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“American Abyss”: Fascism Historian Tim Snyder on Trump’s Coup Attempt, Impeachment & What’s Next
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow.org
JANUARY 13, 2021

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

GUESTS
Timothy Snyder, author, professor of history at Yale University and fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
LINKS
Timothy Snyder on Twitter
"The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next"
"On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century"
"Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary"

As the House votes to impeach President Trump, the FBI warns there could be a repeat of the violent insurrection he encouraged on January 6, with Trump loyalists planning to hold armed protests nationwide ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. We speak with Timothy Snyder, a historian of fascism, who says the riot at the U.S. Capitol was “completely and utterly predictable” given President Trump’s record of stoking extremism and undermining democratic institutions. “The American republic is hanging by a thread because the president of the United States has sought to use violence to stay in power and essentially to overthrow our constitutional system,” says Snyder.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, history is being made today in Washington, D.C., as the House is voting to impeach President Trump for a second time. That’s one week after he encouraged a violent mob to “fight like hell” and attack the Capitol as members of Congress voted to ratify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election. The deadly siege so enraged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he’s now reportedly privately backing impeachment, along with a growing number of Republicans, including Congressmember Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican in the House. On Tuesday, Vice President Pence rejected a call from the House to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office.

Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers bypassed metal detectors to enter the House floor that were installed after last week’s deadly attack, including the newly elected Colorado Republican QAnon supporter, Congressmember Lauren Boebert, who vowed in a viral video to carry a gun in the Capitol.

Far from the commotion, President Trump surrounded himself with supporters during a visit to the border wall in Alamo, Texas. In his first public appearance since the violence at the Capitol, he continued to deny any involvement with or responsibility for the violent insurrection.

This comes as The Washington Post reports the FBI explicitly warned of violence and “war” at the U.S. Capitol in an internal report issued one day before last Wednesday’s deadly Capitol invasion, and police officers from Seattle to New York are under investigation for participating in storming the Capitol, along with members of the New York Fire Department and apparently seven Philadelphia transit police officers. Two Black officers who defended the Capitol during the attack confirmed to BuzzFeed News that some of the insurgents they came face to face with were off-duty cops. Others were reportedly former military servicemembers. On Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a reminder to members of the armed forces that, quote, “The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection,” unquote.

The FBI has opened some 170 cases on individuals involved in the assault and says hundreds more will be opened in the coming weeks. Over 70 people have been charged so far.

Now the FBI is warning Trump loyalists plan to hold armed protests nationwide ahead of Biden’s inauguration next week. Screenshots of archived content appear to show plans for mass armed actions in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

For more, we’re joined by Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, where he now joins us from. He is the author of several books, including On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. His new essay in The New York Times Magazine is headlined “The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.”

Professor Snyder, welcome back to Democracy Now! We are glad that you are physically doing well. We’ll talk about that later. But let’s talk about what happened. From your vantage point in Vienna, Austria, if you can talk about what you watched last week and why you see race at the core of this Trump-inspired insurrection?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Right. I mean, number one, it’s kind of you, Amy, to mention the article. The reason why I could publish a big article about this part about the coup attempt right after it happened was that this was completely and utterly predictable. I already had the article drafted before the 6th of January because it was obvious to me what was going to happen. And so, I just want to underline the points you were suggesting earlier about just how strange it was that this kind of thing could happen so easily.

As to race, I mean, this is a classic historian’s point. The point I make in the article is about the big lie. You know, I say that these are the kinds of things that happen if a charismatic leader with a big megaphone, with a lot of reach, is able to consistently tell one thing which is simply not true, but which deeply matters, like, for example, I won an election that I lost. That has to lead to violence. But as you rightly suggest, the big lie has to be rooted in a particular society. And in the United States, the big lie is going to be rooted in race. Let’s count the ways.

Number one, what Mr. Trump is saying, when he won the election, is that there was fraud. And by fraud, he means the reality that African Americans are allowed to vote. When he speaks in Milwaukee or Atlanta or Detroit, what he’s saying is Black voters, right? When he’s saying, “I won,” he’s saying, “I won if you only count the votes of the real Americans.”

Number two, think of Senator Cruz and his invocation of 1877. As every historian of the U.S. knows, and as lots of African Americans know, but maybe not everybody knows, the Compromise of 1877 is the very moment when the American South was allowed to build up a basically American apartheid. The Compromise of 1877 is what allowed American states to push African Americans away from the voting booths and into a Jim Crow condition, which was going to last for nearly a century and which we’re still dealing with today.

Number three, look at the people who actually invade the Capitol. These are — and this has not been covered enough, this has not been hit hard enough — these people are basically white supremacists. The white supremacists are leading, right? They’re leading the way, and they’re making the argument that “this is our house.” In other words, what we think is that American government should be in the hands of white people who are willing to be violent about Black people.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Professor Snyder, I wanted to ask you, in terms of — you characterize it more as an attempted coup than perhaps maybe insurrection, because a coup assumes that there was an actual — it seems to me, an actual plot afoot by the coup makers. And in this situation, it appears to be that Trump egged on the mob, clearly, and that it seems to me there’s always been a right-wing, fascist movement in the United States in search of a leader. I mean, if you go back to Father Coughlin in the '30s, Huey Long, George Wallace, there's always been a significant portion of the American population that has lent itself or seen itself in right-wing and anti-democratic terms. And now they actually have a leader in the White House. So, to what degree was this really an opportunism that Trump took advantage of to unleash the mob, as opposed to a coup, where military leaders or key officials got together to plan an overthrow?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Yeah, I take that point. I mean, I would emphasize, Juan, that it’s important that we not get too lost in definitional disagreements about whether we’re going to say “coup” or “putsch” or “insurrection.” The American republic is hanging by a thread because the president of the United States has sought to use violence to stay in power and essentially to overthrow our constitutional system. There’s broad agreement about that.

I’ve been calling it for a coup for a long time, actually, I mean, for months, for the following reasons — or a coup attempt, to be precise, because it’s been clear for a long time, because Mr. Trump has said so himself, that he intends to stay in power after losing the election. That’s been his language for more than six months. He has been trying to bring the military into it. That was clear on June the 1st, Lafayette Square. And it’s also clear from these repeated statements, from today, the Joint Chiefs of Staff; a few days ago, the 10 former secretaries of defense. The reason why these people have to make these statements is that they’re aware that Mr. Trump is trying to get or has a certain amount of support in the military, right? So, it’s a coup attempt, in my view, because Mr. Trump has said he was going to try to change the nature of the American regime, and he’s been trying to use instruments inside American institutions.

Now, beyond that, I would point out that this wasn’t just a mob. I mean, as you know very well and as you just said, these aren’t just people who happened to be there. These are several different kinds of white supremacist and extreme right-wing paramilitaries who are appearing at the Capitol. They are getting mixed in now with members of the police. And this is extremely dangerous, because it’s that mixture of outside-the-state, outside-the-law paramilitaries and police forces, or policemen who start to go over on the other side, which is very characteristic of the way fascist regimes come to power.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I wanted to follow up specifically on that issue of the military, because, obviously, those who know the history of the rise of Hitler know that a lot of his base was embittered and disillusioned veterans of World War I who felt that they had been unjustly treated or had no economic opportunities under the Weimar Republic. The United States military today is 40% people of color. To what degree are the progressives of this country not paying enough attention to actually organizing and reaching out to the enlisted troops of our country in terms of what’s going on? Because, clearly, back in the days of the Vietnam War, it was organizing among the military that really finally convinced this government that they could no longer continue to move forward with the war.

TIMOTHY SNYDER: That’s a really interesting question. I mean, I think, looking back at the last half-century, 60 years of U.S. history, the integration of the military is one of the most significant things that happened, not just in terms of obvious justice — you know, as everyone knows, we fought the Second World War against racism with an Army which was organized by race — but not just ethically, but also politically. I mean, before even getting to the point that you’re making, I think it’s very much the case that the commanders of our armed services are perfectly aware what it means to have integrated services. It means that any kind of attempt to get involved in politics in a Trumpian way would be extremely divisive. But it also means that people in the military, perhaps more than other walks of life— or, to be specific, white people in the military, perhaps more than other walks of life, are actually in contact with, and sometimes share points of view of, folks who have different backgrounds and different experiences than themselves.

I would agree completely with your point. I mean, it’s not always easy to be in contact with people who are in the military. They could be overseas. They could be on a base. But I certainly take your point that folks on the left sometimes have a certain tendency to pigeonhole all institutions and miss some openings.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you, Professor Snyder, about who was involved in this attack. Some have called it the “Coup Klux Klan.” That’s C-O-U-P, Coup Klux Klan. And you make no apologies about referring to white supremacists leading this. Let’s talk about the military and police involvement. It’s just coming to light right now. It looked like this sort of disorderly array of people who took an opportunity last week. But now as more and more video is coming out, it may well be that the frontlines were quite well ordered, and now this latest news that the Seattle police were involved, that New York police officers were involved, that Philadelphia transit officers came down en masse, that a PSYOPS person, at least one, was involved, psychological operations. Talk about this.

TIMOTHY SNYDER: OK. Well, I mean, number one, when we talk about the coup plotters, just to make the obvious point, the most important is Donald Trump himself, who has been creating an — he’s been creating the psychological and the moral environment that makes this possible by telling a big lie in which he is a victim and people who voted for him are victims.

I think, in the second rank, we have to put Senators Cruz and Hawley. It’s extremely important that these senators decided to make of January 6th a kind of carnival of mendacity, in which they were going to exploit their official position in order to tell the big lie, in an occasion which should be formal and solemn. I think that makes them the second ranks of the plotters.

Number three, as you say, there was a good deal of organization taking place. And the Anti-Defamation League and other nongovernmental organizations were tracking this but not able to get very much of a hearing, it seems to me, from government institutions. I mean, as a spectator from a long way away, it was obvious to me, as I say, that something like this was going to happen.

I think, Amy, what follows from this is that in this interval between impeachment, which is going to now happen, and a trial, which I’m going to bet is going to happen after Biden’s 100 days, there should be something like an independent blue-ribbon commission of forensics experts, digital forensics experts, historians, national security people, lawyers and activists, who put together a beautiful and organized and fact-based report about what happened, so that three months from now when there’s a Senate vote, which I believe there will be, there will also be this document that makes it clear how people should vote, but also a document which can go down in history, because, I mean, other days in infamy, compared to this one, don’t compare. I mean, this, the January putsch, is the day in infamy which we have to get right for historical purposes. If this becomes a myth of victimhood, if this becomes, as Mr. Trump says, something we should treasure, then the country is in trouble. We need to get the facts right and the history right and the story right on this one.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Professor Snyder, where do you see the Republican Party and Donald Trump going after Biden is inaugurated? Clearly, the party had hitched its star to Trump, and now there is enormous upheaval within it in terms of the road ahead.

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Yeah, I mean, not many people think this, but, you know, I’ll go out on a limb and say it: I think it’s going to be hard for Mr. Trump to continue to reside in the United States of America. He has a lot of debt, and he’s facing — even before the 6th of January, he was facing a number of criminal charges — or, not facing directly, but being investigated for a number of criminal charges in New York. I think it’s going to be hard for him to keep his feet in the United States of America. Perhaps I’m wrong.

As for the Republican Party, I mean, my way of seeing it, as I lay out in that article, “American Abyss,” is that the largest group of Republicans are people that you could call the gamers, the ones who work the system with the gerrymandering, with the dark money, with the voter suppression, who are in favor of the, quote-unquote, “democracy” that we have in America now, the unfortunately very limited democracy we have, because they know how to work it.

Then there’s a smaller faction, which in the article I call the breakers. Those are people like Trump or Cruz or Hawley, who have understood that one could actually come to power in the United States by entirely nondemocratic means, by way of the mob, by way of throwing an election and lying about it. And I think that faction is going to be there.

Then there’s a third, still smaller group, which you could call the honorable few, the people who have positions that I might disagree with, but who believe in the rule of law and who believe in telling the truth — right? — like Kinzinger or like Cheney or like Mitt Romney.

I think the interesting thing to watch for is whether the center of power in the Republican Party now shifts from being the breakers and the gamers together to being the gamers and the honorable few together. I think that’s now likely to happen. And it would be, frankly, a very good thing for the Republican Party, because the Republican Party, by way of generations of voter suppression, has now got itself into a cul-de-sac. It’s got itself into a dead end, where what’s happening now is, honestly, the only thing which can happen. If you don’t try to win campaigns with policy, but you try to win them by gaming the system, eventually there are going to be people who say, “Hey, let’s not game the system anymore. Let’s just break the system.” And that happened in January 2021. And there’s nowhere to go from there except further down into chaos and blood. So, I think — I mean, the Republican Party is not my party, but I think this is an opportunity for them to regroup. And I hope a number of them will see it that way.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about what’s going to happen in the coming days, what you expect, the word of all 50 capitals, state capitals, deeply concerned about attacks, the FBI warning about those attacks right through Inauguration Day. Then you have congressmember — as you mentioned, third in line in the House Republican leadership, Congressmember Cheney, who said, “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the President.” Many are asking why it took her so long. But then, privately, McConnell speaking with Biden and working out what would happen. Like, today he will be impeached by the House. But then a trial could determine — if they convict President Trump, they could decide the sanctions, like he can never run again for public office or for president, could end the pensions and the millions of dollars — people don’t realize former presidents get that kind of thing — but working out this bifurcation deal, where Senate will work both on approving Cabinet members but then also holding a trial, whether it goes from the leadership of McConnell to the leadership of Schumer. Can you explain what will be taking place and if you expect this time, unlike last time when Trump was impeached, that he will be convicted in the Senate?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: No, you know, you’re asking a historian. I’m just going to answer as an American who doesn’t know any more than you do, probably a lot less. I mean, my gut feeling about this is that it works very well for both Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell to have impeachment now and trial after a hundred days of Biden.

It works very well for Biden, because he’s got a hundred days of stuff that he really needs to pass, and he needs to get his appointments made as quickly as possible, especially after this terribly chaotic transition.

It works well for McConnell, because it gets Republicans out of the heat of the moment, gives them some time to think about what happened. Right now, of course, Mr. Trump is very popular. Three months of Twitter silence, he probably will be less so. Probably some other things will happen in the meantime to make him less popular.

I mean, for me, as a historian, for someone who’s concerned about facts, a very important element of this is, in three months, we could have a really good, nonpartisan, expert-based investigation of what happened in the Department of Defense, in Homeland Security, in the FBI, in police departments and on Capitol Hill that day, a report which could then be used in April, or whenever, when the trial happens, to make sure that people see, at least people of any amount of reasonability see, that what’s happening is a trial based upon the finding of fact, and not some kind of emotional, partisan exercise.

So, I can see how both sides have an interest in working it that way: impeachment now and a trial later. And yes, I think the Republicans — what I feel is that the Republican gamers, as I think of them, I think they’re shifting towards conviction. I think conviction is now a reality.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, I wanted to ask about your new book, Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary. In it, you write, “The word freedom is hypocritical when spoken by the people who create the conditions that leave us sick and powerless. If our federal government and our commercial medicine make us unhealthy, they are making us unfree.” Since we last spoke, Professor Snyder, you almost died, on New Year/Christmas Eve in 2019. If you can link what happened to you then, and describe what happened, to what we’re seeing — this was pre-pandemic — today?

TIMOTHY SNYDER: Well, I think there’s a big misunderstanding in America about what freedom is. And you can see that in the behavior and comportment of a lot of the people who stormed the Capitol. A lot of us seem to think that freedom is just about believing whatever we want to believe, even if it’s not true, and freedom is just about acting on our impulses. We don’t seem to understand that you can’t really be a free person unless there’s some factual world that you share with other people. We don’t seem to understand that you can’t really be a free person unless there are values that you can talk about out in the world.

One of the things which has been clear for a long time in the U.S., and it’s only been clearer — it’s even been clearer in the last year, is that if you deny people healthcare, you’re making them less free. If you put people in unnecessary risk and make them more subject to disease or the fear of disease, you’re making them less free. You’re also making them more vulnerable physically and mentally to various kinds of demagoguery.

So, what happened on January 6th is partly the result, I would say, of a sick country. When you look at the people who carried this out, I mean, when you have a hard look at their comportment, at their faces, at the way they carried themselves, I mean, apart from all moral judgments, you’re not looking at a healthy society there.

So, I think part of the renewal of American freedom in 2021 has to be the concept that we all have health as a human right, that Americans, people living on this territory of the United States of America, should have access to health as a human right, that health is one of the things that should come before profit. If we do that, we’ll not only feel better and be freer, we’ll recognize each other better as Americans, because we’ll be sharing in this together. So, that’s a way to bring it together. Thanks for the question.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, thanks so much, Timothy Snyder, and thank God you recovered from your appendicitis, misdiagnosed, from where you were to right here in the United States. Timothy Snyder, Yale University professor, fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria, where he’s speaking to us from. He’s got the cover story of New York Times Magazine, “The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.” We will link to it at democracynow.org.

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America Has Entered the Weimar Era: Walden Bello on How Neoliberalism Fueled Trump & Violent Right
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow.org
JANUARY 12, 2021

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

GUESTS
Walden Bello, senior analyst at the Bangkok-based think tank Focus on the Global South, as well as an international adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 2009 to 2015.
LINKS
Walden Bello on Twitter
"America Has Entered the Weimar Era"
"Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right"

Democrats in Congress are pushing ahead with impeachment following the violent insurrection that killed five people at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The single article of impeachment against President Trump cites his incitement of insurrection and accuses him of subverting and obstructing the certification of the 2020 election. This comes as authorities are warning of more right-wing violence around Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, with possible armed far-right protests planned at all 50 state capitols as well as the U.S. Capitol. We speak with Walden Bello, an acclaimed sociologist, academic, environmentalist and activist, whose latest column argues the United States has entered a “Weimar Era,” in which democratic elections are increasingly delegitimized as street violence becomes the norm. “This is not something that’s unusual that has happened in the Capitol. Right-wing groups, when they begin to lose electorally, … they resort to the streets and to violence in order to stop that process,” says Bello.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to turn right now to what’s happening in the Capitol. The Democratic-led House of Representatives plans to vote to impeach President Trump as soon as Wednesday, unless Trump resigns or Vice President Mike Pence first invokes the 25th Amendment to remove him, which looks unlikely. On Monday, House Democrats unveiled a single article of impeachment against the president for incitement of insurrection against the government of the United States, a week after Trump’s supporters violently attacked the Capitol. Trump is also accused of subverting and obstructing the certification of the 2020 election. The article of impeachment states, quote, “Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”

This comes as authorities are warning of more right-wing violence around Joe Biden’s inauguration January 20th. The FBI has warned of possible armed far-right protests being planned in all 50 state capitals, plus the U.S. Capitol, beginning January 16th. In Washington, 15,000 members of the National Guard are expected to be deployed ahead of the inauguration. The New York Times reports Pentagon officials are preparing for a number of nightmare scenarios, including snipers targeting attendees of the inauguration, drone attacks and “suicide-type aircraft.”

Authorities have also expressed concern about the number of active-duty soldiers and veterans, as well as police officers, who took part in the insurrection last week. Commanders at Fort Bragg are investigating the role of a PSYOPS Army captain — that’s a psychological operations Army captain — who led a group from North Carolina to D.C. last week to rally for President Trump. Meanwhile, two Capitol Hill police officers have been suspended, and at least a dozen others are under investigation, for aiding the attack that left five people dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer, who supported Donald Trump.

For an international perspective on the crisis facing the United States, we go to the Philippines to speak with Walden Bello, the acclaimed sociologist, academic, environmentalist and activist. His latest column for Foreign Policy in Focus is headlined “America Has Entered the Weimar Era.” Walden Bello is also a senior analyst at the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, as well as an international adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Bello is the author or co-author of 25 books. Part of his book Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right looks at the social roots of Trumpism. Bello served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 2009 to 2015. He’s the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Walden Bello, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. If you can talk about what you thought as the insurrection unfolded last week? If you could put this in a global context?

WALDEN BELLO: Yes. Well, Amy, thanks a lot, and Juan, for inviting me to your program.

Well, let me just say that the first thing that came to mind was, of course, shock at this insurrection right at the very heart of the American political system. But, on the other hand, having studied counterrevolutions, it was sort of something that, although I did not expect it to take this dramatic form, you know, that this kind of street-type warfare, mobilization of the streets, you know, that the right wing, or the far right, in the United States would resort to this.

And, you know, things that came back, came to my mind, were, for instance, the right-wing gangs in Chile that created the chaos that resulted in the military intervention that ousted President Allende back in 1973. And, you know, we had these groups like Patria y Libertad that pretty much were like this, the Proud Boys in the United States and the other right-wing gangsters.

Another image that flashed into my mind was the fascist squadristi of Mussolini, you know, that took power first by taking over the streets. And because the socialists in Italy at that time were becoming quite popular at the ballot box, the ruling class fought back mainly by promoting the fascist squads in their very violent ways of repressing the left.

And, of course, the other image that came to my mind was, you know, in the late ’20s, the last years of the Weimar Republic, where basically there was a strong political polarization that was taking place, and the fascists, or the Nazis, wanted to resolve the stalemate, parliamentary stalemate, by basically taking over the streets and beating up people, beating up social democrats, beating up the communists, and using that surge from the streets to be able to push Hitler to power, both through electoral as well as the street terrorist means.

So, this is not something that’s unusual that has happened in the Capitol. Right-wing groups, when they begin to lose electorally, when they begin to see that their opponents are gaining the upper hand in terms of being able to win elections and electorally, they resort to the streets and to violence in order to stop that process.

So, those are the things that came to mind. It was very dramatic. But, on the other hand, it was something that I, having studied counterrevolutions, expected something like it would happen at some point in the United States, given the developments over the last few years, which has really resulted in this move to the far right of significant sectors of the population that are allied to the Republican Party.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Walden Bello, I wanted to ask you. In another article you wrote back in May, titled “The Race to Replace a Dying Neoliberalism,” you write — and I’m quoting you — “Crises do not always result in significant change. It is the interaction or synergy between two elements: an objective one, meaning a systemic crisis, and a subjective one, that is, the people’s psychological response to it that is decisive.” And you go on to say, “Unfortunately, it is the extreme right that is currently best positioned to take advantage of the global discontent.” And you mention that in both the Global North and the Global South. Could you explain why that is?

WALDEN BELLO: Well, OK, I was referring to the fact, you know, that the global financial crisis that erupted in 2008 dragged on and on without any real resolution, because the steps were not taken to really control the banks, save homeowners and bring a significant employment back to the United States. You know, that was a very alienating process. So, that neoliberalism, as I said, you know, helped create this situation. So, if in 2008 you did not yet have the conditions for radicalization, by the time COVID-19 erupted in 2020, the conditions were there for this polarization, this radicalization, to increase even more.

Now, when I say that the extreme right has been the one that has been able to benefit from this more than the left, I mean mainly that — several things, you know, that there was this appeal to racism, a dog whistle-type Republican politics that started with Richard Nixon with the Southern strategy, you know; so, the second one was, of course, the impact of neoliberalism that created so much unemployment, deindustrialization. And especially among workers, including white workers, you had significant unemployment and deindustrialization hitting their communities, and then the fact also that so much of the working class, of the white working class, began to no longer see the Democratic Party as the party that was carrying their interests, because of a sense that somehow the Democratic Party had begun to buy into the neoliberal narrative, starting, for instance, with Clinton and up to Obama.

And so, there was this mass of people, white workers, that was ready to be mobilized someplace, and it was Trump and the right in the United States that took advantage of that, mobilized them, but in a right-wing direction, in a racist direction, basically. So, that’s when basically you had this process of right-wing mobilization, that which said, you know, “You have liberals taking away what should be yours and giving that to the minorities,” so explaining the economic crisis of workers in racist terms, you know? So, this is the kind of base, this is the kind of hidden mass, that Trump was able to cultivate. And let me just say that with respect to Trumpism, you know, that Trump is as much a creature as the creator of that base. There’s this synergy that’s taking place there.

So, on the other hand, when you look at the left, the left was the one that recognized the critique of globalization. And unfortunately, that came from the independent left. But the broad left, with social democrats in Europe, the Democratic Party in the United States, was pretty much seen as complicit with neoliberal, pro-Wall Street policies. OK? And so, you know, an alternative that would come from the mainstream left and the Democratic Party, that wasn’t coming at all. And so, what we saw happening in this process was, yes, there were great ideas coming from the left — you know, deglobalization, degrowth — fantastic ideas that were for an alternative society; the unfortunate thing is that it wasn’t gaining any political traction. Right down to the grassroots, it was just — you know, the progressives were just not gaining that kind of mass base that was very necessary.

And that’s why I said that, and especially during that Trump years, it was the right, it was people like Trump, that was cherry-picking anti-globalization and other elements that had been offered by the left, cherry-picking them, but putting them —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, if I can —

WALDEN BELLO: — in a right-wing gestalt. Yes.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, if I can ask you about another issue that you’ve focused on? And you say that the COVID-19 pandemic has really accelerated the decline of the United States as a worldwide power and the rise of China as — the continued rise of China as the industrial heartland of modern capitalism.

WALDEN BELLO: Yes. Well, I think that, to link that to what I said earlier, so much of the deindustrialization, the shipping of jobs that took place, you know, was carried out by corporate America, and a lot of those jobs and industrial processes were shifted to China. And it was the U.S. corporate, transnational class that carried this out, you know? Now, of course, China played a role there, but China was seeking developmental objectives, whereas the TNCs, the U.S. TNCs, were using it purely for exploitative purposes.

So, what happened, basically, was China became the workshop of the world. You had a massive industrial base that was created, that produced value and became the new center of global accumulation, whereas what happened to the United States was deindustrialization, people thrown out of jobs, communities deindustrialized and the economy financialized, so that it became — the United States economy basically began to run mainly on financialization and speculation. So, that core of a healthy economy, that was centered on industry and the creation of value, that disappeared. And so, this is the background of my comment, that you had the creation of a strong center of capital accumulation in China that paralleled the collapse of the industrial capacity of the United States.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how has the failure of our government to deal with COVID accelerated that?

WALDEN BELLO: Well, you know, when you look at what happened with COVID, was when it hit, because so much of the supplies, even of personal protective equipment, had been sourced to China, and the United States was no longer capable of producing this because so much of its manufacturing capacity had been shifted over to China, OK, that you saw that, in addition to the pandemic, you also had this crisis of global supply chains, that began to stop because the Chinese economy in the first few months of 2020 also stopped, you know? So, basically, you had this interaction of an economic crisis and a pandemic coming together, especially in the United States, which was, of course, accelerated by the fact that Trump never took COVID-19 seriously. And so you had this concatenation of events, economic, political and ideological, that just created this tremendous crisis of leadership in the United States and an economic crisis at the same time.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Walden Bello, you were a young student in Chile on another September 11th: September 11, 1973, when the Pinochet forces rose to power, overthrowing the democratically elected president of Chile. If you can talk about — I mean, you’re talking about the pandemic now. Three thousand people die a day in the United States alone, by far the worst death toll in the world. Three thousand people, that’s a 9/11 every single day in the United States. What does the Pinochet years have to teach us, in Chile? What does the Marcos years in your home country of the Philippines, and even what’s happening with Duterte today, have to teach us about President Trump and what you talk about as the crises to come in this country? I mean, the FBI just warned that in the next days we could face violent attacks in all 50 state capitols. What lessons should we understand?

WALDEN BELLO: Well, you know, several things, Amy. Firstly, key lesson that we should understand here is that when the forces of reaction, when the right, begins to lose at the ballot box, begins to lose in terms of voting in parliaments, it resorts to street warfare to be able to stop the democratic process. And this is what happened in Chile, basically. You know, we had a duly elected government, and the right tried to stop it, in terms of legislatively and bureaucratically. And when it couldn’t do that, then the right-wing mobs came and basically took over the streets and beat up the left and created a new situation, you know, that then invited military intervention. And that’s where Pinochet came in, quote-unquote, “for the sake of political stability,” but really in a process that favored the right.

The second thing that comes from that is that Chile had a very proud tradition of military nonintervention in politics from the early days of the Chilean republic. But in 1973, when you had a situation of political polarization, the military came in and intervened in favor of the right. Now, what I’m saying here is that we should not underestimate or overestimate the strength of political institutions like civilian control of the military. You know, at some point, if there’s great political polarization that takes place, then those sort of principles begin to become more loose, and we should expect that there will be elements within the security forces, within the agencies of the state, that would say, “Hey, the civilians can’t work it out. The political elite is divided. We have to be the ones to stabilize the country. And we stabilize it by eliminating democracy.” OK? So, basically, this is the same thing that happened in the Philippines in 1972. Marcos basically said, “Democracy is now stalemated. We have to move forward. And therefore, we have to declare an authoritarian regime.”

So, that’s what I’m saying at this point in time, you know, that do not overestimate the strength of American political institutions, because Trump has shown over the last four years how he could easily violate so many U.S. traditions, and we have not seen the end of that. In fact, I’m thinking, at this point in time, you know, that since the demographic balance is going against the white population in the United States, since the political balance is going against the Republican Party, and we just saw, for instance, how Georgia and a number of other states, Arizona, through political mobilization, have gone over to the Democrats — we saw how the popular vote was won by Biden with over 7 million votes — so, basically, the political, electoral weight is shifting over to the left, to the broad left, to this coalition of progressives, liberals and minorities. And I think — given that, I think you should be expecting more street warfare being waged by the right in the United States at this point in time. And I think this is something that people should just be prepared for, because if they can’t win electorally, they’ll win through trying to control the streets. And if that happens, then that creates the possibility or the opening for military intervention.

So, I think they enter — the U.S., in fact, I think, is entering what I call the Weimar period, which is basically the period of both electoral and street struggle and chaos that characterized the last days of the Weimar Republic and ended with the elevation of Hitler in 1933 to the chancellorship. So, you know, of course things may not happen exactly the same, OK, and we should always remember that history never repeats itself in quite the same way. But at the same time, there are lessons that we should be taking from the rise of counterrevolutionary movements in the 20th century and in this century, and that the United States is not exempt from this. The United States is no longer the kind of exceptional society. The United States, as events have shown over the last few years, and especially the last few months and the last few days, is becoming more and more like the rest of the world. So, this is the end of American exceptionalism.

AMY GOODMAN: Walden Bello, we want to thank you so much for being with us, acclaimed Filipino scholar, activist, author of many books, including Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right. We’ll also link to your latest piece, “America Has Entered the Weimar Era,” and also encourage people to go to our conversation with Allan Nairn last week, who talked about what’s happened in the Capitol as a mild version of what the U.S. has supported abroad, for example, in Chile, in Guatemala, in El Salvador.

Oh, and this breaking news: Billionaire casino owner and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson has died at the age of 87. Adelson was Donald Trump’s largest single donor during the 2016 race. Since 2015, he donated more than $250 million to Republican candidates and right-wing super PACs. He was also an influential political power in Israel, where he used his news outlets to back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. He will be buried in Israel.

[admin]

From Charlottesville to the Capitol: Trump Fueled Right-Wing Violence. It May Soon Get Even Worse
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
JANUARY 15, 2021

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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GUESTS
A.C. Thompson, staff reporter at ProPublica, where he covers right-wing extremism.
LINKS
A.C. Thompson on Twitter

"Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot"

As security is ramped up in Washington, D.C., and state capitols across the U.S., the FBI is warning of more potential violence in the lead-up to Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. Federal authorities have arrested over 100 people who took part in last week’s deadly insurrection at the Capitol, and The Washington Post reports that dozens of people on a terrorist watch list — including many white supremacists — were in Washington on the day of the insurrection. “This was something that had been coming for a long time,” ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, who covers right-wing extremism, says of the January 6 riot. “If you looked at the rhetoric online … it was all about revolution, it was all about death to tyrants, it was all about civil war.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Security is being ramped up in Washington, D.C., and state capitols across the United States as the FBI is warning of more “potential armed protests” in the lead-up to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s inauguration, following last week’s deadly insurrection at the Capitol. By Wednesday, 21,000 National Guard troops are expected to be in Washington, D.C. FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke publicly for the first time, more than a week after the insurrection, Thursday.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY: We’re concerned about the potential for violence at multiple protests and rallies planned here in D.C. and at state capitol buildings around the country in the days to come, that could bring armed individuals within close proximity to government buildings and officials.

AMY GOODMAN: Federal authorities have arrested over a hundred people who took part in last week’s deadly insurrection at the Capitol that left five — actually, six [sic] people — dead. Police and federal agents continued to round up rioters Thursday. That’s five people dead. Among the latest arrests, Kevin Seefried, who was photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag through the Capitol; former U.S. Olympic medalist Klete Keller, who wore his Olympic swim team jacket to the riots; Robert Sanford, a retired firefighter who was filmed throwing a fire extinguisher at Capitol Police officers, striking three of them in the head; and Peter Stager, an Arkansas man filmed beating a police officer at the Capitol with an American flag.

In Arizona, prosecutors say they’ve uncovered evidence that the intent of some of the rioters was to, quote, “capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” Prosecutors revealed the QAnon conspiracy theorist Jacob Chansley, who is also known as Jake Angeli, left a note for Mike Pence in the Senate, warning, quote, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.” Chansley faces charges of violent entry and disorderly conduct, after he was filmed posing shirtless, wearing buffalo horns and holding a spear on the Senate dais.

And in Texas, a federal prosecutor has revealed more details about its case against retired Air Force officer Larry Brock, who was seen inside the Capitol dressed in military gear, holding zip ties. Prosecutors claim that Brock was prepared to take hostages and, quote, “perhaps execute members of the U.S. government.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports dozens of people on a terrorist watch list — mostly white supremacists — were in Washington on the day of the insurrection.

We go now to A.C. Thompson, staff reporter with ProPublica, who has covered the rise of the right-wing extremist and white supremacist groups for years, his latest piece headlined “Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot.” He’s joining us from Lansing, Michigan.

A.C., thanks so much for coming back to Democracy Now! Can you start off by responding to what happened last week in Washington, D.C.? Did it surprise you, this mass insurrection, after President Trump had for weeks been calling for this protest and addressed them before they marched to the Capitol? And who was behind it?

A.C. THOMPSON: One of our contacts in the far-right movement said to us, “Hey, I think this is going to go in a very extreme direction. And, in fact, I’m not going to mobilize my people to participate, because I think it’s going to be very violent.” And that was a signal to us that this was going to be quite extreme.

We had seen this building over the past year, though. If you go back to January 2020, in Richmond, Virginia, 20,000 armed people showed up at the state House there. In the spring, there were protests that were armed in Michigan at the state House, including one in which people stormed the building and intimidated legislators with weapons, with AR-15 assault rifles. We saw the Idaho state House get stormed. We saw the Oregon state House get stormed. We saw, in Olympia, Washington, by the Capitol there, there were shootings in the street two weeks in a row. Two people were shot, one each week. And so, this had been building for a long time.

I personally was at an armed rally at the Virginia state House a couple months ago, where about 50 men with weapons showed up and basically dared the police to arrest them, because they were in violation of the law. So, this was something that had been coming for a long time. And if you looked at the rhetoric online and you looked at what had been said by members of these groups for a long time, it was all about revolution, it was all about death to tyrants, it was all about civil war, for a long time.

On the day of the event, we saw militia groups like the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, who were playing a big role. We saw the conspiracy theorists, like the QAnon people, who were there. We saw, I think, a significant role played by the Proud Boys, who you could call an ultranationalist street-fighting gang or group. And I think we saw a lot of military vets and some current military there. And there were also people who belong to straight-up white supremacist or white nationalist groups.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Virginia. We reported earlier this week that two of the rioters were off-duty Virginia police. And this goes to the issue of police and military from all over the country. You know, people were saying, “Where were the police?” Well, they were part of the riot, the insurrection, a number of them. You have police from Seattle, apparently New York, Philadelphia transit officers, a number of them, two Virginia officers. Now, this is just people who were identified. Can you talk about the — a PSYOPS guy, a military psychological operations. Can you talk about the significance of this?

A.C. THOMPSON: You know, I think there is a big concern that what we’ve seen in recent years is a lot of members of police departments, or at least some members of police departments, being radicalized in this right-wing direction. And in part, I think, what that’s been a product of is they’ve seen the rise of the racial justice movements and police accountability movements, and they say, “I feel under attack. The person who’s sticking up for us is Donald Trump, who’s super law and order, and so I’m going to get deep into the Donald Trump world.” And I think that’s part of what’s happened.

What’s happening now, though, is different. And what’s happening now is, when I was in D.C. at “Stop the Steal” protests and other protests in recent months, you would see the right-wing protesters did not want to fight with the police. They would say, “We’re the law-and-order people. We’re the pro-police people. We’re not going to fight with the police. We want to fight with the police, but we’re going to back off.” That has changed. That has pivoted. And now what you’re seeing in the chatter amongst the right-wing groups is, “We are at war with the police. The police are in bed with the reds. The police are a tool of this socialist takeover, which we believe magically is happening, without any facts. We believe that the police are subverting democracy. And we are now going after the police.” And that’s what you saw at the Capitol.

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about the lack of preparation at the Capitol. You see these police officers, the Capitol Police, some help by the Metropolitan Police, fending for themselves. And we got the reports this week of the level of threat assessment reports that would come before each Black Lives Matter protest. Nothing like that was issued now, and yet you have this coming together of all of these people from — and if you can explain what the terrorist watch list is? It’s not a no-fly list. And for many progressives, they may be very concerned about who makes up this list, but the fact is, scores of people on the FBI’s own list had gathered, and yet the FBI issued no reports, and there was so little preparation. We saw African American Capitol police essentially running for their lives, saying they didn’t have the support from the top, and they were being chased by the mob.

A.C. THOMPSON: Right. So, there’s a few things that I want to touch on here. And a few years ago, you and I were talking about Charlottesville. And what we had seen there was an intelligence breakdown, where, really, the intelligence analysts and the law enforcement personnel, who should have really been monitoring the online channels and the chatter, missed what was going on and what was going to develop. And then you saw multiple law enforcement agencies who were supposed to be there coordinating, working together, who really didn’t have a plan, and cooperation totally broke down. And when violence and rioting broke out, the people with the tactical gear, with the shields, with the helmets, with the riot gear, were nowhere near the violence.

You saw a lot of that happen at the Capitol, a lot of the same things happening over again, years later, with basically some of the same people showing up at both events. This is what’s baffling to me. The FBI has gotten very good in recent years at tracking and arresting and building cases against right-wing extremists, white supremacist extremists, anti-government extremists. In the run-up to the election, they built a lot of very complicated, important cases against people who were bent on violence against public officials, the kidnapping plot against Gretchen Whitmer, the governor in Michigan. They were very, very busy. And what I don’t understand is how that knowledge from the field agents out in the field doesn’t seem to have translated, as far as we can tell at this point, into intelligence products that would have gone out and been disseminated more broadly to other law enforcement agencies. That’s a thing.

Another thing is just simply the lack of personnel and the lack of preparation by the Capitol Police on the day of the event. I’ve been watching the D.C. Metropolitan Police for months now, and I think that they’ve been very professional, very sophisticated, in allowing protesters at these right-wing events in D.C. to express themselves, but not to harm people and not for violence to break out. That is clearly not the case with the Capitol Police. They did not evince that level of professionalism and sophistication.

AMY GOODMAN: The Washington Post reported earlier this week the FBI explicitly warned of violence and “war” at the U.S. Capitol in an internal report issued one day before last Wednesday’s deadly invasion. The report cited online posts, including one which said, quote, “Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.”

So, A.C. Thompson, I mean, how much more explicit can you get? And, I mean, we’re not only talking about let’s do a postmortem on last week’s event — and “postmortem” is the right word. I mean, you’re talking about a number of people dead: two police officers — the Capitol Hill police officer, Sicknick, who died, and then one who took his own life — and then you have three people who died in medical emergencies, apparently. But we’re not only talking about the past; we’re talking about whether this is prologue to this weekend. I mean, Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King’s federal birthday, which is official — his birthday was today. But for years, white supremacists marched on state capitols to prevent it from being recognized as a national holiday. And then, of course, Wednesday, the inauguration.

A.C. THOMPSON: Yeah, I think I don’t want to be alarmist, and I don’t want to be the person who says the sky is falling, but I do think we have to be vigilant. I think we have to be looking forward. I think we have to be very, very careful in the months ahead. And this is why.

We were out on the campaign trail filming for Frontline at Trump rallies and at Trump speeches. And when we’d meet people, they would all say, “The only way the president is going to lose the election is if there’s massive fraud, and it’ll be probably massive fraud orchestrated by those nefarious globalists.” There are millions of people who believe, because of Trump’s incessant false messaging, that the election was fraudulent, that the election was stolen from him. And if you have just a very small percentage of those millions of people who are inclined to take violent action because they believe that we are on the cusp of a massively undemocratic transition of power, built around fraud, of course some of those people are likely to take very violent action to save, in their mind — you know, in their minds, to save this republic.

And that is the thing we must be concerned about. In America, it does not take very much money and very much skill to create a mass casualty event with a bomb or a gun. And that is something we’re going to have to be very vigilant about, while at the same time ensuring that people have a right to protest, that people have a right to express themselves.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m wondering if you can talk about the alliances between all of these groups and current sitting members of Congress. You’ve got Utah Republican Congressmember John Curtis, who showed reporters a death threat left on his door on Thursday, a poster with skulls and crossbones pasted over his eyes, and the caption, “Wanted for treason! For resisting the true electoral victor Trump.” Now, here is a congressman who, of course, was voicing concern about the fact that Republicans were not accepting the election of Joe Biden, but you’ve got other ones who led the charge about doing this. Can you talk about whether — the congressmembers and what should happen to them now? Even in President Trump’s latest video, he will not acknowledge this election of Joe Biden. And does it actually encourage the violence, the fact that he’s not showing up for the inauguration? Many may be deeply relieved that Trump won’t be there, but does that send a message it’s OK to target?

A.C. THOMPSON: I think there’s a couple things going on here. And the first thing is that we have not acknowledged the scale of threats, intimidation and violence against public leaders that’s occurred over the past year. We have so many public health officials in this country, at county and state levels, who have been threatened — at federal levels, as well — been threatened, who have been terrorized, who have had to get extra security, who have been doing their jobs and are in fear for their lives. And we, basically, as a society, have not grappled with that.

Now we’ve got elections officials, Republican and Democrat, who are dealing with that. We’ve got members of Congress who are dealing with that. We’ve got law enforcement leaders who are dealing with that. You know, in California, we had two law enforcement officials who were shot by an extremist group, allegedly, during the spring. Somebody is now facing federal charges for that. So I think there’s been a —

AMY GOODMAN: Boogaloo bois.

A.C. THOMPSON: Yeah, the boogaloo bois, exactly. So I think there’s been a level of violence and aggression towards public officials and government leaders that we have not seen in decades. And I don’t think we’ve reckoned with that at all. It’s a scary time to be a public leader.

Now, when you’re talking about Congress, this is a thing that we’re going to have to understand deeply, and we’re going to need serious, serious investigations about what was the role of sympathetic members of Congress in possibly fomenting or even enabling this insurrection, because I don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of that. We’ve heard names thrown out as potential members of Congress, from Arizona and Alabama, who may have aided and abetted these groups, but we don’t know yet. I think that’s a very concerning thing, as well. We also —

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you have Mikie Sherrill — right? — the New Jersey congressmember, who said she — they called the sergeant-of-arms the day before, saying, “What are all these tour groups?” they now recognize were the people who were part of this insurrection being taken around. I mean, COVID times, they’re not doing tours there, so they could only get in through a congressmember or their staff.

A.C. THOMPSON: Exactly. And that is a big concern. I’ll tell you, from interviewing members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, they said to us — you know, we had a Democratic congressman say to us, “I’m worried that we have empathizers and sympathizers within the ranks of the Capitol Police.” That was Rep. Andre Carson from the Indianapolis area. We had a GOP congresswoman, Nancy Mace, who said, “Look, I could tell, days before this happened, that it was going to be ugly, because I was getting relentless threats online and through all different channels. And I’m a Trump supporter, but I had said I’m not going to try to overturn this election. And so then I was the one targeted.” And it doesn’t sound like she got a lot of help with that. She sent her children home to South Carolina because she was scared for their lives. We have not even begun to grapple with how serious this problem is.

AMY GOODMAN: If you could very quickly — we only have a minute to go, but you detail in your pieces, and you just talked about, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, boogaloo bois, Proud Boys. Tell us who some of these people are. Many people haven’t even heard of these groups before.

A.C. THOMPSON: Right. So, the boogaloo bois are an anti-government group who joined the Capitol insurrection, who have been tied to murders, kidnapping plots and the rest. The Proud Boys are an ultranationalist street gang or street-fighting group that have been at many of these events and seem to have been a key player here. The Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters are militia groups that sort of are traditional, longtime anti-government groups. And QAnon is the conspiracy theory followers who believe that there’s a vast cabal of globalists and satanists who are trying to take over America.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, you have Ali Alexander, and this from The Washington Post, who organized the so-called Stop the Steal movement, who said he hatched the plan for this insurrection with the support of the three Republican lawmakers — you alluded to them, but — Congressmembers Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Paul Gosar of Arizona, all hard-line Trump supporters.

A.C. THOMPSON: Yeah. And that’s the thing. That’s going to be a really key investigative point there. And honestly, like, looking at Mr. Alexander and how he raised money and what his role in all this was, as well, is going to be a key thing to look at.

AMY GOODMAN: A.C. Thompson, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Keep up your great investigation. Staff reporter with ProPublica who’s covered the rise of right-wing extremist and white supremacist groups for years. We’ll link to your latest piece, “Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot.”

****************

Dozens of Capitol Rioters Were on FBI Terrorism Watch List

Dozens of people on an FBI terrorist watch list were in Washington, D.C., on January 6, when President Trump incited a violent mob of insurrectionists to attack the Capitol. That’s according to The Washington Post, which reports most of the rioters flagged by the national Terrorist Screening Database are white supremacists. The FBI says more than 100 insurrectionists have been arrested so far, with more than 200 other suspects identified. Among the latest arrests are Kevin Seefried, who was photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag through the halls of Congress; former U.S. Olympic medalist Klete Keller, who wore his Olympic swim team jacket to the riots; and Robert Sanford, a retired firefighter who was filmed throwing a fire extinguisher at Capitol Police officers, striking three of them in the head.

QAnon Insurrectionist Jacob Chansley, Who Threatened VP Pence, Seeks Trump Pardon

In Arizona, the lawyer for rioter Jacob Anthony Chansley said he will seek a pardon from President Trump. Chansley faces charges of violent entry and disorderly conduct after he was filmed posing shirtless, wearing buffalo horns and holding a spear on the Senate dais. In a court filing unveiled Thursday, federal prosecutors in Phoenix wrote that Chansley left a note for Vice President Mike Pence reading, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.” They added, “Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” Video from January 6 posted to the now-defunct social media site Parler shows Chansley boasting about his role in the insurrection.

Reporter: “How did you get out?”

Jacob Chansley: “How did I get out of what?”

Reporter: “How did you get out?”

Jacob Chansley: “Of the Senate?”

Reporter: “Yeah.”

Jacob Chansley: “The cops walked out with me.”

Reporter: “They just let you go?”

Jacob Chansley: “Yeah.”

Reporter: “And what’s your message to everybody now? Like, what are you yelling now?”

Jacob Chansley: “Oh, Donald Trump asked everybody to go home. He just said it. He just put out a tweet. It’s a minute long. He asked everybody to go home.”

Reporter: “Why do you think so?”

Jacob Chansley: “Because, dude, we won the [bleep] day!”

The Washington Post reports the National Park Service will close the National Mall on Inauguration Day amid fears of domestic terror attacks. Michigan Congressmember Peter Meijer said Thursday he purchased a bulletproof vest — and will have the expense reimbursed by Congress — after he joined nine other Republicans and House Democrats voting for Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday.

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Color, COVID and the Coup
by Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
JANUARY 14, 2021

President Donald Trump’s second impeachment was swift and decisive, just one week after he incited a violent white supremacist mob attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer. Accounts of the insurrection from several elected Congresswomen of color capture the chaos of the moment, and the many dangers they faced:

“I was one of 12 trapped in the House Gallery. I heard the shot being fired. I saw the smoke from the tear gas....I watched one officer with no protective equipment face a raging mob just outside the chamber,” Norma Torres, Democratic Representative from South Los Angeles, said at a House Rules Committee meeting this week. “I answered my phone to my son, Christopher. The call lasted 27 seconds. All I could say, ‘Sweetheart, I’m okay. I’m running for my life.’ And I hung up.”

Also trapped in the upper Gallery was Washington Congressmember Pramila Jayapal. “The insurrectionists were domestic terrorists, many armed and many associated with white nationalist groups,” Jayapal said in a statement. “Tear gas was being used and we had to get down on the ground for cover. Capitol Police barricaded the doors with furniture and had their guns drawn.”

New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz, known as AOC, said on a livestream the night before the impeachment vote, “I thought I was going to die.” She explained why she felt she needed to avoid a secure extraction location: “There were QAnon and white-supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white-supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know and who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt [or] kidnapped.”

Ayanna Pressley, the first African American Congresswoman from Massachusetts, did go to the secure room, with people sheltering shoulder to shoulder. “The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “Furious that more of my colleagues are testing positive.” Her husband, who was with her at the Capitol, has since tested positive for COVID-19.

Pramila Jayapal has also contracted COVID-19, likely in the same, cramped, multi-hour lockdown with unmasked Republicans during the siege. “Only hours after President Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum COVID-19 precaution and simply wear a damn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic — creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack,” Jayapal said in a statement. Her husband, who was not at the Capitol, has also tested positive.

Congress’ attending physician, Brian Monahan, said in an email four days after the attack, about that secure room, “The time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others…individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”

New Jersey Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman was there, and later tested positive. The 75-year-old African American is a recent cancer survivor. “I am angry that after I spent months carefully isolating myself, a single chaotic day likely got me sick,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed piece this week. “I am angry that the attack on the Capitol and my subsequent illness have the same cause: my Republican colleagues’ inability to accept facts.” Her case highlights the potentially-lethal risks that mask-deniers selfishly pose on others around them.

Detroit Congressmember Rashida Tlaib was not on the Capitol grounds during the assault, as she wasn’t feeling great after receiving her first COVID-19 vaccination shot. She tweeted on Tuesday, as new security measures were implemented at the Capitol, “Just had to go through a metal detector before entering the House floor. Some colleagues are frustrated (guess which ones) by this requirement. Now they know how HS students in my district feel. Suck it up buttercups. Y’all brought this on yourselves.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set fines of up to $10,000 for Congressmembers who refuse to pass through the metal detectors.

People of color in the United States are more likely to die of gun violence. They are also more likely to contract COVID-19, and when they do, disproportionately suffer more serious consequences, including death. The violent white supremacist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th put the ugly realities of racism and inequality in this country in stark relief. Taking these on, remains the urgent challenge of our time. Trump’s departure from the Oval Office is only the first step.

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QAnon Shaman’s Alleged Note to Mike Pence: ‘It’s Only a Matter of Time, Justice is Coming’. A new federal court brief describes Jacob Anthony Chansley — aka Jake Angeli — as “the most prominent symbol of a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government”
by Tim Dickinson
Rolling Stone
January 15, 2021

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A protester screams "Freedom" inside the Senate chamber after the U.S. Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images

In striking, unvarnished language, the federal government is now describing the events of January 6th as a “violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government” and alleges that “the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials.”

These shocking phrases feature prominently in a new court brief (embedded below) that was filed in the case of Jacob Anthony Chansley — better known as Jake Angeli, or the QAnon Shaman. Chansley participated in the day’s events shirtless, carrying a flag-draped spear, and wearing red and blue face-paint and a horned helmet. As seen in now-famous photographs from the storming of the Capitol, Chansley reached the dais in the Senate chamber. There, the government now alleges, he left a menacing note for Vice President Mike Pence that read: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

The court filing is the government’s “brief in support of detention,” and it argues that Chansley is dangerous and should remain locked up until trial. Written by Michael Bailey, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, the document describes Chansley as “repeated drug user” who “demonstrates scattered and fanciful thoughts, and is unable to appreciate reality.” It characterizes him as “the shaman of a dangerous extremist group,” QAnon, who “has made himself the most prominent symbol of… a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government.” It concludes: “His history and characteristics require detention.”

This government brief marks a significant escalation in the rhetoric used to describe the January 6th storming of the Capitol, although Acting U.S. Attorney for

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Mitch McConnell reportedly never wants to speak to Trump again after the Capitol riot
by Sonam Sheth
Business Insider
Jan 8, 2021, 8:07 AM

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he never wants to speak to President Donald Trump again following a violent insurrection at the US Capitol on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.

The president incited the riot by urging his supporters at a rally on Wednesday "to fight" and march to the Capitol, where Congress was counting electoral votes and finalizing Joe Biden's victory in the November election.

Trump has spent months spinning bogus conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election rigging, while falsely insisting that the race was "stolen" from him and that he is the rightful winner. At Wednesday's rally, the president reiterated those claims. "We will never concede," he said as his supporters cheered.

Throngs of them subsequently stormed the Capitol, clashed with police, broke into the building, ransacked lawmakers' offices, and made it as far as the House and Senate floors.

Lawmakers were debating a Republican challenge to Arizona's electoral votes, but both chambers were forced to go into recess as members, Hill staffers, and reporters sheltered in place or behind makeshift barricades. The attempted coup by the pro-Trump mob left five people dead, including one Capitol Police officer.

After the building was secured and Congress reconvened more than six hours later, McConnell forcefully condemned the rioters.

"The United States Senate will not be intimidated," he said. "We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs, or threats. We will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. We are back at our posts. We will discharge our duty under the Constitution and for our nation."

McConnell added: "Even during an ongoing armed rebellion and the Civil War, the clockwork of our democracy has carried on. The United States and the United States Congress have faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw today."

"They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed," he said, adding, "This failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic."

Congress finished counting the electoral votes shortly before 4 a.m. ET on Thursday, cementing Biden's victory.

On Thursday evening, Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, indicated that federal prosecutors were investigating Trump's role in inciting the insurrection.

"We are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but ... were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this," Sherwin told reporters in a phone call.

The Post reported that when Sherwin was pressed on whether that included Trump, he responded: "We are looking at all actors here, and anyone that had a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they're going to be charged."

After Sherwin's comments, the president released a video condemning the violence at the Capitol. The New York Times reported that the president had resisted taping the message and caved when he realized he could face legal trouble because of the riot.

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Longtime Trump advisers connected to groups behind rally that led to Capitol attack: Roger Stone, Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn all promoted the Jan. 6 rally.
by Will Steakin, Matthew Mosk, James Gordon Meek, and Ali Dukakis
abc news
January 15, 2021, 8:13 AM

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Three of the key advisers who helped engineer Donald Trump's' rise to the presidency in 2016, and who fell from grace under the weight of federal criminal charges, resurfaced during Trump's final days in office to help engineer his ill-fated attempt to cling to power.

Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn all participated in efforts to promote the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" event that ultimately devolved into a riotous and deadly melee at the United States Capitol, leaving five dead and causing Trump to become the only president to be impeached for a second time.

While none of them spoke at the actual rally, Stone whipped up a crowd of Trump supporters in Washington the night before, telling them the president's enemies sought "nothing less than the heist of the 2020 election."

"And we say, No way!" Stone said at the Jan. 5 rally.

Flynn promoted the so-called "Jericho March," a rally of Christians to "pray, march, fast, and rally for election integrity," according to the group's website, that also took place on Jan. 6 in the shadow of the Capitol. In the weeks leading up to the event, Flynn told his supporters that they would "need to be fearless as Americans."

Speaking at a Dec. 12 rally in Washington to promote the Trump effort to overturn the election, Flynn told supporters they had reached a "crucible moment" and "there has to be sacrifice."

"We're in a battle … for the heart and soul of the country," Flynn said. "We will win."


PHOTO: In this Jan. 28, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks on the phone in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., as National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon look on.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE

Bannon also played a significant role in promoting the Jan. 6 rally, which was co-organized by "March for Trump," and he previously served as a prominent sponsor of the group's cross-country December bus tour ahead of the rally. Shortly after Trump lost the 2020 election, Bannon's "War Room" podcast was banned from Twitter for suggesting Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.

"I'd put the heads on pikes. Right. I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats," Bannon said. "You either get with the program or you are gone."

A spokesperson for Bannon told ABC News in a statement that "Mr. Bannon did not, would not and has never called for violence of any kind. Mr. Bannon’s commentary was clearly meant metaphorically."

Falls from grace

All three men played pivotal roles in Trump's rise to power, only to see their reputations tainted by criminal investigation.

Stone was one of Trump's earliest political advisers, working with the real estate mogul long before he ventured into campaign politics. After a brief period working directly for Trump's presidential bid, Stone took on the role of outside adviser, even as he maintained regular contact with Trump.

Stone was later swept into the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, and faced allegations that he helped coordinate the release of hacked documents by WikiLeaks that were meant to damage Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. In 2019, Stone was convicted on federal charges of obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering, and sentenced to 40 months in prison. Trump commuted the sentence and ultimately issued Stone a pardon.

After leading Trump to victory as a top campaign strategist, Bannon also served in Trump's White House. He left after seven months and, like many top campaign officials, became swept up in the Russian investigation. He was never charged with wrongdoing in that probe. Last August, though, he was charged in federal court in an unrelated case with defrauding donors to a private fundraising effort called "We Build the Wall," which said it was raising private funds to help expand the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He pleaded not guilty and is out on bail awaiting trial.

Flynn served briefly as Trump's first national security adviser before he was dismissed for lying about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. He, too, became a focus of the federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. He later recanted before being sentenced, and was also pardoned by Trump.

A source close to Flynn told ABC News the retired general does not believe his words incited violence, and that he does not condone it, saying the riot was "the last thing we expected."


PHOTO: Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn looks on as supporters of President Donald Trump rally to protest the results of the election in front of Supreme Court building, in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2020. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters, FILE

Trump had invited Flynn and his family to the Jan. 6 rally but the source said they left disgusted at what the confidant said was a pointless gathering on the Ellipse, followed by outrageous political violence on Capitol Hill.

"100% the election was stolen -- no one is going to convince us otherwise," the source said. "But Michael Flynn never called for violence. What happened there was terrible."

Back in the fold

All three men resurfaced in Trump's orbit as advisers became increasingly concerned that Trump would lose his bid for reelection to Joe Biden. And as Trump mounted his drive to convince his supporters that he had actually won the 2020 race "in a landslide," all three picked up the messaging and spread it to their followers.

Even before Election Day, Stone was pushing the notion that vote counts could not be trusted. During a September appearance with extremist agitator Alex Jones, Stone called on Republicans to "be prepared to file legal objections and if necessary to physically stand in the way of criminal activity."


PHOTO: Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump, is flanked by security during a rally at Freedom Plaza, ahead of the U.S. Congress certification of the November 2020 election results, during protests in Washington, D.C., Jan. 5, 2021. Jim Urquhart/Reuters

After the election, Stone encouraged protesters to come to Washington to voice objections to the outcome. He was billed as a featured speaker for the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the assault on the U.S. Capitol, but did not appear. Since that day, he has sought to distance himself from the effort, telling ABC News in a statement that he condemned the violence perpetrated on the Capitol by the mob.

"I have no role whatsoever in the January 6 events as I never left the site of my hotel until leaving for Dulles Airport before 6 pm curfew. A careful review of my language of January 5 indicates that I played no role whatsoever in advocating violence or any inappropriate or illegal activity," Stone said in the statement. "Indeed anyone breaking into the US Capitol, trespassing and destroying property would only be hurting the America First movement that I support."

In the days after Trump's election loss, Flynn joined forces with Sidney Powell, the attorney who had helped engineer Flynn's decision to recant his earlier guilty plea. The two helped lead Trump's effort to dispute the election defeat, both in court and through a social media blitz that engaged, among others, followers of the conspiracy-driven movement known as QAnon.

The two even met with Trump in the Oval Office, not long after Flynn appeared on the conservative network Newsmax to advocate that Trump impose martial law and command the military to "rerun" the election. At a Dec. 12 rally Flynn falsely told followers "there are paths that are still in play" for Trump to remain in office for a second term. "There's a lot of activity that's still playing out," he said before Trump flew over the crowd in Marine One.

Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor and expert in homegrown terror groups, said Flynn emerged as a hero among extremists. She said Flynn "riled up" the groups ahead of the Jan. 6 election protest, and "incited the most extreme among the crowd to do something about it."

Bannon's quiet return

Of the three, Bannon kept the lowest profile in the days after the election. Only in recent days did he surface as someone who appeared to be back in touch with the president about the election, according to Bloomberg News. Bannon was also helping efforts by 501(c)(4) political nonprofits, so-called dark money groups, to overturn the election results, including the bus tour.

In public, Bannon repeatedly used his platform to promote the Jan. 6 rally, hosting rally organizers on his podcast at least 16 times amid the push to overturn the election results.

Two days before the rally and subsequent attack on the Capitol, Kylie Jane Kremer of rally sponsor "Women for America First" appeared on Bannon's "War Room" podcast to promote the event. "President of the United States, as we know right now, tentatively at 11 he's going to come and address the nation and then it's gonna be -- the game is going to start on Capitol Hill," Bannon said. "I think one of the most historic days in American history will be Wednesday."


PHOTO: In this Oct. 14, 2017, file photo, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon delivers remarks at an event in Washington, D.C. Mary Calvert/Reuters, FILE

Bannon did not return a request for comment from ABC News.

Two of Bannon's longtime associates also served in key roles on Jan. 6. Dustin Stockton was one of the lead organizers of the rally, and Jennifer Lawrence ran media relations.

Until 2017, Stockton and Lawrence worked as writers at the far-right media outlet Breitbart when Bannon was executive chairman, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The pair most recently worked with Bannon on his crowdfunding campaign "We Build the Wall," which in August 2020 resulted in the federal indictments over allegations of defrauding donors.

Neither Stockton or Lawrence returned ABC News' requests for comment.

Stockton served as "We Build the Wall's" vice president of strategy and marketing, according to his LinkedIn and social media posts, while Lawrence was the group's communications director before joining the "March for Trump" group. Stockton and Lawrence were both served warrants for their cellphones, as well as subpoenas to appear before a grand jury, in connection to the "We Build the Wall" group, but neither has been charged, according to CNN.

Stockton used some of the most incendiary language in the run-up to Jan. 6, at one point telling followers on a Facebook Live appearance to "clean your guns and prepare. Things are going to get worse before they get better."

On a Facebook Live stream Wednesday night after the Capitol attack, Stockton appeared unrepentant, saying lawmakers were "trying to certify a fraudulent election."

"I want to stand up against that," he said. "It's the whole reason I've been on this bus tour. That's the whole reason I've been organizing these events in D.C."

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Some Democrats in Congress are worried their colleagues might kill them: House members openly accuse far-right representatives of threatening their health and safety after the Capitol riot.
by Benjy Sarlin
NBC News
Jan. 14, 2021, 5:43 PM MST

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Supporters of President Donald Trump battle with police at the west entrance of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.Stephanie Keith / Reuters

WASHINGTON — After last week's deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, members of Congress are expressing something once unthinkable: that some of their own colleagues may be endangering their lives. Not in a rhetorical sense, but in a direct and immediate way.

"It's the most poisonous I've ever seen," Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said in an interview. "There's the overall sense that maybe if some of them have guns — and likely the ones who are more into conspiracy theories and QAnon with the pedophilic satanic rings — are we safe from them?"

Since the deadly riot Jan. 6, lawmakers have suggested — not, so far, backed up by evidence — that far-right colleagues may have helped plan or guide the attack. There are particular concerns about some newly elected members who have espoused extremist views, including comments supportive of the QAnon lie that accuses perceived enemies of Trump of being part of a child-abusing cult.



One House freshman is pushing to carry firearms on Capitol grounds, and another recounts being armed during the attack, further putting their colleagues on edge. With the support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., security officials have installed metal detectors outside the House floor, causing tension among some Republicans and effectively suggesting that members themselves may pose a danger.

Democrats are outraged at 147 Republicans who they say abided by the rioters' calls and voted to overturn the election results even after the violent attack, which left five people dead and forced lawmakers to hide in their offices and safe rooms.

But, Beyer said, the issue "that has the greater emotional impact is the sense that there's perhaps actual physical danger from our colleagues."

With lawmakers traumatized, hundreds of members of the National Guard sleeping in congressional hallways and warnings from authorities about continued threats, suspicion and rumor are running rampant.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has said she feared for her life, in part because she doubted the motives of unnamed colleagues who were sheltering with her.

"There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers, and frankly white supremacist members of Congress, in that extraction point who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.," Ocasio-Cortez, a highly visible progressive and frequent target of conservative media, said in a speech Tuesday streamed live on Instagram.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., has said she saw lawmakers holding tours around the Capitol the day before the attack, which she said she believes may have been part of a "reconnaissance" effort for the rioters. There is no evidence of such wrongdoing, and Sherrill has not publicly disclosed any names. But she and over 30 other Democrats have signed on to a letter asking authorities to investigate the claim.

"I was flat on the ground as other members were calling loved ones because they thought that might be the last phone call they made," Sherrill said Wednesday on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show." "To imagine that colleagues of mine could have aided and abetted this is incredibly offensive, and there is simply no way they can be allowed to continue to serve in Congress."

Raising the temperature further is the threat of Covid-19, as members continue to contract the virus amid resistance among some Republican lawmakers to wearing masks.

Several members have tested positive for Covid-19 since the attack, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., 75, a cancer survivor, who blamed GOP colleagues for refusing to wear masks while sheltering in tight quarters during the attack. Other Democrats have made similar accusations.

"It's very disturbing that [it's] this combined threat — the threat from within and the threat from without," said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H.

A trio of GOP freshmen have drawn particular attention and concern from colleagues: Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Some lawmakers have suggested that Boebert, a Second Amendment advocate and past QAnon sympathizer, may have deliberately revealed Pelosi's location during the attack on Twitter. Boebert also tweeted "Today is 1776" the morning of the rally.

The concerns are not limited to Democrats. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called Boebert "culpable" in the attack in an interview with National Journal, citing her tweet about Pelosi.

Boebert has denied any involvement in the assault, including claims that she sought to draw attention to Pelosi's whereabouts, saying her tweet was posted after Pelosi had moved on and did not mention her secure location. In a statement, she told NBC News that she is "not a follower or believer of QAnon and I have repeatedly disavowed it."

Boebert has also resisted new metal detectors in her high-profile push to carry guns through the Capitol. Members are not allowed to have guns on the House floor.

The metal detectors have become a culture war flashpoint; Boebert and other Republicans refuse to go through them at times. Pelosi announced Wednesday night that she would fine members who evade the metal detectors up to $10,000, writing in a statement that "it is tragic that this step is necessary, but the Chamber of the People's House must and will be safe."

Cawthorn, who spoke at a pro-Trump rally in Washington before the Capitol siege, has said he was carrying a firearm during the riot.

"Congressman Cawthorn exercises his 2nd Amendment rights as well as privileges accorded to him as a member of Congress," his spokesman, Micah Bock, said in an email. "Congressman Cawthorn seeks to abide by all known Capitol Police regulations."

Cawthorn has also faced scrutiny for his call to "lightly threaten" lawmakers who did not support overturning the election results. A spokesman said he meant finding primary challengers for those lawmakers. In October, his campaign website accused a reporter of taking a job "to work for non-white males," like Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who it said aim to "ruin white males running for office."

Cawthorn has denounced last week's violence and denied any racist intentions in his comments. Bock said any member uncomfortable around Cawthorn "hadn't met him yet" and would find him "friendly and amiable."

Greene, who has clashed with members over wearing masks, supported Trump's efforts to overturn the election and explicitly promoted QAnon more than any other national elected figure. She once described Trump's presidency as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles out."

Greene's spokesman, Nick Dyer, denied suggestions that she supports QAnon. He said the allegation that she had endangered colleagues by not wearing a mask in a safe room during the attack was "ridiculous," saying she had tested negative for Covid-19 two days before.

"She has nothing to do with QAnon," Dyer said. "She doesn't support it. She doesn't follow it. She believes it's disinformation."

It's hard to find historical precedent for this level of visceral worry about danger among lawmakers.

Joanne Freeman, who is a historian at Yale University and the author of "The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War," likened the atmosphere to the decades before the Civil War, when fistfights often broke out on the House floor and a Northern senator was caned by a Southern House member.

Freeman cautioned against drawing too many direct parallels, as it was a more violent time in America across the board. But, she said, the violence in Congress both reflected and encouraged violence outside its walls: It took place as slave owners were brutalizing Black Americans and engaging in limited warfare with abolitionists in the territories.

"Everything that happens in the Capitol and Congress has a symbolic representative nature, and that's some of what we saw this week and some of what we're responding to," Freeman said.

Two lawmakers, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and freshman Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., both claim that some GOP colleagues voted to overturn the election results or against impeaching Trump out of fear that their families' lives may be put in danger. Other Republicans urged against impeachment in part to avoid inciting further violence, effectively conceding that pro-Trump extremists pose a continuing threat.

Meijer said in an appearance on MSNBC that he and other members were buying body armor.

"It's sad that we have to get to that point, but our expectation is that someone may try to kill us," he said.

Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University who studies how democracies slide into authoritarianism, said the atmosphere was disturbingly similar to those in governments in which dissident politicians live in fear of death threats, including fears that pro-regime extremists might target them with tacit support from government leaders or state security.

"In the atmosphere of threat, a lot of people quit," she said. "By the time you're at the endgame, you only have the people who say they refuse to be bullied and will risk their lives and those that are so bullied they can't even open their mouths."

CORRECTION (Jan. 14, 2021, 11:45 p.m.): A previous version of this article misstated the state Rep. Madison Cawthorn represents. He is from North Carolina, not South Carolina. The article also misstated what chamber of Congress the attacker of a Northern senator before the Civil War was from. Sen. Charles Sumner, R-Mass., was caned in 1856 by a member of the House, Preston Brooks, D-S.C., not the Senate.

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The President Is Slithering Off To Mar-A-Lago But The MAGA Menace Isn't Going Away
by Stephen Colbert
Jan 15, 2021



Our disgraced, twice-impeached president is said to be planning to slink off to his Florida estate without attending Joe Biden's inauguration, leaving in his wake untold numbers of angry, conspiracy-fueled supporters still bent on causing destruction in his name.

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Lawmakers who conspired with Capitol attackers in legal peril: If any members of Congress are proven to have colluded with the rioters, their position likely won't save them from criminal liability.
by Josh Gerstein
Politico
01/14/2021 07:38 PM EST

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Trump supporters gesture to U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 6 outside of the Senate chamber. | Manuel Balce Ceneta, File/AP

Lawmakers who interacted with the pro-Trump protesters who rioted at the Capitol last week could face criminal charges and will almost certainly come under close scrutiny in the burgeoning federal investigation into the assault, former prosecutors said.

“This is incredibly serious,” said Ron Machen, a former U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. “Although you would need compelling evidence before charging a member of Congress with anything related to the breach of the Capitol that day, this has to be investigated.”

Unlike with the president, there’s no Justice Department policy shielding members of Congress from legal accountability while in office.

“I’d say those are potentially viable prosecutions,” added Peter Zeidenberg, another former federal prosecutor in Washington. “I’d say those guys should be worried.”

The role members of Congress may have played in facilitating the deadly attack drew intense attention this week after Democratic lawmakers alleged that some of their Republican colleagues facilitated tours of the Capitol on January 5 — one day before demonstrators engaged in the assault that terrorized lawmakers, ransacked congressional offices and left as many as five people dead.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) sent a letter Wednesday formally asking the Capitol Police and congressional officials to investigate the tours, which she said were unusual. In a Facebook video, she said the visits amounted to “a reconnaissance of the next day.”

“The tours being conducted on Tuesday, January 5, were a noticeable and concerning departure from the procedures in place as of March 2020 that limited the number of visitors to the Capitol,” Sherrill and 33 colleagues wrote. “The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day.”

Sherrill suggested that access raised the possibility that the visitors were casing the building for the assault that unfolded the next day.

“Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex,” she wrote. “Given the events of January 6, the ties between these groups inside the Capitol Complex and the attacks on the Capitol need to be investigated.”

Justice Department officials have said they are looking for “all actors” who were involved in the Capitol riot. The FBI has also called on the public to turn over evidence on those who “instigated” violence.

Asked whether the probe includes potentially complicit lawmakers, a Justice Department spokesperson referred questions to the FBI, which did not respond to a request for comment.

The chief organizer of Stop the Steal, one of the groups behind the Jan. 6 protests that ended in a violent assault on the Capitol, has claimed to be working with several Republican members of the House to organize the event. But it remains to be seen whether any coordination ahead of last week’s rally extends to complicity in the storming of Congress.

Democrats have raised several potential means for punishing GOP lawmakers who may have been involved in either fomenting or directing the riot — from congressional investigation to criminal sanction.

“I hope we understand if there was an inside job — whether it was members or staff or anyone working at the Capitol who helped these attackers better navigate the Capitol — that is going to be investigated,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Wednesday on MSNBC. Swalwell has also called out specific GOP lawmakers on Twitter, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), for seeming to disclose House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s movements during the attack.

“To hell with the Ethics Committee, these people need to be charged criminally,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) said on the same network.

The issue even arose during the historic impeachment debate on the House floor, where Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) said some of his colleagues “may well be co-conspirators.”

Lawyers with experience prosecuting complex criminal cases said that anyone who helped the rioters survey the Capitol could face grave charges.

“It’s deadly serious,” said former federal prosecutor Harry Litman. “It’s kind of like giving troop movements to the enemy.”

Litman said he expects investigators to sweep through emails and text messages, looking for indications that anyone who works at the Capitol was coordinating with the plotters. Under criminal law principles, even those with minor roles could be held liable for the worst offenses of the rioters.

“Talking it through with them is really conspiracy territory, that means you’re potentially on the hook for everything that’s reasonably foreseeable and, knowing this cast of characters it seems to me that everything from trespassing to use of weapons to incendiary devices is reasonably foreseeable,” Litman said. “If the evidence proves it, they could be on the hook for everything up to seditious conspiracy.”

Machen said more evidence needs to be developed but there are hints of a possible case for aiding and abetting the rioters.

“If a member of Congress led the insurrectionists around the Capitol the day before the attack and there was compelling evidence of complicity in the breach, if congressional members were actively aiding and abetting people trying to storm the Capitol and disrupt the electoral certification, that’s really as close to being at the heart of a seditious conspiracy charge as you could hope to find,” the ex-U.S. attorney said.

Some lawyers have said that inflammatory speeches by President Donald Trump, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) to the crowd that joined in the riot a short time later may be protected by the First Amendment. Fiery speeches are not uncommon at political events and making speakers responsible for all actions taken by audience members could chill public debate, scholars argue.

But ex-prosecutors say any criminal case against Trump or lawmakers would not be based solely on the speeches, but on other public and private communications — emails and texts exchanged with organizers and supporters in the days leading up to the rally and on the day of the shocking attack. Investigators will be looking for discussion of a physical assault on the Capitol building and for indications that individual members were specifically targeted.

Several experienced attorneys noted that any prosecution of political actors would be brought in Washington and that a local jury is unlikely to be sympathetic to claims that speakers were being colorful and not criminal.

“I would guess a jury would not find it very convincing. And these cases are going to be tried in D.C. and the jury isn’t going to buy this,” Zeidenberg said.

Investigations of Congress face special challenges. Lawmakers can try to use the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which gives limited immunity to House members and senators, to prevent investigators from accessing their communications related to their official duties.

In 2007, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply criticized prosecutors for their handling of a search of the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) as part of a corruption probe. The judges said members of Congress are entitled to advance notice of such a search and to review any materials investigators seek to seize.

However, Zeidenberg said he’s confident those obstacles can be overcome. “There’s no speech or debate clause that covers text messages with constituents about breaking into the Capitol,” he said.

With the number of individuals facing charges now above 70 and still climbing, investigators also might not need to get communications from lawmakers or their offices in the first instance, but can get them from the email accounts and devices of suspected rioters.

“The first people to cooperate get the best treatment,” said Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama. “Once they’ve identified people who went inside, they’re going to want to turn over what they have either because they have nothing to hide or because they want a deal, so it should not be very hard to get those communications.”

Some lawyers said the key question may not be whether a jury would convict, but whether Justice Department officials — including Biden’s Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland — decide the evidence of collaboration is strong enough to overcome concerns about intruding on the usual robust protections for free speech.

“It’s a big buffer for political speech and that would be a big part of the things Garland will have to look at, but this is like nothing I’ve ever seen from a political leader,” Litman said of Trump’s speech to the rally. “It’s a stronger case than the classic cases where the courts have come down on the political speech side of the equation.”

In his speech just before the attack, Trump urged his followers to “fight like hell.” However, Vance said charging the president or ex-president based solely on his comments at the rally would be challenging.

“They’re susceptible, standing alone, to an interpretation they are hyperbolic,” she said. “It’s really the course of conduct you’d need sufficient to prove intent to incite. … This is a tough one and I’m not sure it’s a realistic expectation the president of the United States is going to get indicted for sedition absent a real smoking gun showing up.”

[admin]

Texas realtor who took private jet is charged in Capitol riot
by Minyvonne Burke
nbc news
Fri, January 15, 2021, 1:09 PM

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Image: Jenna Ryan at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney's Office D.C.)

A Texas realtor who took a private jet to the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week and called it the best day of her life is facing federal charges.

Jennifer Ryan, who goes by Jenna Ryan on social media, is the latest person charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.

Federal authorities said in court documents released Friday that Ryan traveled with a group to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and documented her two-day trip on social media.

In one deleted video, Ryan said, “We’re gonna go down and storm the Capitol. They’re down there right now and that’s why we came and so that’s what we are going to do. So wish me luck.”

Another video that is still up on Ryan's Facebook page shows her and a group of President Donald Trump's supporters walking toward the Capitol. "This is a prelude to the war that's about to happen," she warns.

She also livestreamed herself entering the building.

"We are going to f------ go in here. Life or death, it doesn’t matter. Here we go," she said in a now-deleted video. Ryan later added: Y’all know who to hire for your realtor. Jenna Ryan for your realtor.”

Authorities said hours after the breach, Ryan wrote on Twitter that she had "just stormed the Capital [sic]."

"It was one of the best days of my life," she wrote, according to the court documents. Another photo included in the documents shows her standing next to a broken window at the Capitol. In the caption, she said that news studios would be next "if the news doesn't stop lying about us."


Image: (U.S. Attorney's Office D.C.)

Ryan was charged with disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry. It's not clear if she has obtained an attorney.

In a statement released Jan. 8, Ryan said she thought she was attending a "peaceful political march" but it turned into a violent protest.

"I do not condone the violence that occurred," she wrote. "And I am truly heartbroken for the people who have lost their lives. Hatred and violence toward each other are not going to solve our country’s issues. As a nation, we need to come together Republican, Democrat and Independent and have an open and honest discussion about the issues in our country and resolve our issues in peace."