, gave a real stemwinder.
But then nearly all of them voted ... TO ACQUIT! On a discredited technicality, no less. The very few Rs, in both House and Senate, who voted for the article of impeachment have ... say what? Dropped out of politics, declining to run for re-election -- or any election.
By which I conclude that even the best members of the party are, at the end of the day, unprincipled cowards.
The strange case of a political party that underwent a Jeckyll-and-Hyde transformation. Jeckyll did it with a potion (a movie suggests with glandular extracts from an ape). The party, they say, did it by absorbing the essence of an orange ape.
So, that's the real legacy of Clint Eastwood's Any Which Way But Loose Sochairtic Dialogue at the 2012 GQP Convention.
I think so. The danger of debating an empty chair is that you never know who'll be planting themselves in that chair next.