Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certification

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Donald Trump Speech "Save America" Rally Transcript
by President Donald Trump
January 6, 2021

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HIGHLIGHTS:

[President Donald Trump] We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong...

The Republicans have to get tougher. You’re not going to have a Republican party if you don’t get tougher. They want to play so straight, they want to play so, “Sir, yes, the United States, the constitution doesn’t allow me to send them back to the States.” Well, I say, “Yes, it does because the constitution says you have to protect our country and you have to protect our constitution and you can’t vote on fraud,” and fraud breaks up everything, doesn’t it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do...

And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore...

So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

Donald Trump spoke at a “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6 before Congress was set to confirm the election results. “We will never concede,” he said. Read the transcript of his speech remarks here.

Donald Trump: (02:44)
The media will not show the magnitude of this crowd. Even I, when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here, but you don’t see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don’t want to show that. We have hundreds of thousands of people here, and I just want them to be recognized by the fake news media. Turn your cameras please and show what’s really happening out here because these people are not going to take it any longer. They’re not going to take it any longer. Go ahead. Turn your cameras, please. Would you show? They came from all over the world, actually, but they came from all over our country. I just really want to see what they do. I just want to see how they covered. I’ve never seen anything like it. But it would be really great if we could be covered fairly by the media. The media is the biggest problem we have as far as I’m concerned, single biggest problem, the fake news and the big tech. Big tech is now coming into their own. We beat them four years ago. We surprised them. We took them by surprise and this year, they rigged an election. They rigged it like they’ve never rigged an election before. By the way, last night, they didn’t do a bad job either, if you notice. I’m honest. I just, again, I want to thank you. It’s just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you. Hundreds of thousands of American patriots are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.

Donald Trump: (04:42)
Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. I say sometimes jokingly, but there’s no joke about it, I’ve been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first. Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country, 12 million more people than four years ago. I was told by the real pollsters, we do have real pollsters. They know that we were going to do well, and we were going to win. What I was told, if I went from 63 million, which we had four years ago to 66 million, there was no chance of losing. Well, we didn’t go to 66. We went to 75 million and they say we lost. We didn’t lose.

Donald Trump: (06:08)
By the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes? Does anybody believe that? He had 80 million computer votes. It’s a disgrace. There’s never been anything like that. You could take third world countries. Just take a look, take third world countries. Their elections are more honest than what we’ve been going through in this country. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace. Even when you look at last night, they’re all running around like chickens with their heads cut off with boxes. Nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.

Crowd: (07:11)
Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!

Donald Trump: (07:11)
Thank you. I’d love to have, if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed, the military, the secret service, and we want to thank you, and the police law enforcement. Great. You’re doing a great job, but I’d love it if they could be allowed to come up here with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them come up, please? Rudy, you did a great job. He’s got guts. You know what? He’s got guts, unlike a lot of people in the Republican party. He’s got guts, he fights. He fights, and I’ll tell you. Thank you very much, John. Fantastic job. I watched. That’s a tough act to follow, those two. John is one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country, and he looked at this and he said, ” What an absolute disgrace, that this could be happening to our constitution.” He looked at Mike Pence, and I hope Mike is going to do the right thing.

Donald Trump: (08:09)
I hope so. I hope so because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do. This is from the number one or certainly one of the top constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it. We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our constitution, and protect our constitution. States want to revote. The States got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice-President Pence has to do is send it back to the States to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people.

Donald Trump: (09:08)
I just spoke to Mike. I said, “Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage,” and then we’re stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot, and we have to live with that for four more years. We’re just not going to let that happen. Many of you have traveled from all across the nation to be here, and I want to thank you for the extraordinary love. That’s what it is. There’s never been a movement like this ever, ever for the extraordinary love for this amazing country and this amazing movement. Thank you.

Crowd: (09:44)
We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!

Donald Trump: (09:59)
By the way, this goes all the way back past the Washington monument. Do you believe this? Look at this. Unfortunately, they gave the press the prime seats. I can’t stand that. No, but you look at that behind. I wish they’d flip those cameras and look behind you. That is the most amazing sight. When they make a mistake, you get to see it on television. Amazing, amazing, all the way back. Don’t worry. We will not take the name off the Washington monument. We will not. Cancel culture. They wanted to get rid of the Jefferson Memorial, either take it down or just put somebody else in there. I don’t think that’s going to happen. It damn well better not. Although with this administration, if this happens, it could happen. You’ll see some really bad things happen.

Donald Trump: (10:54)
They’ll knock out Lincoln too, by the way. They’ve been taking his statue down, but then we signed a little law. You hurt our monuments, you hurt our heroes, you go to jail for 10 years and everything stopped. Did you notice that? It stopped. It all stopped. They could use Rudy back in New York City. Rudy, they could use you. Your city is going to hell. They want Rudy Giuliani back in New York. We’ll get a little younger version of Rudy. Is that okay, Rudy?

Donald Trump: (11:25)
We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s Capitol for one very, very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy. Most candidates on election evening, and of course this thing goes on so long, they still don’t have any idea what the votes are. We still have congressional seats under review. They have no idea. They’ve totally lost control. They’ve used the pandemic as a way of defrauding the people in a proper election. But when you see this and when you see what’s happening, number one, they all say, “Sir, we’ll never let it happen again.” I said, “That’s good, but what about eight weeks ago?” They try and get you to go. They say, “Sir, in four years, you’re guaranteed.” I said, “I’m not interested right now. Do me a favor, go back eight weeks. I want to go back eight weeks. Let’s go back eight week.” We want to go back, and we want to get this right because we’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.

Donald Trump: (12:34)
For years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud and weak Republicans, and that’s what they are. There’s so many weak Republicans. We have great ones, Jim Jordan, and some of these guys. They’re out there fighting the House. Guys are fighting, but it’s incredible. Many of the Republicans, I helped them get in. I helped them get elected. I helped Mitch get elected. I could name 24 of them, let’s say. I won’t bore you with it, and then all of a sudden you have something like this. It’s like, “Gee, maybe I’ll talk to the president sometime later.” No, it’s amazing. The weak Republicans, they’re pathetic Republicans and that’s what happens. If this happened to the Democrats, there’d be hell all over the country going on. There’d be hell all over the country. But just remember this. You’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody, and they try and demean everybody having to do with us, and you’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down our nation.

Donald Trump: (13:45)
The weak Republicans, and that’s it. I really believe it. I think I’m going to use the term, the weak Republicans. You got a lot of them, and you got a lot of great ones, but you got a lot of weak ones. They’ve turned a blind eye even as Democrats enacted policies that chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders and put America last. Did you see the other day where Joe Biden said, “I want to get rid of the America first policy.” What’s that all about, get rid of …? How do you say, “I want to get rid of America first?” Even if you’re going to do it, don’t talk about it. Unbelievable, what we have to go through, what we have to go through and you have to get your people to fight. If they don’t fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don’t fight. You primary them. We’re going to let you know who they are. I can already tell you, frankly.

Donald Trump: (14:39)
But this year using the pretext of the China virus and the scam of mail-in ballots, Democrats attempted the most brazen and outrageous election theft. There’s never been anything like this. It’s a pure theft in American history, everybody knows it. That election, our election was over at 10:00 in the evening. We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, and then late in the evening or early in the morning, boom, these explosions of and bullshit, and all of a sudden. All of a sudden it started to happen.

Crowd: (15:25)
[inaudible 00:15:25]

Donald Trump: (15:35)
Don’t forget when Romney got beat. Romney. I wonder if he enjoyed his flight in last night? But when Romney got beaten, he stands up like you’re more typical. Well, I’d like to congratulate the victor, the victor. Who was the victor, Mitt? I’d like to congratulate. They don’t go and look at the facts. Now I don’t know. He got slaughtered probably, maybe it was okay. Maybe it was that’s what happened. But we look at the facts and our lecture was so corrupt that in the history of this country, we’ve never seen anything like it. You can go all the way back. America is blessed with elections all over the world. They talk about our elections. You know what the world says about us now? They said we don’t have free and fair elections and you know what else? We don’t have a free and fair press.

Donald Trump: (16:25)
Our media is not free. It’s not fair. It suppresses thought. It suppresses speech, and it’s become the enemy of the people. It’s become the enemy of the people. It’s the biggest problem we have in this country. No third world countries would even attempt to do what we caught them doing and you’ll hear about that in just a few minutes. Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer, and we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

Donald Trump: (18:16)
We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country, our country. Our country has been under siege for a long time, far longer than this four-year period. We’ve set it on a much straighter course, a much … I thought four more years. I thought it would be easy. We created-

Another example that is consistent with the white supremacist tactic of double-speak, in our opinion, is Spencer’s proposed “peaceful ethnic cleansing.” At various times, Spencer has claimed that the creation of a white ethnostate was neither an example of white supremacy nor a proposal for genocide. Yet, his own words in other contexts betray an opposite reality. For example, Spencer offered the following during a podcast interview regarding modern day Turkey:

“That is our land. I would absolutely support a unified European effort to take back EuroAsia. And whatever happens to the Turks I don’t give a shit. I don’t care about them. They are ugly and appalling people with no culture...I despise those people...We should just take it from them...I don’t give a flying fuck about national determination...we should rip the entire EuroAsia from them. We should throw every Turk in the ocean...”186

In the above statement, Spencer clearly advocates both violence and the ideals of white supremacy. Within this context, his previous statements advocating a “peaceful ethnic cleansing” become hollow and clearly misleading. Without this broader context, however, it would be possible to regard Spencer’s proposal for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” as sincere, despite that the term “peaceful ethnic cleansing” is itself a fairly obvious example of internal inconsistency and can be viewed as oxymoronic. As ethnic cleansing clearly refers to a type of genocidal violence that was practiced in the Yugoslavian conflict in the mid-1990s, the idea that there is a peaceful type of genocide is hard to imagine.

In our opinion, the language Defendants used in their posts on Discord to plan UTR was precisely consistent with the double-speak that is emblematic of the WSM. As is typical with the WSM, using that language would have allowed them to motivate participants to engage in confrontation and violence at UTR while claiming that they were not doing so. As an example, Ray posted on June 28, 2017, that “I was thinking that for this event [UTR] we go for the Confederate theme but maybe have some good fashy [fascist] shit embedded in it.”187 Properly construed, this statement plainly appears to offer a way for Ray to claim that UTR was simply supporting Southern heritage while signaling to insiders its actual agenda. Similarly, a post by Kessler on June 14, 2017, that was accompanied by a photo of Kyle Chapman aka “Based Stickman,” who wielded a large stick and hit counter-protestors at Berkeley with it, reveals and simultaneously conceals the racialized hatred and violent ambitions of UTR with an attendee prepared to engage in battle with the incongruous label that “[it] really isn’t about hate”.

-- Expert Report of Kathleen Blee (Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Bailey Dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh) and Peter Simi (Associate Professor of Sociology, Chapman University), Sines v. Kessler, No. 17-cv-00072

Donald Trump: (19:03)
Four more years, I thought it would be easy. We created the greatest economy in history. We rebuilt our military. We get you the biggest tax cuts in history. We got you the biggest regulation cuts. There’s no President, whether it’s four years, eight years, or in one case more, got anywhere near the regulation cuts. It used to take 20 years to get a highway approved. now we’re down to two. I want to get it down to one, but we’re down to two. And it may get rejected for environmental or safety reasons, but we got it down the safety. We created Space Force. Look at what we did. Our military has been totally rebuilt. So we create Space Force, which by in of itself is a major achievement for an administration. And with us, it’s one of so many different things.

Donald Trump: (19:52)
Right to try. Everybody know about right to try. We did things that nobody ever thought possible. We took care of our vets. Our vets, the VA now has the highest rating, 91%, the highest rating that it’s had from the beginning, 91% approval rating. Always you watch the VA, when it was on television. Every night people living in a horrible, horrible manner. We got that done. We got accountability done. We got it so that now in the VA, you don’t have to wait for four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, four months to see a doctor. If you can’t get a doctor, you go outside you get the doctor, you have them taken care of. And we pay the doctor. And we’ve not only made life wonderful for so many people, we’ve saved tremendous amounts of money, far secondarily, but we’ve saved a lot of money.

Donald Trump: (20:49)
And now we have the right to fire bad people in the VA. We had 9000 people that treated our veterans horribly. In primetime, they would not have treated our veterans badly. But they treated our veterans horribly. And we have what’s called the VA Accountability Act. And the accountability says if we see somebody in there that doesn’t treat our vets well, or they steal, they rob, they do things badly. We say, “Joe, you’re fired. Get out of here.” Before you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t do that before.

Donald Trump: (21:24)
So we’ve taken care of things. We’ve done things like nobody’s ever thought possible. And that’s part of the reason that many people don’t like us, because we’ve done too much, but we’ve done it quickly. And we were going to sit home and watch a big victory. And everybody had us down for a victory. It was going to be great. And now we’re out here fighting. I said to somebody, I was going to take a few days and relax after our big electoral victory. Ten o’clock, it was over. But I was going to take a few days.

Donald Trump: (21:52)
And I can say this, since our election, I believe, which was a catastrophe when I watch and even these guys knew what happened, they know what happened. They’re saying, “Wow, Pennsylvania’s insurmountable. Wow, Wisconsin, look at the big leads we had.” Even though the press said we were going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points. Even though the press said Ohio is going to be close, we set a record. Florida’s going to be close, we set a record. Texas is going to be close. Texas is going to be close, we set a record. And we set a record with Hispanic, with the Black community. We set a record with everybody.

Donald Trump: (22:36)
Today, we see a very important event though, because right over there, right there, we see the event going to take place. And I’m going to be watching, because history is going to be made. We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity, they’ll be ashamed. And you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never ever forget that they did. Never forget. We should never ever forget. With only three of the seven states in question, we win the presidency of the United States.

Donald Trump: (23:21)
And by the way, it’s much more important today than it was 24 hours ago. Because I spoke to David Perdue, what a great person, and Kelly Loeffler, two great people, but it was a setup. And I said, “We have no back line anymore.” The only back line, the only line of demarcation, the only line that we have is the veto of the president of the United States. So this is now what we’re doing, a far more important election than it was two days ago.

Donald Trump: (23:59)
I want to thank the more than 140 members of the House. Those are warriors. They’re over there working like you’ve never seen before, studying, talking, actually going all the way back, studying the roots of the Constitution, because they know we have the right to send a bad vote that was illegally got, they gave these people bad things to vote for and they voted, because what did they know? And then when they found out a few weeks later… Again, it took them four years to devise history. And the only unhappy person in the United States, single most unhappy, is Hillary Clinton because she said, “Why didn’t you do this for me four years ago? Why didn’t you do this for me four years ago? Change the votes! 10,000 in Michigan. You could have changed the whole thing!” But she’s not too happy. You notice you don’t see her anymore. What happened? Where is Hillary? Where is she?

Donald Trump: (24:57)
But I want to thank all of those congressmen and women. I also want to thank our 13 most courageous members of the US Senate, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Shadowless, Kelly Loeffler. And Kelly Loeffler, I’ll tell you, she’s been so great. She works so hard. So let’s give her and David a little special head, because it was rigged against them. Let’s give her and David. Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue. They fought a good race. They never had a shot. That equipment should never have been allowed to be used, and I was telling these people don’t let them use this stuff. Marsha Blackburn, terrific person. Mike Braun, Indiana. Disinvested, great guy. Bill Hagerty, John Kennedy, James Lankford, Cynthia Lummis. Tommy Tuberville, to the coach. And Roger Marshall. We want to thank them, senators that stepped up, we want to thank them.

Donald Trump: (26:04)
I actually think though it takes, again, more courage not to step up. And I think a lot of those people are going to find that out, and you better start looking at your leadership because the leadership has led you down the tubes. “We don’t want to give $2000 to people. We want to give them $600.” Oh, great. How does that play politically? Pretty good? And this has nothing to do with politics. But how does it play politically? China destroyed these people. We didn’t destroy. China destroyed them, totally destroyed them. We want to give them $600, and they just wouldn’t change. I said, “Give them $2000. We’ll pay it back. We’ll pay it back fast. You already owe 26 trillion. Give them a couple of bucks. Let them live. Give them a couple of bucks!”

Donald Trump: (26:57)
And some of the people here disagree with me on that. But I just say, look, you got to let people live. And how does that play though? Okay, number one, it’s the right thing to do. But how does that play politically? I think it’s the primary reason, one of the primary reasons, the other was just pure cheating. That was the super primary reason. But you can’t do that. You got to use your head.

Donald Trump: (27:19)
As you know the media is constantly asserted the outrageous lie that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. You ever see these people? “While there is no evidence of fraud…” Oh, really? Well, I’m going to read you pages. I hope you don’t get bored listening to it. Promise? Don’t get bored listening to it, all those hundreds of thousands of people back there. Move them up, please. Yeah. All these people don’t get bored. Don’t get angry at me because you’re going to get bored because it’s so much. The American people do not believe the corrupt fake news anymore. They have ruined their reputation.

Donald Trump: (27:57)
But it used to be that they’d argue with me, I’d fight. So I’d fight, they’d fight. I’d fight, they’d fight. Boop-boop. You’d believe me, you’d believe them. Somebody comes out. They had their point of view, I had my point of view. But you’d have an argument. Now what they do is they go silent. It’s called suppression. And that’s what happens in a communist country. That’s what they do. They suppress. You don’t fight with them anymore, unless it’s a bad. They have a little bad story about me, they’ll make it 10 times worse and it’s a major headline. But Hunter Biden, they don’t talk about him. What happened to Hunter? Where’s Hunter? Where is Hunter? They don’t talk about him.

Donald Trump: (28:34)
Now watch all the sets will go off. Well, they can’t do that because they get good ratings. The ratings are too good. Now where is Hunter? And how come Joe was allowed to give a billion dollars of money to get rid of the prosecutor in Ukraine? How does that happen? I’d ask you that question. How does that happen? Can you imagine if I said that? If I said that it would be a whole different ball game. And how come Hunter gets three and a half million dollars from the Mayor of Moscow’s wife, and gets hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit on an energy board even though he admits he has no knowledge of energy, and millions of dollars up front, and how come they go into China and they leave with billions of dollars to manage? “Have you managed money before?” “No, I haven’t.” “Oh, that’s good. Here’s about 3 billion.”

Donald Trump: (29:29)
No, they don’t talk about that. No, we have a corrupt media. They’ve gone silent. They’ve gone dead. I now realize how good it was if you go back 10 years. I realized how good, even though I didn’t necessarily love him, I realized how good it was like a cleansing motion. But we don’t have that anymore. We don’t have a fair media anymore. It’s suppression and you have to be very careful with that. And they’ve lost all credibility in this country. We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we’ve been forced to believe over the past several weeks. We’ve amassed overwhelming evidence about a fake election. This is the presidential election. Last night was a little bit better because of the fact that we had a lot of eyes watching one specific state, but they cheated like hell anyway.

Donald Trump: (30:27)
You have one of the dumbest governors in the United States. And when I endorsed him, I didn’t know this guy. At the request of David Perdue. He said, “A friend of mine is running for Governor, what’s his name.” And you know the rest. He was in fourth place, fifth place. I don’t know. He was way… He was doing poorly. I endorsed him. He went like a rocket ship and he won. And then I had to beat Stacey Abrams with this guy, Brian Kemp. I had to beat Stacey Abrams and I had to beat Oprah, used to be a friend of mine. I was on her last show. Her last week she picked the five outstanding people. I don’t think she thinks that anymore. Once I ran for president, I didn’t notice there were too many calls coming in from Oprah. Believe it or not, she used to like me, but I was one of the five outstanding people.

Donald Trump: (31:17)
And I had a campaign against Michelle Obama and Barack Hussein Obama against Stacey. And I had Brian Kemp, he weighs 130 pounds. He said he played offensive line in football. I’m trying to figure that. I’m still trying to figure that out. He said that the other night, “I was an offensive lineman.” I’m saying, “Really? That must’ve been a really small team.” But I look at that and I look at what’s happened, and he turned out to be a disaster. This stuff happens.

Donald Trump: (31:50)
Look, I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me. I picked three people. I fought like hell for them, one in particular I fought. They all said, “Sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us.” The senators, very loyal senators. They’re very loyal people. “Sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us, sir. Cut him loose, sir.” I must’ve gotten half of the senators. I said, “No, I can’t do that. It’s unfair to him. And it’s unfair to the family. He didn’t do anything wrong. They’re made up stories.” They were all made up stories. He didn’t do anything wrong. “Cut him loose, sir.” I said, “No, I won’t do that.” We got him through. And you know what? They couldn’t give a damn. They couldn’t give a damn. Let them rule the right way, but it almost seems that they’re all going out of their way to hurt all of us, and to hurt our country. To hurt our country.

Donald Trump: (32:40)
I read a story in one of the newspapers recently how I control the three Supreme Court justices. I control them. They’re puppets. I read it about Bill Barr, that he’s my personal attorney. That he’ll do anything for me. And I said, “It really is genius,” because what they do is that, and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory, because all of a sudden Bill Barr changed, if you hadn’t noticed. I like Bill Barr, but he changed, because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney. And the Supreme Court, they rule against me so much. You know why? Because the story is I haven’t spoken to any of them, any of them, since virtually they got in. But the story is that they’re my puppet. That they’re puppets. And now that the only way they can get out of that, because they hate that, it’s not good on the social circuit. And the only way they get out is to rule against Trump. So let’s rule against Trump, and they do that. So I want to congratulate them.

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

Donald Trump: (33:41)
But it shows you the media’s genius. In fact, probably, if I was the media, I’d do it the same way. I hate to say it. But we got to get them straightened out. Today, for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of our Constitution, and for the sake of our children, we lay out the case for the entire world to hear. You want to hear it?

Crowd: (34:04)
Yes!

Donald Trump: (34:06)
In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before. And I think we’d go a long way outside of our country when I say that.

Donald Trump: (34:34)
So just in a nutshell, you can’t make a change on voting for a federal election unless the state legislature approves it. No judge can do it. Nobody can do it, only a legislature. So as an example in Pennsylvania or whatever, you have a Republican legislature, you have a Democrat mayor, and you have a lot of Democrats all over the place. They go to the legislature, the legislature laughs at them. Says, “We’re not going to do that.” They say, “Thank you very much.” And they go and make the changes themselves. They do it anyway. And that’s totally illegal. That’s totally illegal. You can’t do that.

Donald Trump: (35:13)
In Pennsylvania, the Democrat Secretary of State and the Democrat State Supreme Court justices illegally abolished the signature verification requirements just 11 days prior to the election. So think of what they did. No longer is there signature verification. Oh, that’s okay. We want voter ID by the way. But no longer is their signature verification, 11 days before the election! They say, “We don’t want it.” You know why they don’t want it? Because they want to cheat. That’s the only reason. Who would even think of that? We don’t want to verify a signature? There were over 205,000 more ballots counted in Pennsylvania. Now think of this. You had 205,000 more ballots than you had voters. That means you had 200… Where did they come from? You know where they came from? Somebody’s imagination. Whatever they needed. So in Pennsylvania you had 205,000 more votes than you had voters! And it’s the number is actually much greater than that now. That was as of a week ago. And this is a mathematical impossibility, unless you want to say it’s a total fraud. So Pennsylvania was defrauded.

Donald Trump: (36:35)
Over 8000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Think of that. Dead people! Lots of dead people, thousands. And some dead people actually requested an application. That bothers me even more. Not only are they voting, they want an application to vote. One of them was 29 years ago died. It’s incredible.

Donald Trump: (37:05)
Over 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters. So these are voters that don’t live in the state. And by the way, these numbers are what they call outcome determinative. Meaning these numbers far surpass… I lost by a very little bit. These numbers are massive. Massive. More than 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania were illegally counted, even though they were received after Election Day. In other words, “They were received after Election Day, let’s count them anyway!” And what they did in many cases is they did fraud. They took the date and they moved it back, so that it no longer is after Election Day. And more than 60,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were reported received back. They got back before they were ever supposedly mailed out. In other words, you got the ballot back before you mailed it!

Donald Trump: (38:03)
… they were supposedly mailed out, in other words, you got the ballot back before you mailed it, which is also logically and logistically impossible. Think of that one. You got the ballot back. Let’s send the ballots. Oh, they’ve already been sent. But we got the ballot back before they were sent. I don’t think that’s too good.

Donald Trump: (38:23)
Twenty-five thousand ballots in Pennsylvania were requested by nursing home residents, all in a single giant batch, not legal. Indicating an enormous illegal ballot harvesting operation. You’re not allowed to do it. It’s against the law. The day before the election, the State of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out. Yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people. It was increased. Nobody knows where it came from by 400,000 ballots. One day after the election, it remains totally unexplained. They said, “Well, we can’t figure that.” Now that’s many, many times what it would take to overthrow the state. Just that one element. 400,000 ballots appeared from nowhere, right after the election.

Donald Trump: (39:16)
By the way, Pennsylvania has now seen all of this. They didn’t know because it was so quick. They had a vote, they voted, but now they see all this stuff. It’s all come to light. Doesn’t happen that fast. And they want to re certify their votes. They want to re certify. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back.

Donald Trump: (39:43)
Mike Pence has to agree to send it back. And many people in Congress want it sent back, and take of what you’re doing. Let’s say you don’t do it. Somebody says, “Well, we have to obey the constitution.” And you are, because you’re protecting our country and you’re protecting the constitution, so you are. But think of what happens. Let’s say they’re stiffs and they’re stupid people. And they say, “Well, we really have no choice.” Even though Pennsylvania and other states want to redo their votes, they want to see the numbers. They already have the numbers. Go very quickly and they want to redo their legislature because many of these votes were taken as I said, because it wasn’t approved by their legislature. That in itself is illegal and then you have the scam and that’s all of the things that we’re talking about. But think of this: if you don’t do that, that means you will have a president of the United States for four years, with his wonderful son.

Donald Trump: (40:50)
You will have a president who lost all of these states, or you will have a president to put it another way, who was voted on by a bunch of stupid people who lost all of these things. You will have an illegitimate president, that’s what you’ll have. And we can’t let that happen. These are the facts that you won’t hear from the fake news media. It’s all part of the suppression effort. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it. In fact, when I started talking about that, I guarantee you a lot of the television sets and a lot of those cameras went off and that’s how a lot of cameras back there. But a lot of them went off, but these are the things you don’t hear about. You don’t hear what you just heard. And I’m going to go over a few more states. But you don’t hear it by the people who want to deceive you and demoralize you and control you, big tech, media.

Donald Trump: (41:48)
Just like the suppression polls that said, we’re going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points, well we won Wisconsin. They don’t have it that way because they lose just by a little sliver. But they had me down the day before Washington Post, ABC poll, down 17 points. I called up a real pollster. I said, “What is that?” “Sir, that’s called a suppression poll. I think you’re going to win Wisconsin, sir.” I said, “But why do they make it four or five points?” “Because then people vote. But when you’re down 17, they say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to waste my time. I love the president, but there’s no way.'” Despite that, we won Wisconsin, you’ll see. But that’s called suppression because a lot of people, when they see that, it’s very interesting. This pollster said, “Sir, if you’re down three, four or five people vote. When you go down 17, they say, ‘Let’s save, let’s go and have dinner, and let’s watch the presidential defeat tonight on television darling.'”

Donald Trump: (42:49)
And just like the radical left tries to blacklist you on social media, every time I put out a tweet, even if it’s totally correct, totally correct. I get a flag. I get a flag. And they also don’t let you get out. On Twitter, it’s very hard to come on to my account. It’s very hard to get out a message. They don’t let the message get out nearly like they should, but I’ve had many people say, “I can’t get on your Twitter.” I don’t care about Twitter. Twitter is bad news. They’re all bad news. But you know what? If you want to get out of message. And if you want to go through big tech, social media, they are really, if you’re a conservative, if you’re a Republican, if you have a big voice, I guess they call it shadow ban. Shadow ban. They shadow ban you and it should be illegal. I’ve been telling these Republicans get rid of Section 230.

Donald Trump: (43:47)
And for some reason, Mitch and the group, they don’t want to put it in there. And they don’t realize that that’s going to be the end of the Republican party as we know it, but it’s never going to be the end of us, never. Let them get out. Let the weak ones get out. This is a time for strength. They also want to indoctrinate your children in school by teaching them things that aren’t so. They want to indoctrinate your children. It’s all part of the comprehensive assault on our democracy and the American people to finally standing up and saying, “No.” This crowd is again a testament to it. I did no advertising. I did nothing. You do have some groups that are big supporters. I want to thank that Amy and everybody, we have some incredible supporters, incredible, but we didn’t do anything. This just happened.

Donald Trump: (44:39)
Two months ago, we had a massive crowd come down to Washington. I said, “What are they there for.” “Sir, they’re there for you.” We have nothing to do with it. These groups, they’re forming all over the United States. And we got to remember, in a year from now, you’re going to start working on Congress. And we got to get rid of the weak congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world, we got to get rid of them. We got to get rid of them. She never wants a soldier brought home. I’ve brought a lot of our soldiers home. I don’t know, some like it. They’re in countries that nobody even knows the name. Nobody knows where they are. They’re dying. They’re great, but they’re dying. They’re losing their arms, their legs, their face. I brought them back home, largely back home, Afghanistan, Iraq. Remember I used to say in the old days, “Don’t go into Iraq. But if you go in, keep the oil.” We didn’t keep the oil. So stupid. So stupid, these people. And Iraq has billions and billions of dollars now in the bank. And what did we do? We get nothing. We never get. But we do actually, we kept the oil here. We did good. We got rid of the ISIS caliphate. We got rid of plenty of different things that everybody knows and the rebuilding of our military in three years, people said it couldn’t be done. And it was all made in the USA, all made in the USA. Best equipment in the world. In Wisconsin, corrupt Democrat run cities deployed more than 500 illegal unmanned, unsecured drop boxes, which collected a minimum of 91,000 unlawful votes. It was razor thin the loss. This one thing alone is much more than we would need, but there are many things.

Donald Trump: (46:29)
They have these lockboxes and they pick them up and they disappear for two days. People would say, “Where’s that box?” They disappeared. Nobody even knew where the hell it was. In addition, over 170,000 absentee votes were counted in Wisconsin without a valid absentee ballot application. So they had a vote, but they had no application. And that’s illegal in Wisconsin. Meaning those votes were blatantly done in opposition to state law. And they came 100% from Democrat areas, such as Milwaukee and Madison, 100%. In Madison, 17,000 votes were deposited in so-called human drop boxes. You know what that is, right? Where operatives stuff thousands of unsecured ballots into duffel bags on park benches across the city in complete defiance of cease and desist letters from state legislature. The state legislature said, “Don’t do it.” They’re the only ones that could approve it. They gave tens of thousands of votes.

Donald Trump: (47:37)
They came in in duffel bags. Where the hell did they come from? According to eyewitness testimony, postal service workers in Wisconsin were also instructed to illegally backdate approximately 100,000 ballots. The margin of difference in Wisconsin was less than 20,000 votes. Each one of these things alone wins us the state. Great state, we love the state, we won the state. In Georgia, your secretary of state, I can’t believe this guy’s a Republican. He loves recording telephone conversations. I thought it was a great conversation personally, so did a lot of other … people love that conversation, because it says what’s going on. These people are crooked. They’re 100% in my opinion, one of the most corrupt. Between your governor and your secretary of state. And now you have it again last night, just take a look at what happened, what a mess and the Democrat party operatives entered into an illegal and unconstitutional settlement agreement that drastically weakened signature verification and other election security procedures.

Donald Trump: (48:53)
Stacey Abrams, she took them to lunch and I beat her two years ago with a bad candidate, Brian Kemp. But the Democrats, took the Republicans to lunch because the secretary of state had no clue what the hell was happening, unless he did have a clue. That’s interesting. Maybe he was with the other side, but we’ve been trying to get verifications of signatures in Fulton County. They won’t let us do it. The only reason they won’t is because we’ll find things in the hundreds of thousands. Why wouldn’t they let us verify signatures and Fulton County? Which is known for being very corrupt. They won’t do it. They go to some other county where you would live. I said, “That’s not the problem. The problem is Fulton County.” Home of Stacey Abrams. She did a good job. I congratulate her, but it was done in such a way that we can’t let this stuff happen.

Donald Trump: (49:53)
We won’t have a country if it happens. As a result Georgia’s absentee ballot rejection rate was more than 10 times lower than previous levels, because the criteria was so off, 48 counties in Georgia with thousands and thousands of votes rejected zero ballots. There wasn’t one ballot. In other words, in a year in which more mail-in ballots were sent than ever before, and more people were voting by mail for the first time, the rejection rate was drastically lower than it had ever been before. The only way this can be explained is if tens of thousands of illegitimate votes were added to the tally, that’s the only way you could explain it. By the way, you’re talking about tens of thousands. If Georgia had merely rejected the same number of unlawful ballots, as in other years, there should have been approximately 45,000 ballots rejected, far more than what we needed to win, just over 11,000.

Donald Trump: (50:59)
They should find those votes. They should absolutely find that just over 11,000 votes, that’s all we need. They defrauded us out of a win in Georgia, and we’re not going to forget it. There’s only one reason the Democrats could possibly want to eliminate signature matching, oppose voter ID and stop citizenship confirmation. Are you in citizenship? You’re not allowed to ask that question. Because they want to steal the election. The radical left knows exactly what they’re doing. They’re ruthless and it’s time that somebody did something about it. And Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories. In Fulton County, republican poll Watchers were rejected in some cases, physically from the room under the false pretense of a pipe burst.

Donald Trump: (52:03)
Water main burst, everybody leave. Which we now know was a total lie. Then election officials pull boxes, Democrats and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. You all saw it on television, totally fraudulent. And illegally scanned them for nearly two hours totally unsupervised. Tens of thousands of votes, as that coincided with a mysterious vote dump of up to 100,000 votes for Joe Biden, almost none for Trump. Oh, that sounds fair. That was at 1:34 AM. The Georgia secretary of state and pathetic governor of Georgia … although he says, I’m a great president. I sort of maybe have to change. He said the other day, “Yes, I disagree with president, but he’s been a great president.” Oh, good. Thanks. Thank you very much. Because of him and others. Brian Kemp, vote him the hell out of office, please.

Donald Trump: (53:05)
Well, his rates are so low, his approval rating now, I think it just reached a record low. They’ve rejected five separate appeals for an independent and comprehensive audit of signatures in Fulton County. Even without an audit, the number of fraudulent ballots that we’ve identified across the state is staggering. Over 10,300 ballots in Georgia were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Georgia residents who died in 2020 and prior to the election. More than 2,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match incarcerated felons in Georgia prison. People who are not allowed to vote. More than 4,500 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who do not appear on the state’s own voter rolls. Over 18,000 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who registered to vote using an address listed as vacant, according to the postal service. At least 88,000 ballots in Georgia were cast by people whose registrations were illegally backdated.

Donald Trump: (54:18)
Each one of these is far more than we need. 66,000 votes in Georgia were cast by individuals under the legal voting age. And at least 15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state prior to November 3rd election. They say they moved right back. They move right back. Oh, they moved out. They moved right back. Okay. They miss Georgia that much. I do. I love Georgia, but it’s a corrupt system. Despite all of this, the margin in Georgia is only 11,779 votes. Each and every one of these issues is enough to give us a victory in Georgia, a big, beautiful victory. Make no mistake, this selection stolen from you, from me and from the country. And not a single swing state has conducted a comprehensive audit to remove the illegal ballots. This should absolutely occur in every single contestant state before the election is certified.

Donald Trump: (55:21)
In the State of Arizona, over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens. 2000 ballots were returned with no address. More than 22,000 ballots were returned before they were ever supposedly mailed out. They returned, but we haven’t mailed them yet. 11,600 more ballots and votes were counted more than there were actual voters. You see that? So you have more votes again than you have voters.

Donald Trump: (55:51)
150,000 people registered in Maya Copa County [Maricopa] after the registration deadline. 103,000 ballots in the county were sent for electronic adjudication with no Republican observers. In Clark County, Nevada, the accuracy settings on signature verification machines were purposely lowered before they were used to count over 130,000 ballots. If you signed your name as Santa Claus, it would go through. There were also more than 42,000 double votes in Nevada. Over 150,000 people were hurt so badly by what took place. And 1500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Nevada residents who died in 2020, prior to November 3rd election. More than 8,000 votes were cast by individuals who had no address and probably didn’t live there. The margin in Nevada is down at a very low number. Any of these things would have taken care of the situation. We would have won-

Donald Trump: (57:03)
Any of these things would have taken care of the situation. We would have won Nevada also. Every one of these we’re going over, we win. In Michigan quickly, the secretary of state, a real great one, flooded the state with unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, sent to every person on the rolls, in direct violation of state law. More than 17,000 Michigan ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth matched people who were deceased. In Wayne County, that’s a great one. That’s Detroit. 174,000 ballots were counted without being tied to an actual registered voter. Nobody knows where they came from. Also in Wayne County, poll watches observed canvassers re-scanning batches of ballots over and over again, up to three or four or five times. In Detroit, turnout was 139% of registered voters. Think of that. So you had 139% of the people in Detroit voting. This is in Michigan, Detroit, Michigan.

Donald Trump: (58:08)
A career employee of the Detroit, City of Detroit, testified under penalty of perjury that she witnessed city workers coaching voters to vote straight Democrat, while accompanying them to watch who they voted for. When a Republican came in, they wouldn’t talk to him. The same worker was instructed not to ask for any voter ID and not to attempt to validate any signatures if they were Democrats. She also told to illegally, and was told backdate ballots received after the deadline and reports that thousands and thousands of ballots were improperly backdated. That’s Michigan. Four witnesses have testified under penalty of perjury that after officials in Detroit announced the last votes had been counted, tens of thousands of additional ballots arrived without required envelopes. Every single one was for a Democrat. I got no votes.

Donald Trump: (59:10)
At 6:31 AM, in the early morning hours after voting had ended, Michigan suddenly reported 147,000 votes. An astounding 94% went to Joe Biden, who campaigned brilliantly from his basement. Only a couple of percentage points went to Trump. Such gigantic and one-sided vote dumps were only observed in a few swing states and they were observed in the states where it was necessary. You know what’s interesting, President Obama beat Biden in every state other than the swing states where Biden killed him. But the swing States were the ones that mattered. There were always just enough to push Joe Biden barely into the lead. We were ahead by a lot and within the number of hours we were losing by a little.

Donald Trump: (01:00:03)
In addition, there is the highly troubling matter of Dominion voting systems. In one Michigan County alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden and the same systems are used in the majority of states in our country. Senator William Ligon, a great gentleman, chairman of Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Senator Ligon, highly respected on elections has written a letter describing his concerns with Dominion in Georgia.

Donald Trump: (01:00:40)
He wrote, and I quote, “The Dominion voting machines employed in Fulton County had an astronomical and astounding 93.67% error rate.” It’s only wrong 93% of the time. “In the scanning of ballots requiring a review panel to adjudicate or determine the voter’s interest, in over 106,000 ballots out of a total of 113,000.” Think of it, you go in and you vote and then they tell people who you’re supposed to be voting for. They make up whatever they want. Nobody’s ever even heard. They adjudicate your vote. They say, “Well, we don’t think Trump wants to vote for Trump. We think he wants to vote for Biden. Put it down for Biden.” The national average for such an error rate is far less than 1% and yet you’re at 93%. ” The source of this astronomical error rate must be identified to determine if these machines were set up or destroyed to allow for a third party to disregard the actual ballot cast by the registered voter.”

Donald Trump: (01:01:44)
The letter continues, “There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties in Georgia. For example, in Bibb County, President Trump was reported to have 29, 391 votes at 9:11 PM Eastern time. While simultaneously Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have 17,213. Minutes later, just minutes, at the next update, these vote numbers switched with President Trump going way down to 17,000 and Biden going way up to 29,391.” And that was very quick, a 12,000 vote switch, all in Mr. Biden’s favor.

Donald Trump: (01:02:31)
So, I mean, I could go on and on about this fraud that took place in every state and all of these legislatures want this back. I don’t want to do it to you because I love you and it’s freezing out here, but I could just go on forever. I can tell you this…

Speaker 1: (01:02:52)
We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.

Donald Trump: (01:03:03)
So when you hear, when you hear, “While there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing,” this is the most fraudulent thing anybody’s… This is a criminal enterprise. This is a criminal enterprise and the press will say, and I’m sure they won’t put any of that on there because that’s no good, do you ever see, “While there is no evidence to back President Trump’s assertion,” I could go on for another hour reading this stuff to you and telling you about it. There’s never been anything like it. Think about it, Detroit had more votes than it had voters. Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than it had more, but you don’t have to go any… Between that, I think that’s almost better than dead people, if you think, right? More votes than they had voters, and many other States are also.

Donald Trump: (01:03:56)
It’s a disgrace that the United States of America, tens of millions of people are allowed to go vote without so much as even showing identification. In no state is there any question or effort made to verify the identity, citizenship, residency, or eligibility of the votes cast. The Republicans have to get tougher. You’re not going to have a Republican party if you don’t get tougher. They want to play so straight, they want to play so, “Sir, yes, the United States, the constitution doesn’t allow me to send them back to the States.” Well, I say, “Yes, it does because the constitution says you have to protect our country and you have to protect our constitution and you can’t vote on fraud,” and fraud breaks up everything, doesn’t it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do. And I hope he doesn’t listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he’s listening to. It is also widely understood that the voter rolls are crammed full of non-citizens, felons and people who have moved out of state and individuals who are otherwise ineligible to vote. Yet Democrats oppose every effort to clean up their voter rolls. They don’t want to clean them up, they are loaded. And how many people here know other people that when the hundreds of thousands and then millions of ballots got sent out, got three, four, five, six, and I heard one who got seven ballots. And then they say, “You didn’t quite make it, sir.” We won. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.

Donald Trump: (01:05:43)
They said, “It’s not American to challenge the election.” This is the most corrupt election in the history, maybe of the world. You know, you could go third world countries, but I don’t think they had hundreds of thousands of votes and they don’t have voters for them. I mean, no matter where you go, nobody would think this. In fact, it’s so egregious, it’s so bad, that a lot of people don’t even believe it. It’s so crazy that people don’t even believe it. It can’t be true. So they don’t believe it. This is not just a matter of domestic politics, this is a matter of national security. So today, in addition to challenging the certification of the election, I’m calling on Congress and the state legislatures to quickly pass sweeping election reforms, and you better do it before we have no country left. Today is not the end. It’s just the beginning.

Donald Trump: (01:06:37)
With your help over the last four years, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country and nobody even challenges that. I say that over and over, and I never get challenged by the fake news, and they challenge almost everything we say. But our fight against the big donors, big media, big tech and others is just getting started. This is the greatest in history. There’s never been a movement like that. You look back there all the way to the Washington Monument. It’s hard to believe. We must stop the steal and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again, but we’re going forward. We’ll take care of going forward. We got to take care of going back. Don’t let them talk, “Okay, well we promise,” I’ve had a lot of people, “Sir, you’re at 96% for four years.” I said, “I’m not interested right now. I’m interested in right there.”

Donald Trump: (01:07:33)
With your help we will finally pass powerful requirements for voter ID. You need an ID to cash your check. You need an ID to go to a bank, to buy alcohol, to drive a car. Every person should need to show an ID in order to cast your most important thing, a vote. We will also require proof of American citizenship in order to vote in American elections. We just had a good victory in court on that one, actually. We will ban ballot harvesting and prohibit the use of unsecured drop boxes to commit rampant fraud. These drop boxes are fraudulent. There for, they get… They disappear and then all of a sudden they show up. It’s fraudulent. We will stop the practice of universal, unsolicited mail-in balloting. We will clean up the voter rolls that ensure that every single person who cast a vote is a citizen of our country, a resident of the state in which they vote and their vote is cast in a lawful and honest manner. We will restore the vital civic tradition of in-person voting on election day so that voters can be fully informed when they make their choice. We will finally hold big tech accountable and if these people had courage and guts, they would get rid of Section 230, something that no other company, no other person in America, in the world, has.

Donald Trump: (01:09:10)
All of these tech monopolies are going to abuse their power and interfere in our elections and it has to be stopped and the Republicans have to get a lot tougher and so should the Democrats. They should be regulated, investigated and brought to justice under the fullest extent of the law. They’re totally breaking the law. Together we will drain the Washington swamp and we will clean up the corruption in our nation’s capital. We have done a big job on it, but you think it’s easy, it’s a dirty business. It’s a dirty business. You have a lot of bad people out there. Despite everything we’ve been through, looking out all over this country and seeing fantastic crowds, although this I think is our all time record. I think you have 250,000 people. 250,000.

Donald Trump: (01:10:05)
Looking out at all the amazing patriots here today, I have never been more confident in our nation’s future. Well, I have to say we have to be a little bit careful. That’s a nice statement, but we have to be a little careful with that statement. If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country, because it’s illegal when the votes are illegal, when the way they got there is illegal, when the States that vote are given false and fraudulent information. We are the greatest country on earth and we are headed, and were headed, in the right direction. You know, the wall is built, we’re doing record numbers at the wall. Now they want to take down the wall. Let’s let everyone flow in. Let’s let everybody flow in.

Donald Trump: (01:10:52)
We did a great job in the wall. Remember the wall? They said it could never be done. One of the largest infrastructure projects we’ve ever had in this country and it’s had a tremendous impact and we got rid of catch and release, we got rid of all of the stuff that we had to live with. But now the caravans, they think Biden’s getting in, the caravans are forming again. They want to come in again and rip off our country. Can’t let it happen. As this enormous crowd shows, we have truth and justice on our side. We have a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts. We love our country. We have overwhelming pride in this great country, and we have it deep in our souls. Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Donald Trump: (01:11:44)
Our brightest days are before us, our greatest achievements still wait. I think one of our great achievements will be election security because nobody until I came along, had any idea how corrupt our elections were. And again, most people would stand there at 9:00 in the evening and say, “I want to thank you very much,” and they go off to some other life, but I said, “Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong. Can’t have happened.” And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.

Donald Trump: (01:12:21)
Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans for our movement, for our children and for our beloved country and I say this, despite all that’s happened, the best is yet to come.

Donald Trump: (01:12:43)
So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

Donald Trump: (01:13:19)
So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here, this is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[admin]

Joe Biden likens Ted Cruz to Nazi propagandist Goebbels for helping Trump spread ‘big lie’ about election fraud
The Texas Republican led the effort to delay certification of Biden’s victory but blames Donald Trump for the riot at the Capitol.
by Todd J. Gillman
The Dallas Morning News
2:46 PM on Jan 8, 2021 CST — Updated at 4:16 PM on Jan 8, 2021 CST
Updated at 5:05 p.m. with response from Cruz and Hawley.

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WASHINGTON — In extraordinarily sharp remarks Friday, President-elect Joe Biden compared Sen. Ted Cruz to Hitler’s propaganda master in the way he peddled Donald Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud, though Biden stopped short of blaming Cruz for the riot by a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol as many Texas Democrats have done.

The Texas Republican led an attempt in the Senate to block congressional certification of Biden’s victory in the Electoral College, insisting that widespread doubts about the legitimacy of the election demanded an emergency investigation to allay public concerns. Wednesday’s riot, which left one Capitol Police officer and four other people dead, delayed the formal count of the electoral votes.

Biden invoked Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, recalling his exaggeration of civilian deaths in the firebombing of Dresden, repeated by newspapers around the world. Goebbels maintained that the bigger the lie, and the more it was repeated, the more likely that it would be believed.

Biden noted that Cruz, like Trump, had spent weeks questioning the legality and accuracy of balloting in a half dozen states, despite an utter lack of evidence.

Asked if Cruz or Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who also led objections that delayed the vote certification, should resign, Biden said: “They should be just flat beaten the next time they run.”

“The American public has a real good, clear look at who they are,” he told reporters in Wilmington, Del. “They’re part of the big lie. The big lie.”

Cruz responded in a tweet, calling Biden’s comments “really sad.”

“At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing,” he wrote. “This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.”

Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
Really sad. At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden's choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing.
This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears out country apart.

James Hohmann @jameshohmann
Biden invokes Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and says Hawley and Cruz are as much a party to The Big Lie as Trump himself. "It's the Big Lie," he says. "The Big Lie."

3:54 PM Jan 8, 2021

Hawley also responded with a written statement.

“This is undignified, immature, and intemperate behavior from the President-elect,” he wrote. “It is utterly shameful. He should act like a dignified adult and retract these sick comments.”

Biden did not mention Adolf Hitler, whom Goebbels served, or compare Trump to the Nazi leader.

“I was pleased to hear some of the more prominent Republicans say to me that the Ted Cruzes of the world are as responsible in terms of people believing the lies, as — not as responsible but similarly responsible — Trump,” the president-elect said. “But they didn’t say go to the Capitol, I’ll be with you, follow [as Trump did]. That’s a different story.”

Conservative commentator George Will, among others, accused Cruz of sedition and said he would bear a “scarlet S” the rest of his public career.

Leading Texas Democrats such as Julián Castro and his brother Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio demanded that Cruz resign, as did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Cruz chalked up such talk to political opportunism by adversaries, making clear he would not follow their advice.

Some critics accused Cruz of inciting insurrection.

“It is your self-serving attempt at sedition that has helped to inspire these terrorists and their attempted coup,” alleged Beto O’Rourke, the El Paso Democrat who came close to ousting Cruz in 2018.

Cruz denounced the attack at the Capitol in real time as a “despicable act of terrorism,” and has repeatedly called for prosecution of those involved.

He has defended his demand for an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the election, saying Thursday that even in hindsight — knowing about the riot — he would have pursued a delay and objected to Congress’ affirmation of Biden’s victory. Doing otherwise, he said, would amount to shirking his duty, and he expressed disappointment that his argument did not gain enough traction among colleagues.

“Yes. Absolutely,” he told KXAS-TV (NBC5). “I would object and urge that we should follow the law and follow the Constitution.”

At the same time, with Trump’s presidency ending, his power waning and calls for his impeachment or removal through a 25th Amendment process by which the vice president and Cabinet could declare him unfit, Cruz has begun distancing himself from Trump in a way he avoided doing for over four years.

“I do think the president’s rhetoric and his language has been over the line,” Cruz said. “I think it was irresponsible. I think it was reckless. … He plainly bears some responsibility.”

Todd J. Gillman. Todd became Washington Bureau Chief in 2009 and has covered East Texas, Dallas City Hall and politics since joining The News in 1989. He's been elected three times to the White House Correspondents’ Association board, with a term ending in 2023. Todd has a Master in Public Policy from Harvard and a BA from Johns Hopkins in international studies.

[admin]

Steve Marshall says he’ll investigate Republican AG group’s role in Washington march
by Mike Cason | mcason@al.com
Alabama.com
Updated 1:45 PM; Today 6:01 AM

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The policy branch of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which is led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, helped organize the march in Washington that turned into a riot and attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to Documented, an organization that describes itself as a watchdog group investigating corporate influence.

Marshall said decisions were made without his knowledge.

The RAGA policy branch, called the Rule of Law Defense Fund, put out a robocall urging people to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” according to the Documented story, which has a recording of the call.

Marshall released a statement today in response to questions by reporters about the Rule of Law Defense Fund’s involvement in the march:

“I was unaware of unauthorized decisions made by RLDF staff with regard to this week’s rally. Despite currently transitioning into my role as the newly elected chairman of RLDF, it is unacceptable that I was neither consulted about nor informed of those decisions. I have directed an internal review of this matter. As I said yesterday, I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the actions of those who attempted to storm the U.S. Capitol, a place where passionate but peaceful protestors had gathered and lawmakers debated inside. Our country is built upon the foundation of the rule of law. American democracy guarantees the right of peaceful protest. Those who chose to engage in violence and anarchy should and will be held accountable under the law.”

Marshall did not say what the “unauthorized decisions” were.

The RAGA named Marshall chairman of its policy branch in November.

RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper also released a statement that denied involvement but that also mentioned an unauthorized staff decision without being specific.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of yesterday’s rally,” Piper said. “No Republican AG authorized the staff’s decision to amplify a colleague speaking at the rally. Organizationally and individually, we strongly condemn and disavow the events which occurred. Yesterday was a dark day in American history and those involved in the violence and destruction of property must be prosecuted and held accountable.”

Democratic Attorneys General Association Co-Chairs Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Aaron Ford of Nevada released a statement in response to news stories that the Rule of Law Defense Fund helped organize the protest.

“The continued peddling of conspiracy theories and pandering to President Trump’s dangerous lies by the Republican Attorneys General Association, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, and some current and former Republican Attorneys General has gone unchecked for too long,” they said. “Current and former Republican AGs have been directly involved with efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, and now the party of so-called ‘law and order’ played a role in recruiting the domestic terrorists who breached the U.S. Capitol to attack Vice President Mike Pence for doing his Constitutionally-mandated job to certify the Electoral College.”

Marshall has taken part in some efforts to challenge the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election. In December, he joined a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney to contest Biden’s wins in four swing states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Dozens of other lawsuits filed by Trump also failed in federal and state courts.

When Marshall spoke at Alabama’s Electoral College voting ceremony at the State Capitol on Dec. 14, he said election results in some states were inconclusive.

Election officials in those states have certified their results as accurate and the former attorney general who served under Trump, William Barr, said there is no evidence of widespread fraud that would affect Biden’s win.

The RAGA created the Rule of Law Defense Fund in 2014 to be a forum for conservative attorneys general to study important legal issues, according to the fund’s website. It is organized as a nonprofit under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

[admin]

Donald Trump, Jr. Save America March [Transcript]
by Donald Trump, Jr.
January 6, 2021





[Donald Trump, Jr.] HELLO, PATRIOTS! Hey, guys. You actually all did something, I didn’t realize was possible. I’m looking at the crowd here, and the tens of thousands – probably 100,000 plus people here – AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT BURNING DOWN BUILDINGS? YOU DID IT WITHOUT RIPPING DOWN CHURCHES?! WITHOUT LOOTING?! I didn’t know that that was possible! According to the media, when you have a large gathering of peaceful protesters, they are supposed to burn it all down! [Crowd laughs] So guys, we can do it right.

The fact that you are all here on this rather cold January day tells me all I need to know. And it should be a message to all the Republicans who have not been willing to actually fight. The people who did nothing to stop the steal. This gathering should send a message to them: This isn’t their Republican party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican party! This is the Republican party that will put America first! This is the Republican party that will fight for the American worker! This is the Republican party that’s not just going to roll over and die because the Democrats would like you to. No, we’ve seen that guys. We’ve seen that. We’ve been our own worst enemy. All you gotta do is look to Georgia where you had Republicans saying, “Well, well, I don’t like the way the game is played, so let’s take our ball and go home.” Oh, guys, guess what? That was music to Chuck Schumer’s ears! That was music to Nancy Pelosi’s ears. And that is what so many in the Republican establishment have created. That sort of mentality. “Okay, we’ll turn the other cheek! We’ll roll over and die. We’ll fall and give up. NO MORE!

So to those Republicans, many of which may be voting on things in the coming hours: you have an opportunity today. You can be a hero, or you can be a zero! And the choice is yours, but we are all watching! The whole world is watching, folks. Choose wisely, because if you just roll over, if you don’t fight in the face of glaring irregularities, and statistical impossibilities –

[Crowd] FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP! FIGHT FOR TRUMP!

[Donald Trump, Jr.] That’s right, guys! That’s the message! These guys better fight for Trump, because if they’re not, guess what? I’M GOING TO BE IN YOUR BACK YARD IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS. [Points] Guys like Scott, here. Look at – wow, okay, I can’t go through the whole list, because I don’t have 45 minutes to go through all the patriots that have been fighting, have been on the ground, that have mobilized to put good Republicans in those positions. GUESS WHAT, FOLKS? IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE THE ZERO, AND NOT THE HERO, WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, AND WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME DOING IT!

WE’VE GOT TO START FIGHTING like the Democrats do. Right? We gotta play their game. We gotta take their fight to them their way. Our reluctance to do that over the last few decades is why we are in the position that we are in. So today, friend or foe, today, Republicans you get to pick a side for the future of this party. Again, I suggest you choose wisely.

[Points] So Kimberly, thank you for all your fight. [Inaudible] Kimberly, folks! One of the great fighters out there. To my family, to my father, but most importantly, to all of you red-blooded patriotic Americans. Thank you for being in this fight with us! Thank you for standing up to the bullshit! Right?

A-men and a-woman! Right? I know, I know. But that shows you literally the mentality of where the Democrat party is, right? I think I put it up on my Instagram, which is being censored the hell right now. But like I put it up yesterday, they spent money on a study that came to the incredible conclusion yesterday that trans women playing in female sports have a competitive advantage. NO SHIT! WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING?! I HAD NO IDEA! I’m glad we spent probably millions figuring that out. Just like I’m thrilled that we spent $10 million to Pakistan on gender studies, because I’m sure they care. And billions elsewhere on nonsense that is driven by the insanity of the left, folks. And we have to stand up for it. No one cares how you identify, but you don’t have to do the nonsense the follows. And what I want to know is, in these sort of things, where are the people? Where are the feminists that we’re fighting as men are dominating women’s sports? Where are they, folks? We need to be the party of common sense! We need to be the party of reason! We need to be the party of our values that we hold so dear, that made America the greatest country in the world, and you guys are part of that movement.

SO STAY IN THIS FIGHT! STAY LOUD! DON’T BE SUPPRESSED! DON’T BE PUT IN YOUR CORNER! DON’T LET THEM CANCEL YOU! Trust me, I’ve been canceled 17 times since I started this speech I promise you. Once it happens, it’s rather freeing. Then you can kind of do what you want! Don’t let them do it to you! STAND UP AND FIGHT! STAND UP AND HOLD YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ACCOUNTABLE! And when you do, we can keep America great.

Thank you, patriots! Thank you America! KEEP FIGHTING!

Thank you, guys.

[admin]

Rudy Giuliani Save America March [Transcript]
by Rudy Giuliani
January 6, 2021

Trial by combat (also wager of battle, trial by battle or judicial duel) was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it was a judicially sanctioned duel. It remained in use throughout the European Middle Ages, gradually disappearing in the course of the 16th century...

At the time of independence in 1776, trial by combat had not been abolished and it has never formally been abolished since. The question of whether trial by combat remains a valid alternative to civil action has been argued to remain open, at least in theory. In McNatt v. Richards (1983), the Delaware Court of Chancery rejected the defendant's request for "trial by combat to the death" on the grounds that dueling was illegal. In Forgotten Trial Techniques: The Wager of Battle, Donald J. Evans set out the possibility of a trial by battle in the setting of a lawyer's office.[43] A tongue-in-cheek motion during 2015 for trial by combat in response to a civil suit was rejected in 2016.

In 2020, a man named David Zachary Ostrom requested trial by combat in response to a custody and property dispute with his ex-wife over their kids. Following Ostrom requesting trial by combat, he was court-ordered to be administered a sanity test, and was temporarily restricted parenting rights with his kids. Upon successfully clearing his sanity test, David's parenting time was restored. David has since admitted that he initially made the request for trial by combat in order to get media attention around his case.

On 6 January, 2021, President Donald Trump's lawyer, and former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani called for trial by combat against political opponents who were in the US Capitol during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. The incident made worldwide headlines for several days, resulting in many arrests, injuries and resignations.

-- Trial by Combat, by Wikipedia

[Rudy Giuliani] Hello! Hello, everyone! We’re here, just very briefly, to make a very important: two points: No. 1: Every single thing that has been outlined as the plan for today, is perfectly legal. I have Professor Eastman, here, with me, to say a few words about that. He’s one of the preeminent Constitutional scholars in the United States. It is perfectly appropriate, given the questionable Constitutionality of the Election Counting Act of 1887, that the Vice-President can cast it aside, and he can do what a President called “Jefferson” did when he was vice-president. He can decide on the validity of these crooked ballots, or he can send it back to the legislatures, give them five to ten days to finally finish the work. We now have letters from five legislatures begging us to do that! They are asking us! Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, and one other coming in.

[Crowd] RUDY! RUDY! RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!

[Rudy Giuliani] So it seems to me we don’t want to find out three weeks from now even more proof that this election was stolen, do we?

[Crowd] NO!

[Rudy Giuliani] So it’s perfectly reasonable and fair to get ten days, and you should know this! The Democrats and their allies have not allowed us to see one machine, or one paper ballot. Now, if they ran such a clean election, they’d have you come in and look at the paper ballots. Who hides evidence? Criminals hide evidence, not honest people. So, over the next ten days we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. SO LET’S HAVE TRIAL BY COMBAT! I’m willing to stake, I’m willing to stake my reputation, the President is willing to stake his reputation, on the fact that we’re going to find criminality there. Is Joe Biden willing to stake his reputation that there’s no crime there? No.

Also, last night, one of the experts that has examined these crooked Dominion machines, has absolutely, what he believes is conclusive proof, that in the last 10%, 15% of the vote counted, the votes were deliberately changed by the same algorithm that was used in cheating President Trump and Vice-President Pence – same algorithm, same system, same thing that was done with the same machines. You noticed they were ahead until the very end, right? Then you noticed there was a little gap – one was ahead by 3%, the other was ahead by 2%, and [slaps hands together] GONE! GONE! They were even! He can take you through that and show you how they programmed that machine from the outside to accomplish that. And they’ve been doing it for years to favor the Democrats. It is a matter of scientific proof. We need two days to establish that. It would be a shame if that gets established after it’s over, wouldn’t it be?

This was the worst election in American history. This election was stolen in seven states. They picked states where they had crooked Democratic cities, where they could push everybody around, AND IT HAS TO BE VINDICATED TO SAVE OUR REPUBLIC. This is BIGGER THAN DONALD TRUMP! It is BIGGER than you and me. It’s about these monuments, and what they stand for. This has been a year in which they have invaded our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom to move, our freedom to live, AND I’LL BE DARNED IF THEY’RE GONNA TAKE AWAY OUR FREE AND FAIR VOTE! AND WE’RE GOING TO FIGHT TO THE VERY END TO MAKE SURE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN!

And let me ask Professor Eastman to explain as easily as we can – I know this is complicated – but what happened last night, how they cheated and how it was exactly the same as what they did on November 3rd.



[Professor John Eastman, Chapman University] America’s mayor! Wonderful! Hello, America! Sorry, I had to say that! Look, we’ve got petitions pending before the Supreme Court that identify in chapter and verse the number of times state election officials ignored or violated the state law in order to put Vice-President Biden over the finish line. We know there was fraud, traditional fraud, that occurred. We know that dead people voted. But we now know, because we caught it live last time in real time, how the machines contributed to that fraud. And let me, as simply as I can, explain it. You know, the old way was to have a bunch of ballots sitting in a box under the floor, and when you needed more, you pulled them out in the dark of night. They put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines, sitting there waiting until they know how many they need. And then the machine, after the close of polls, we now know who has voted, and we know who hasn’t. And I can now, in that machine, match those unvoted ballots with an unvoted voter and put them together in the machine. And how do we know that happened last night in real time? You saw when it got to 99% of the vote total, and then it stopped. The percentage stopped, but the votes didn’t stop. What happened, and you don’t see this on Fox or any of the other stations, but the data shows that the denominator, how many ballots remain to be counted -- how else do you figure out the percentage that you have – how many remain to be counted? That number started moving up. That means they were unloading the ballots from that secret folder, matching them, matching them to the unvoted voter, and voila – we have enough votes to barely get over the finish line. We saw it happen in real time last night, and it happened on November 3rd as well. And all we are demanding of Vice-President Pence is this afternoon at 1:00, he let the legislatures of the state look into this, so we get to the bottom of it, and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government or not. We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we can’t get the answer to this question. This is bigger than President Trump! It is the very essence of our republican form of government, and it has to be done! And anyone who is not willing to stand up and do it does not deserve to be in the office! It is that simple!





[Rudy Giuliani] God bless you! And thank you so much for your support. I know the courage it takes to be out there. I know how you get ridiculed. I know how they try to take jobs away from you. But you look in the mirror every night and you say to yourself, “I’m doing the right thing for myself, for my family, for my children, and mostly importantly, for the United States of America!”


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

Chapman University President Condemns Controversial Law Professor Who Aided Trump
by Chris Jennewein
Times of San Diego
January 8, 2021


John Eastman. Courtesy Chapman University

The president of Chapman University said Friday that controversial law professor John Eastman, whose legal opinions supported President Trump’s lie that he won the election, had “publicly disparaged” the Orange County institution.

“This week, John Eastman, a member of the Chapman faculty, played a role in the tragic events in Washington, D.C., that jeopardized our democracy,” said Daniele Struppa in a letter to the Chapman community.

Eastman was in Washington on Wednesday at the rally the preceded the right-wing mob assault on the Capitol. He appeared on the stage with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who called for “trial by combat” before Trump urged his followers to head to the Capitol.

“Eastman’s actions are in direct opposition to the values and beliefs of our institution,” said Struppa. “He has now put Chapman in the position of being publicly disparaged for the actions of a single faculty member, and for what many call my failure to punish and fire him.”

He said that if it is determined that Eastman broke any laws, then “appropriate action” would be taken.

In December, Eastman filed a Supreme Court brief on behalf of Trump in support of a lawsuit by Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The suit asked the court to void the presidential election results in the four states. The court quickly rejected the lawsuit.

In August, Eastman wrote an op-ed arguing that Sen. Kamala Harris was not eligible to be vice president because she is the daughter of immigrants. The column echoed the birther conspiracy championed by Trump that President Obama was not eligible to be President.

[admin]

Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell rioting
by Associated Press
JAN. 7, 20213:19 PM

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[William Brangham] Attorney General, I wonder if you could help us understand a little bit of, for people who don’t know Washington, D.C., and how law enforcement operates in the City, it’s a very confusing thing. There’s a police force for the Capitol; there’s the Secret Service for the President; D.C. has its own police force. In this case, we saw that this was primarily an issue for the Capitol Police to be dealing with. What other local and/or national law enforcement agencies should be involved here, and do you believe are involved in here?

[Karl Racine, Attorney General for the District of Columbia] William, the question is spoken from someone who knows Washington, D.C. So thank you for that. And it’s important for the citizens and residents of the United States to understand that the District of Columbia, unfortunately, is not a state. We pay taxes; we go to war, but we’re not a state. We have taxation without representation. And that means that our local police police our neighborhoods in the District of Columbia where we have 700,000 plus extraordinary Washingtonians live and work. But we have the Capitol Police responsible for policing the Capitol. We have the Secret Service who has broad responsibility for protecting, of course, the President, and other elected officials, and other national assets. We have the Park Police that is in charge of protecting our parks here in the District of Columbia that are beautiful. And so in a way, the District of Columbia is one of the most over-policed in the sense of having so many law enforcement officials who, generally speaking, actually work well together. I think the breakdown here is that the Metropolitan Police Department is trying with all of their might, and I think they are doing, to be honest, a very good job under the new chief Contee. But we have a dissonance because it appears that some crucial federal partners frankly didn’t come to play today. And I can only think that the order came from somewhere up high because I know those federal police officers. They go to work every day to do the right thing. I think they were frankly told not to post today.

[William Brangham] I want to follow up on that in a moment, but we are just getting some word from the apparently the Sergeant of Arms inside the Capitol announced an all-clear, that there was some sense that the majority of protesters have been either contained or that the threat is minimized. And allegedly there was some applause that broke out inside the Capitol. So hopefully that is some good news, and we’re working to try and confirm that. But Attorney General, you were saying before about this issue of the difficulty of a city not necessarily having full governance over its own affairs. We know that the mayor of D.C. , Muriel Bowser, has established a 6:00 p.m. curfew tonight in the city. Can you give us a sense of what other resources are going to be deployed in the city? What concerns you have about what might unfold as this protest continues?

Abrupt Change of Topic

Another way to deal with a subject that you don’t want to discuss is to wait for a person to catch her breath and change the topic to something that is more agreeable. Most people will take the hint, but if it doesn’t work, try it again. Smile when you do it so the person doesn’t perceive you as being antagonistic or think you’re not a good conversationalist.

Here are some examples of how to quickly change the subject:

• When people start gossiping about someone who isn’t there, point to the buffet (or another inanimate object) and make a comment about how much planning must have gone into it.
• If a person says she has issues with the company you work for, you can smile and ask if she has any pets, and if so, what are they. She should take the hint that your employer is off limits in this discussion.
• When a person starts criticizing your friend or coworker, flash a big smile and ask about her last vacation.

-- How to Gracefully Change the Subject, by Debby Mayne

-- Senate Republicans Challenge Electoral College Votes, by PBS News, 1/6/21

Trump supporters gather before the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Three days before the pro-President Trump riot at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S. Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned them down both times, according to a Defense official and two people familiar with the matter.

Capitol Police had planned for a free-speech demonstration and didn’t need more help, those three told the Associated Press. The police weren’t expecting what actually happened — an insurrection.

But the Capitol ended up being overrun, overwhelming a law enforcement agency sworn to protect the lawmakers inside. Four rioters died, including one who was shot inside the building.

There had been plenty of warnings. Plenty of time to prepare. Plenty of money to do it.

The failure raised serious questions over security at the Capitol and the treatment of mainly white Trump supporters who were allowed to roam through the building, compared with the Black and brown protesters across the country who demonstrated last year over police brutality.

By the day after the rampage, the House sergeant at arms, the chief security officer for the House of Representatives, had resigned and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had called for the resignation of the Capitol Police chief.

“There was a failure of leadership at the top,” Pelosi said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the incoming Senate majority leader, said he will fire the Senate sergeant at arms.

The Capitol had been closed to the public since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 364,000 people in the United States. In normal times, the building is open to the public and lawmakers pride themselves on their availability to their constituents.

It’s not clear how many Capitol Police officers were on duty Wednesday. There are 2,300 officers who patrol 16 acres of ground and protect the 435 House members, 50 senators and their staffs. By example, the city of Minneapolis has about 840 uniformed officers for a population of 425,000 across more than 6,000 acres of land.

Let me tell you something. I have filmed numerous times in the U.S. Capitol building, and in the Congressional offices for both the House and the Senate. I’ve done this for over 30 years. I can tell you first of all, it is impossible to get into these buildings. It is extremely difficult. Don’t think I haven’t tried to get my crew and my camera and everything in there. It is just virtually impossible. So there is a system to follow. If you’re bringing a crew and equipment in, everything has to be gone through. And it isn’t easy, and it takes time, and there are a ton of police there, Capitol police. And last Wednesday, there’s about 2,300 Capitol police that exist on the Capitol police force. There were less than 500 who were called into work that day, on a day when for weeks it was known that tens of thousands of angry people who said they were going to stop the vote count, the counting of the votes of the American people, the electoral votes, they were going to go to D.C. and stop it by any means necessary – that was their mission. And everybody knew it. So much to the extent that I have spoken to a number of members of Congress and their staff, and every single person that I’ve spoke to said that on Tuesday, the day before, they told their staff not to come into work on Wednesday because they didn’t feel it was going to be safe. And so much of the staff of many members of Congress were not there on Wednesday. They were home, to protect themselves.

So it was known! It was known by the members of Congress that this was going to be a potentially dangerous day. And when these members showed up to work early Wednesday morning, I can’t tell you how many have commented to me, or have commented to the media, how bizarre it seemed that when they pulled into the parking lot there behind the Capitol building, or when they walked through the grounds to go into work, how few police were around, knowing this was going to be such a huge protest day, and yet it felt like, as one person told me, it felt like a Saturday on Capitol Hill. That’s what it looked like.

So right away somebody made the decision to pull back, and not have the proper amount of police there. Jim Clyburn who is the third in command in the democratic party there in the House of Representatives, he said he pulled in and he said it looked bizarre. That’s the word he used: it looked” bizarre” to him that there just wasn’t much of a presence there.

So they all knew. They all knew. And they trusted that the Capitol Police somehow had a plan, they were going to be there to protect them, and everybody went into work and assumed nothing was going to happen, until it did.

I want to tell you too, that having worked in there, and having filmed in there, it is so difficult to get your bearings straight, to know where you’re at, to find anything. As I sit here right now, I cannot tell you where Nancy Pelosi’s office is, as many times as I’ve been in there. I cannot give you directions right now to the Speaker of the House’s office. There are so many tunnels underneath the Capitol building. They go out to five or six office buildings where the members of Congress and the Senators have their personal offices. Each of those buildings have five or six floors, at least. It’s very hard to find your way. You know that if you’ve ever gone there to drop in to see your member of Congress.

The one thing that is good about Capitol Hills is that if you are a citizen who wants to see your representative, you can do that. You can go look at the, “Okay, it’s in that building and it’s that office number,” and then you walk there. You go through the Police, you go through the metal detector, you go through the wanding – everything they do – and then you can go see your representative the way it should be in a democracy. It should not feel like a police state. It should feel like it’s open to any of us to go in there.

How did they find Nancy Pelosi’s office? How did they find Jim Clyburn’s secret office? As the majority whip, he has a unmarked office. They didn’t go to his real office that his name is on the door – they found his secret office that the majority whip uses. They found places in there that even I, who have worked there for so many years as a filmmaker, I could not tell you where they are at. I didn’t know Clyburn had a secret office. I mean, it’s that hard.

And why I’m saying all this is that it’s clear to me that this was a bit of an inside job, that Republicans who are either members of the House or Senate of their staff, or some of them, helped the leaders and the instigators of this mob. The mob knew right were to go. The mob did not walk in there like a bunch of yahoos, like “Well, Jesus, firs time I’ve been in here. Look at all the marble. No. NO! They knew right where to go, they knew the doors to find the floor of the chamber of the House and the Senate, how to get there, they knew the tunnels – they knew it all! And when there is an investigation of this and how it happened, we’re going to find out the truth. And hopefully we’ll find out who helped them. Because I’m tell you, this crowd could not have done it on their own. And I’m not saying they hadn’t done their own reconnaissance in the weeks leading up to this. I’m sure they did. But take my word for it, no average citizen could do what they did and get to where they got as quickly as they got without some help, without knowing, and without having police and law enforcement turn their heads and look the other way, or open the door for them. You’ve seen the footage. Or, what was the one with the New York Times, one of them said, “Where’s Chuck Schumer’s office,” and the cop showed them the way.

Over and over, you hear these stories the last couple of days on how helpful law enforcement was, once these people had broken in, and were already committing felonies, were already violating the law, were already knocking over statues, busting doors, busting windows! “Hey, could you tell me where Chuck Schumer’s office is?” “Well, yes I can, you just go down that hallways there, make a right, then a left, and it’s door 362.” Hmmm.

There were a lot of police that didn’t aid and abet, actual everyday Capitol police who fought back, who tried to block some of these doors, who got caught in the doors – you’ve seen the footage of the one young police officer bleeding. They were violently trying to come into the floor of the House, of the Senate, they wanted to grab the boxes with the electoral votes, and destroy them, they wanted to stop – you and me – our votes from being counted, as we prepared to inaugurate the next President of the United States. They wanted that not to happen.

And afterwards, they’re like – some who got out of there – “They maced me! They maced me!” Have you seen that woman? Yes, there were a lot of women there. Remember, when I say men or women, we’re talking about white people here. All right? Let’s just be honest. That’s the only reason they got away with it. Had they been black or brown people, they never would have got two steps in the door. But there were a number of the white women – 55% of the white women who voted for Trump – were there representing the majority of white women who wanted four more years of Donald Trump, and then were shocked that the police were trying to fight back and keep them from stealing the boxes with the electoral votes.

But there were many cops, and there are members of Congress, Congresswoman Jayapal and others have already said there was something wrong, something fishy going on here. They personally witnessed police helping the mob, helping the terrorists who have come into the building to destroy the election of 2020....

Think about this too. You’ve seen the footage now, or you were watching it that day, not only were the police hardly there, you’ve seen these scenes in the movies where the Mob pays off the cops to kind of disappear for an hour or so, turn their heads the other way, there were no barricades set up, even though 50,000 people were coming down Pennsylvania Avenue toward them. There were no police horses. I’m telling you, I’ve been to demonstrations there since Nixon’s inauguration, and there are horse at every demonstration in D.C. There are police on horses, and they are aggressive with it to block you from going down this street or that street. There were no horses! Only 500 of the 2,300 police present. What is that? What is that: 1/5th? Four-fifths of the cops not showing up to work! Let’s be very clear about this.

Oh, watch any of the footage from those hours – and remember it was hours – it was from 1:00 until the National Guard arrived after dark! That’s how long those members and their staff and people had to hide in closets and safe rooms in holy shit terror for their lives. Nobody showed up! Up in the sky, not a single helicopter. No helicopters! Aren’t there usually police helicopters ALWAYS at a protest, at a demonstration? This was not a protest or a demonstration! This was a mob terrorist attack on our Capitol building! And they were there to cause harm and to kill if necessary, and they did kill a police officer. So they weren’t just terrorists then, they were cop killers! These very people who we’ve listened to all year chant “Blue Lives Matter.” And what they ended up truly being, with the mask ripped off their face, a cop-killing terrorist mob....

Whew!!! All the other things – think about this -- that aren’t right about this. Where’s the press conference that we always see whenever there’s an event, a big event like this, a horrible event: a school shooting, something happens in a shopping mall, whatever, you have within an hour or two all the cops – the sheriff, the police chief, the mayor, the state representative, everybody’s at the big microphone speaking to the press and answering questions as to what happened. The Nashville bombing, right? Within hours, they are all there talking to the press. We haven’t had that press conference yet! Do you realize that, that none of them together have stood at a microphone? No Capitol police chief – who has now been fired? No D.C. police chief, no National Park police, no FBI, no Secret Service, no CIA, no military police – nobody has stood! And what are we in here now, day four of this? Day four, and no press conference. You know the one we’re used to when there’s a school shooting, or whatever, and they all get there, and get their face time in front of the microphone? Nobody in authority has stood there to tell us what was really going on! And the reason they’re not doing that is because by now they know. They’ve done their own work, and they know who the rogue cops and the rogue military, and the ex-military are, and were part of this, and it’s shameful for them – they don’t want to admit they – they want to get their story, a new story, they want to create a new narrative, and they’re not ready to tell us what that narrative is yet. So that’s why you’ve seen zero press conference. There’s been one press call that some FBI guy was on, and press could call into that number and listen to what he had to say. That’s it! You think that’s a little strange? Do you understand why I think they don’t want to talk to us, to the public? They don’t want to talk to the press? Because they got to get their freekin story straight. That’s why. I’ve been around this enough; I’ve been around all these bullshitters, these politicians, the police chiefs and the sheriffs and everybody. It’s all political; it’s all political. You know that. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.

-- Michael Moore: The Terrorist Attack Is NOT Over, by Michael Moore, Rumble podcast, 1/9/21

The Capitol Police has an operating budget of $460 million and has experience with high-security, high-stakes moments. It is used to managing large crowds and large events such as the inauguration, the State of the Union and mass demonstrations.

There were signs for weeks that violence could strike on Jan. 6, when Congress convened for a joint session to finish counting the electoral college votes that would formalize Democrat Joe Biden’s election as president.

On far-right message boards and in pro-Trump circles, plans were being made.

The leader of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys was arrested coming into the nation’s capital this week on a weapons charge for carrying empty high-capacity magazines emblazoned with his group’s logo. He admitted to police that he made statements about rioting in the District of Columbia, local officials said.

Trump and his allies were perhaps the biggest megaphones, encouraging protesters to turn out in force and support his false claim that the election had been stolen from him. He egged them on during a rally shortly before they stormed the Capitol and rioted. His personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani called for “trial by combat.”

But the Capitol Police had set up no hard perimeter around the Capitol. Officers were focused on one side where lawmakers were entering to vote to certify Biden’s win.

Barricades on the plaza to the building were set up, but police retreated from the line and a mob of people broke through. Lawmakers, at first unaware of the security breach, continued their debate. Soon they were cowering under chairs. Eventually they were escorted from the House and Senate. Journalists were left alone in rooms for hours as the mob attempted to break into barricaded rooms.

“The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said. He said there had been a robust plan for what he had expected would be a free-speech demonstration. “But make no mistake — these mass riots were not 1st Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had warned of impending violence for weeks, and businesses had closed in anticipation. She requested National Guard help from the Pentagon on Dec. 31, but the Capitol Police turned down the Jan. 3 offer from the Defense Department, according to Kenneth Rapuano, assistant Defense secretary for homeland security.

Federal officials, who were harshly criticized for the law enforcement crackdown on peaceful protests last June near the White House, were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active-duty or National Guard troops against Americans.

The Justice Department’s offer for FBI support as the protesters grew violent was rejected by the Capitol Police, according to the two people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

By then, it was too late.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department descended. Agents from nearly every Justice Department agency, including the FBI, were called in. So was the Secret Service and the Federal Protective Service. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent two tactical teams. Police from as far away as New Jersey arrived to help.

It took four hours to disperse the rioters from the Capitol complex. By then, they had roamed the halls of Congress, posed for photos inside hallowed chambers, broken through doors, destroyed property and taken photos of themselves doing it. At least 80 people were arrested, but it will take time to sort through all the footage to determine who should be charged and with what, officials said.

In the aftermath, a 7-foot fence is being put up around the Capitol grounds for at least 30 days. The Capitol Police will conduct a review of the mayhem, as well as their planning and policies. Lawmakers plan to investigate how authorities handled the rioting.

[admin]

What went wrong with security at the Capitol? The Capitol Police, the 2,000-person force whose job is to secure the complex, failed to deploy enough officers and did not put them in riot gear.
by Ken Dilanian and Julia Ainsley
Jan. 7, 2021, 3:44 PM MST

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[William Brangham] Attorney General, I wonder if you could help us understand a little bit of, for people who don’t know Washington, D.C., and how law enforcement operates in the City, it’s a very confusing thing. There’s a police force for the Capitol; there’s the Secret Service for the President; D.C. has its own police force. In this case, we saw that this was primarily an issue for the Capitol Police to be dealing with. What other local and/or national law enforcement agencies should be involved here, and do you believe are involved in here?

[Karl Racine, Attorney General for the District of Columbia] William, the question is spoken from someone who knows Washington, D.C. So thank you for that. And it’s important for the citizens and residents of the United States to understand that the District of Columbia, unfortunately, is not a state. We pay taxes; we go to war, but we’re not a state. We have taxation without representation. And that means that our local police police our neighborhoods in the District of Columbia where we have 700,000 plus extraordinary Washingtonians live and work. But we have the Capitol Police responsible for policing the Capitol. We have the Secret Service who has broad responsibility for protecting, of course, the President, and other elected officials, and other national assets. We have the Park Police that is in charge of protecting our parks here in the District of Columbia that are beautiful. And so in a way, the District of Columbia is one of the most over-policed in the sense of having so many law enforcement officials who, generally speaking, actually work well together. I think the breakdown here is that the Metropolitan Police Department is trying with all of their might, and I think they are doing, to be honest, a very good job under the new chief Contee. But we have a dissonance because it appears that some crucial federal partners frankly didn’t come to play today. And I can only think that the order came from somewhere up high because I know those federal police officers. They go to work every day to do the right thing. I think they were frankly told not to post today.

[William Brangham] I want to follow up on that in a moment, but we are just getting some word from the apparently the Sergeant of Arms inside the Capitol announced an all-clear, that there was some sense that the majority of protesters have been either contained or that the threat is minimized. And allegedly there was some applause that broke out inside the Capitol. So hopefully that is some good news, and we’re working to try and confirm that. But Attorney General, you were saying before about this issue of the difficulty of a city not necessarily having full governance over its own affairs. We know that the mayor of D.C. , Muriel Bowser, has established a 6:00 p.m. curfew tonight in the city. Can you give us a sense of what other resources are going to be deployed in the city? What concerns you have about what might unfold as this protest continues?

Abrupt Change of Topic

Another way to deal with a subject that you don’t want to discuss is to wait for a person to catch her breath and change the topic to something that is more agreeable. Most people will take the hint, but if it doesn’t work, try it again. Smile when you do it so the person doesn’t perceive you as being antagonistic or think you’re not a good conversationalist.

Here are some examples of how to quickly change the subject:

• When people start gossiping about someone who isn’t there, point to the buffet (or another inanimate object) and make a comment about how much planning must have gone into it.
• If a person says she has issues with the company you work for, you can smile and ask if she has any pets, and if so, what are they. She should take the hint that your employer is off limits in this discussion.
• When a person starts criticizing your friend or coworker, flash a big smile and ask about her last vacation.

-- How to Gracefully Change the Subject, by Debby Mayne

-- Senate Republicans Challenge Electoral College Votes, by PBS News, 1/6/21

Supporters of President Donald Trump breach the U.S. Capitol as election results are to be certified on Jan. 6, 2021.Carol Guzy / Zuma Wire

WASHINGTON — Amid growing evidence that pro-Trump extremists were planning to target the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day Congress was set to certify the election of Joe Biden as president, in recent days Congressman Tim Ryan had asked the people in charge of security whether they had everything they needed.

"I had conversations with the sergeant-at-arms and the chief of the Capitol Police, who gave me assurances that every precaution was being taken, that we had enough manpower, that we were going to keep people completely away from the Capitol," Ryan, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the subcommittee that funds the Capitol complex, told reporters Thursday.

What happened instead was a security failure that one federal law enforcement official described “as the darkest day since 9/11," and Ryan and other members of Congress are now seeking answers.

Not all of the facts are in, but some are clear. Defense Department officials said Thursday that during planning meetings prior to Jan. 6 led by the Justice Department, city officials and federal law enforcement agencies requested only modest support from the National Guard and did not anticipate large-scale violence. The Pentagon agreed to provide 300 unarmed troops, mostly to help oversee traffic checkpoints and Metro subway stations.

The Pentagon officials said that on Sunday, during a planning meeting, the Defense Department offered the Capitol Police and the city of Washington additional National Guard troops, but were turned down.

Said Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, “We were informed that additional support from DoD was not needed.”

Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, said that during the meetings, law enforcement provided “general descriptions of some internet traffic” from groups who planned to support the Trump rally on Jan. 6, “but overall the assessment we got repeatedly was there was no indication of significant violent protests."

NBC News has previously reported that online forums popular with far-right activists were filled with threats and expectations of violence in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

On Jan. 6, the Capitol Police, the 2,000-person force whose job is to secure the legislative complex, failed to deploy enough officers to protect the Capitol from rioters, and put them out in regular uniforms instead of riot gear.


Members of law enforcement clash with pro-Trump protesters at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. Picture taken January 6, 2021.Ahmed Gaber / Reuters

Those officers were no match for a determined group of rioters, some of whom bashed the police in the head with lead pipes and doused them with pepper spray, Ryan said.

"Make no mistake, these were violent people," Ryan said.

Meanwhile, whatever plan the Capitol Police had to request reinforcements didn't work. More than an hour elapsed from the time rioters approached the Capitol building to the time they began smashing their way inside through a window, Ryan said, but no help materialized. Rioters entered through the window at about 2 p.m.

Federal law enforcement officials in Washington said they watched with growing alarm as television images showed the rioters rampaging through the Capitol.

A Justice Department official said that the bulk of deployable agents from the DoJ and the Department of Homeland Security, usually held in reserve in advance of potentially violent events, were not called upon until after the protesters had breached the building.

Because the Capitol Police have first jurisdiction over protecting the Capitol building and members of Congress, federal agencies could only be involved at their discretion.

"We watched in horror," the official said. "As much as we wanted to be there, we couldn't send anyone in without the specific request of the Capitol Police. This is their area first."

In the hours after the breach, agents from the Federal Protective Service, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Prisons, the FBI and Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms — some heavily armed, in tactical gear — were called in to assist Capitol Police and D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department.

From DHS, some Secret Service agents were deployed, but agents from Customs and Border Protection, who responded to protests in D.C. this summer, were not called upon until much later.

A senior law enforcement official said that the DOJ offered federal law enforcement help to the Capitol Police on Wednesday as the situation deteriorated, but said the Capitol force was slow to accept the offer.

In preparation for the Jan. 6 demonstration, the Department of Homeland Security began a "virtual situation room." A DHS spokesman said the set up was "to facilitate department and interagency communication and coordination as we do for many large events in D.C."

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security declined to say what intelligence they had gathered before the event that may have indicated it would end with violence and a massive breach of the Capitol complex. Social media posts by extremists in the days prior to Jan. 6 had made the risk of confrontation clear.

Rep. Ryan told reporters on Thursday that as many as 60 Capitol Police officers were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized and one in critical condition, following Wednesday's violent clashes.

On Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had said in a letter to Defense and Justice officials that the city was "not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel" in addition to Secret Service, Capitol Police and Park Police.

"We are mindful that in 2020, MPD was expected to perform the demanding task of policing large crowds while working around unidentifiable personnel deployed in District of Columbia without proper coordination," Bowser said in a letter to the Pentagon and Justice Department.

Officials were also cognizant of the heavy-handed tactics the Trump administration used against Black Lives Matter protesters in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

But a former DHS official who declined to be named said that a reserve force should have been staged out of sight, to be able to respond if the situation spiraled out of the police's control.

Once the rioters moved on the building, "They should have had a very visible presence, with cops in riot gear," the official said. "You use overwhelming force. You declare it an unlawful assembly. And you immediately begin implementing crowd control techniques. They didn't do any of that. They did nothing."

Capitol Police shot and killed one rioter, identified as Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt of San Diego, as protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place.


Pro-Trump protesters rally at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. Picture taken January 6, 2021.Ahmed Gaber / Reuters

Ryan said he was told that "no one was going to be anywhere close to the Capitol. The next thing you know you turn on the tv and they're swinging from the Capitol building with flags."

"The rank and file did everything they could," he said, but "for us not to have an expeditious plan" to provide reinforcements amounted to "an epic fail."

"That was a strategic blunder and it put a lot of lives in danger," he said. "We're going to dig deep and find out exactly what happened."

He added that there was an "intelligence failure" to anticipate the scope of the threat.

While praising the heroics of most rank and file Capitol Police, he said he was concerned about videos showing police officers appearing to act with passivity, and in one case posing for a selfie with a rioter.

The fallout was swift.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would fire the Senate's Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Stenger when Democrats assume power later this month. Late Thursday, current Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he had asked for and received Stenger's resignation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. said House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving would be resigning, and she also called for the resignation of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, saying she had not heard from him since the building was breached.

Chief Sund said in a statement on Thursday that his officers "responded valiantly when faced with thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions as they stormed the United States Capitol Building," but he didn't address the criticism. Later on Thursday, he announced he would resign his post effective Jan. 16.

Said Ryan, "The big question is with regard to backup and manpower and why wasn't that ready with a phone call being placed, hey we need more, and more show up. …When you get assurances that things are supposed to go a certain way and they don't, that is very frustrating."

Ryan also wondered whether the Capitol Police were instructed to avoid confrontation.

Capitol Police were so overwhelmed they didn't appear to arrest any of the rioters. But by Thursday afternoon, the acting D.C. U.S. Attorney, Mike Sherwin, said his office had charged 55 suspects with various offenses, including unlawful entry, assault, theft and weapons charges.

"We're never going to look at the Capitol the same way," Ryan said. "This was basically domestic terrorism at one of the great shrines of our democracy."

The Capitol Police and Mayor Bowser's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ken Dilanian is a correspondent covering intelligence and national security for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Julia Ainsley is a correspondent covering the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

[admin]

President Trump delivers remarks amidst chaos in Washington DC [Transcript]
by Donald Trump
Jan 6, 2021



[President Trump] I know your pain; I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don't want anybody hurt. It's a very tough period of time. There's never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us: from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can't play into the hands of these people! We have to have peace.

So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are SO BAD AND SO EVIL. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.


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

A Message from President Donald J. Trump [Transcript]
The White House
Jan 7, 2021

On Thursday, White House aides pressured Trump to read a scripted video message, prepared by his staff, where he denounced the mob that stormed the Capitol and vowed there would be a smooth transition of power. The New York Times reports Trump only agreed to record the video after realizing he could be charged for his role in inciting the riots and facing the prospect of being removed from office. Just a day earlier, Trump had a very different message for the insurrectionists, saying, quote, “We love you. You’re very special.” The Times also reports Trump has had discussions in recent weeks with staff about pardoning himself before leaving office, a move no president has ever taken.

-- Rep. Ro Khanna: Republicans Should Back Impeachment After Trump Incited Mob Violence Against Them, by Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow!

[President Trump] I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the United States Capitol. Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. America is and must always be a nation of law and order. The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.

We have just been through an intense election, and emotions are high. But now tempers must be cooled, and calm restored. We must get on with the business of America. My campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results. My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. In so doing, I was fighting to defend American democracy. I continue to strongly believe that we must reform our election laws to verify the identity and eligibility of all voters, and to ensure faith and confidence in all future elections.

Now Congress has certified the results. A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation. 2020 has been a challenging time for our people. A menacing pandemic has upended the lives of our citizens, isolated millions in their homes, damaged our economy, and claimed countless lives. Defeating this pandemic and rebuilding the greatest economy on earth will require all of us working together. It will require a renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community and family. We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family. To the citizens of our country, serving as your President, has been the honor of my lifetime. And to all of my wonderful supporters, I know you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Rep. Ro Khanna: Republicans Should Back Impeachment After Trump Incited Mob Violence Against Them
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow.org
JANUARY 08, 2021

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Calls are growing for President Trump to resign or be removed from office after he incited supporters to storm the Capitol in an act of insurrection to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes. The unrest left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was reportedly struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. Trump is losing support from his inner circle, with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao both resigning before the end of Trump’s term. The chief of the Capitol Police is also expected to resign next week, as multiple reports reveal police officers aiding rioters, from removing barricades to giving out direction to the offices of specific lawmakers. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Republicans must support efforts to remove Trump, especially as much of Trump’s incitement targeted Republican lawmakers who refused to back his false claims of election fraud. “This was not an attack just on Democratic lawmakers. If anything, it was an incitement of violence against Republican lawmakers,” says Khanna.

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: Calls are growing for President Trump to resign or be removed office for inciting supporters to storm the Capitol in an act of insurrection Wednesday to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes. The unrest left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was reportedly struck in the head by a fire extinguisher.

On Thursday, White House aides pressured Trump to read a scripted video message, prepared by his staff, where he denounced the mob that stormed the Capitol and vowed there would be a smooth transition of power. The New York Times reports Trump only agreed to record the video after realizing he could be charged for his role in inciting the riots and facing the prospect of being removed from office. Just a day earlier, Trump had a very different message for the insurrectionists, saying, quote, “We love you. You’re very special.” The Times also reports Trump has had discussions in recent weeks with staff about pardoning himself before leaving office, a move no president has ever taken.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to impeach the president again if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet does not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him.

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment. If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment.

AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao both resigned from their offices, joining at least 10 other Trump administration officials to quit since Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is urging Trump to resign. That’s the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers are also vowing to investigate the massive security breach at the Capitol, where rioters overwhelmed Capitol Police. Congressional leaders ousted the sergeants-at-arms of both the House and Senate. The chief of the Capitol Police is also expected to resign next week. Multiple reports are emerging of police officers aiding the rioters by removing barricades, to giving out directions to offices of specific lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — who will become the Senate majority leader.

To talk more about this, we’re joined by Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California, member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was inside the Capitol Wednesday during the insurrection.

Congressman Khanna, welcome back to Democracy Now! Where were you? And can you describe the scene, personally, from your vantage point?

REP. RO KHANNA: Amy, I was in my office in the Cannon Building, and then we heard that there was an evacuation because there was apparently a pipe bomb nearby. So I left my office, and I started to head towards the Capitol. Fortunately, I got frantic texts from people saying, “Don’t go into the Capitol. It is being overrun.” At that point, some of us turned back. We were told that the Cannon Building was clear, but we didn’t know, but that it was our best course, so I went to my office, locked the doors of the office and stayed in the office the rest of the day.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Congressman Khanna, you have the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, calling for the removal of President Trump. Can you talk about the different options? Can you talk about what the 25th Amendment invocation would mean? Can you talk about what impeachment would look like?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, the 25th Amendment, Amy, is something that Vice President Pence can do. He just needs to get a majority of the Cabinet on board, and they can ask that the president be removed, and Vice President Pence then can become president. If they refuse to do that, then the House must impeach, and the Senate should convict.

Here’s why Republicans should be for impeachment. If you listen to the president’s incitement of violence and Rudy Giuliani’s incitement of violence, the target was actually Republican lawmakers. Donald Trump Jr. is saying, “Go show the Republicans they need to be on our side, and we’re going to have a trial by combat.” So this was not an attack just on Democratic lawmakers. If anything, it was an incitement of violence against Republican lawmakers.

AMY GOODMAN: Inside the Capitol, as the marauders smashed their way in, as, ultimately, five people died — a woman apparently trying to get in through a window was shot, it looks like, by Capitol Police. Now a Capitol Police officer has succumbed to his injuries, apparently slammed in the head by a fire extinguisher. And three others who died of medical emergencies on the Capitol grounds. Describe the feeling inside. Did you ever expect this would happen? President Trump’s whole family was at the rally — you had Ivanka Trump, you had Eric, you had Donald Trump — calling for people to move forward. Trump said he would go with them to the Capitol. Of course, he didn’t. And what that means? Do you see him as the leader of the insurrection? And do you think he should be criminally charged? He’s out of office in less than two weeks, if he’s not ousted before.

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, it is a case of classic incitement. It is illegal conduct to encourage people to go break the law. And in this case, there was a direct connection. It’s not like he made some generic call for protesting. What he said is “Go march at the Capitol.” Rudy Giuliani is saying it’s a “trial by combat.” He’s saying, “Go show strength.” This is basically an incitement of a mob to go commit criminal attacks.

And so, it absolutely needs to be investigated from a Justice Department perspective. But the first thing is, he needs to be removed from office. I don’t understand how you can have a president of the United States who has incited a violent attack remain in office any longer.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you support impeachment or the invoking of the 25th Amendment?

REP. RO KHANNA: I support both. I mean, I support whatever will get him out. What I don’t understand is why you can’t have McConnell call him and say, “President Trump, if you don’t resign, you’re going to be impeached.” And that is necessary not just for the stability of our democracy until Joe Biden gets into office; that’s necessary to send a message that in this country you cannot incite riots and have no consequences. I mean, what does it say to people if we have a president of the United States who has incited violence against the institution of the Capitol, and we say we’re fine with him still being president of this country? That is not a message that stands up for democratic values.

AMY GOODMAN: Contrast this with President Trump’s approach in Portland, Oregon, when he called for people put in jail for up to 10 years if they in any way damaged federal property. Here, as we saw people smashing the windows of the Capitol, climbing through those windows, you have President Trump safely at the White House saying, “We love you.”

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, his speech was reminiscent of Marc Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar, minus Shakespeare’s rhetorical genius, where he was basically manipulating people, saying, “OK, go home,” but really the thrust of the speech was: “We love you. We support you. I support what you’re doing.” And it was further inciting this violence.

But you’re right, Amy, to point out the racial disparity. I mean, I don’t think there’s a person in this country who believes if there were thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters or Black protesters there, that the response wouldn’t have been dramatically different. And that is something this country really needs to grapple with, the disparity in which we looked at white protesters for Trump and the way we looked at many African American protesters during this summer who were protesting for racial justice.

AMY GOODMAN: Forget thousands of Black Lives Matter activists. If 12 announced they were going to march on the Capitol and they were going to storm it, not to mention just protest in front of it, I daresay there would be a massive response. And that goes to the question — I mean, this wasn’t like a flash mob, where suddenly these people emerged. President Trump had been calling for this for weeks. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, already had written a letter to the Pentagon asking for the National Guard to come in. How is it possible that the Capitol Police were not only so completely unprepared, but actually we see the high-fiving, we see the selfies, we see the removal of the barricades, ushering people in? Now you have the resignation of the chief of the Capitol Police and the ousting of the sergeants-of-arms of both the Senate and the House.

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. I agree with you that the Capitol Police acted in a way that was completely unprepared, and these incidents of taking selfies and letting people in are very troubling. I do think we need to acknowledge that there were a lot of first-line responders and police officers, who I personally saw, who were doing the right thing, who were risking their own lives to protect people in the Capitol. But the leadership was totally derelict. They did not have a plan. They did not take the proper precautions. And, of course, Washington, D.C., was restricted. It’s why we need it to become a state, because they couldn’t invoke the National Guard.

The final point, Amy, is that social media really needs to be looked at. This whole attack was being planned on Parler. People were actually talking about how they were going to get rifles. They were talking in specifics about what they were going to do. And nothing came down on those sites. And then Facebook and Twitter were live-streaming the calls to go march on the Capitol. So I think social media has to really — probably one of its most shameful days in contributing to what happened on the Capitol.

AMY GOODMAN: And you have the newly sworn-in Democratic Congressmember Cori Bush of Missouri tweeting, “My first resolution in Congress will be to call for the expulsion of the Republican members of Congress who incited this domestic terror attack on the Capitol.” This is Cori Bush speaking on MSNBC Wednesday.

REP. CORI BUSH: I’m walking through from the Capitol to my office, and there was not a lot of police activity. There was no one. No one came to the door to check and knock on the door to say, “Congressmember Bush, are you and your team OK?” You know, we’re sending text messages letting people know. I’m letting, you know, our committees know we’re OK, letting our other members know we’re OK. You know, this — something had to happen, because, I’ll tell you what, the National Guard, when they’re called — when they were called to Ferguson or any other part in St. Louis, that was not a — that was not a thing. We didn’t have to wait to find out if that was happening. Oftentimes that happened even when it was said that we were having a protest. So I don’t understand how this happened like this. I don’t understand how we were put in this position in our place of business. Our lives were — you know, our lives were at risk today.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush. And I’m wondering, Congressmember Khanna, if you’re among the lawmakers who are demanding the resignation of Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, blaming them for helping instigate the violent mob of Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol. Cruz and Hawley were at the forefront of the efforts objecting to the certification of the electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden.

Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted yesterday, “Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday. And how you fundraised off this riot. Both you and Senator Hawley must resign. If you do not, the Senate should move for your expulsion,” unquote.

Meanwhile, publishing company Simon & Schuster said Thursday it’s canceling the publication of an upcoming book by Senator Hawley. And Senator Hawley’s home newspaper, The Kansas City Star, has said he “has blood on his hands.” Even after everything happened, Hawley insisted on continuing to object to the counts in Pennsylvania, for example. Your response?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, Amy, I think what Hawley did is unconscionable. I mean, he actually was out there with a fist pump supporting and encouraging directly the protesters. And so, resignation, in that sense, makes complete sense. And there should be an ethics investigation.

I think there has to be a distinction between members of Congress, as much as I disagreed with them, who used the process to raise objections, and they should be defeated at the ballot box. But if there were senators, like Hawley, who were actually inciting violence, that breaks all ethics laws, and that is a grounds for expulsion. And that fact-based investigation should take place. In Hawley’s case, I think it’s clear and evident.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, through all of this, it almost became a sideshow, but Wednesday began and ended with history being made in Georgia. The first African American Democrat elected to the Senate from the South, Reverend Raphael Warnock, that was the beginning, in the early hours. And then you had, in the midst of all of this, the announcement that Jon Ossoff had won the second seat in Georgia, flipping the U.S. Senate to being Democrat-led, at least 50/50, and, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris will be the deciding vote. What does that mean for you in the House and the kind of legislation you want to see put forward?

REP. RO KHANNA: It’s absolutely historic. We now can get things done, like a $15 minimum wage, like a major infrastructure bill, like $2,000 cash for people who need it. This is a moment now that we have to deliver for the American people, whose wages have stagnated, who have not had good, secure jobs. But more than that, Amy, is it’s a step, after all this country has gone through, towards a multiracial, multiethnic democracy. We have a new South, with Reverend Warnock, not just an African American senator from the South, but an African American senator who ran talking about criminal justice, who ran talking about human rights in Palestine, who ran talking about issues of economic dignity. It is a new voice for this country. And I am hopeful that we’re going to turn a page after Donald Trump and start the serious work of building that kind of a democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Ro Khanna, I want to thank you for being with us, California Democratic congressmember from Silicon Valley, member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Next up, we look at President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to head the Justice Department, Merrick Garland — yep, the judge who Republicans denied a seat on the Supreme Court five years ago. Stay with us.

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White Supremacy in Action: Police Stand Down as Trump Mob Storms Capitol to Disrupt Election Vote
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow.org

The U.S. Congress has certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, hours after a violent, right-wing mob incited by President Trump interrupted proceedings and stormed the U.S. Capitol. Four people died during the chaos, which has been described as an attempted coup. The insurrection was the culmination of months of lies by President Trump, widely repeated in right-wing media and on social media platforms, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged for Joe Biden. At a rally Wednesday, Trump urged supporters to head to the Capitol, who later broke through barriers and lines of police outside the Capitol and made their way inside, where they ransacked offices and sent lawmakers scrambling. Bree Newsome Bass, an antiracist activist, artist and housing rights advocate arrested in 2015 after she tore down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state Capitol, says it’s impossible not to note “the obvious difference in terms of how police have a coordinated, overtly militarized response to any kind of protest that is challenging racism in policing or racism in the government versus what we witnessed yesterday” in Washington, D.C. “It is very clear that the primary function of police forces in the United States is to enforce racism above enforcing public safety.”

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. Congress certified the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris shortly before 4 a.m. Eastern time this morning, about 14 hours after a violent mob incited by President Trump stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol in an act of insurrection to stop the counting of votes. Some lawmakers described the siege as an attempted coup.

Members of the right-wing mob smashed windows, broke down doors and scaled walls to enter the Capitol. They attacked Capitol Police. They ransacked and looted offices, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s. An armed standoff took place at the door of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rioters took over the Senate chamber, with some Trump supporters, including a prominent supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, posing for photos in the seat occupied by Vice President Mike Pence just minutes before. One man carried a large Confederate flag inside the Capitol. Another wore a shirt that read, quote, “Camp Auschwitz.”

Vice President Pence and many lawmakers were evacuated to secure locations just as the mob breached the Capitol. Other lawmakers hid in their offices.

Four people died, including a Trump supporter who was shot dead by police.

Meanwhile, explosive devices were found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee.

As of last night, Washington police had made just 26 arrests on Capitol grounds. Lawmakers are calling for probes into the Capitol Hill Police after officers were seen moving barricades for Trump supporters and taking selfies with members of the right-wing mob.

The insurrection began shortly after Trump spoke at a rally urging supporters to head to the Capitol, after once again falsely claiming the election had been stolen.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

AMY GOODMAN: When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, the president remained silent, safely in the White House. The New York Times reports he initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard to protect the Capitol.

Hours after the insurrection began, Trump released a video statement urging his supporters to go home, while telling them, “We love you. You’re very special.”

Calls are mounting for Trump to be removed from office before his term ends January 20th. Multiple news outlets report some members of his Cabinet have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from power. Such a move would require the support of a majority of Cabinet members, as well as Vice President Mike Pence. The move has been backed by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, as well as the National Association of Manufacturers, which says it’s needed to, quote, “preserve democracy.” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she’s drawing up new articles of impeachment.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker condemned the president for inciting the violence.

SEN. CORY BOOKER: I can only think of two times in American history that individuals laid siege to our Capitol, stormed our sacred civic spaces and tried to upend and overrun this government. One was in the War of 1812, and the other one was today.

What’s interesting about the parallel between the two is they both were waving flags to a sole sovereign, to an individual, surrendering democratic principles to the cult of personality. One was a monarch in England, and the other, with the flags I saw all over our Capitol, including in the hallways and in this room, to a single person named Donald Trump. The sad difference between these two times is, one was yet another nation in the history of our country that tried to challenge the United States of America, but this time we brought this hell upon ourselves.

AMY GOODMAN: President Trump’s former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, announced this morning he would resign from his post as special envoy to Northern Ireland, following Wednesday’s insurrection. Shortly after the election, Mulvaney wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled “If He Loses, Trump Will Concede Gracefully.” At least four other Trump administration officials resigned on Wednesday.

Shortly after Congress certified Biden’s victory, Trump issued a statement saying there will be an orderly transition of power on January 20th, but then repeated false claims that he had won the election, he keeps repeating, “by a landslide.” He ended the message saying, quote, “it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

The certification vote process was prolonged after Republican lawmakers challenged the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania in a last-bid effort to overturn the election. The senators were led by Senator Hawley. The Kansas City Star said he “has blood on his hands” for continuing with challenging the vote after the mass insurrection.

We begin today’s show with two guests. Manisha Sinha is professor of American history at University of Connecticut. She’s author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition. And we go to North Carolina, where we’re joined by Bree Newsome Bass, artist and antiracist activist. Following the massacre of eight African American parishioners and their pastor by a white supremacist at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June 2015, Bree scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the South Carolina state Capitol and removed the Confederate flag. There were Confederate flags in the Capitol yesterday, carried by the insurrectionists. She’s now a housing activist in North Carolina.

Bree, let’s begin with you. You were tweeting up a storm as the storm was unfolding in Washington, D.C., yesterday. You said, “Y’all the DC mayor requested the national guard. The pentagon was discussing the threat long before today. It’s not possible security forces were caught off guard, unprepared or simply failed. Please cease this ridiculous narrative.” So, take it from there, Bree.

BREE NEWSOME BASS: Yes. Thank you for inviting me to join you.

I mean, I was on social media all yesterday and, like everyone else, was just kind of gripped by watching the events that were happening. And one of the things that we saw throughout the day yesterday were people like myself, who have been present for various protests, you know, and mostly people of color, Black people, noting the obvious difference in terms of how police have a coordinated, overtly militarized response to any kind of protest that is challenging racism in policing or racism in the government versus what we witnessed yesterday. And I think that what we saw yesterday is just another one of these kind of flashpoint moments in history that just represents a culmination of everything that came before it, and really shines a spotlight on everything that is fundamentally wrong. And one of those things is clearly policing.

The idea that we had no idea that this was coming, which I think, is, frankly, one of the, like, ongoing, most disturbing talking points that we have gotten throughout the Trump administration — people say, “How could we have gotten here? This isn’t who we are,” which just completely flies not just in the face of American history — right? — but in the face of the events of just the past five years. I mean, everything that we have seen in the past five years pointed to what happened yesterday happening. And so, the idea that security officials, people who are tasked with protecting the Capitol, could not have foreseen the conflict that played out yesterday is clearly beyond belief. I mean, there’s no way to believe that that is the case.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Bree, quite apart from the fact that, you know, it was just an astounding spectacle of all these, I mean, effectively domestic terrorists invading the Capitol, what’s also strange, if not outright stunning, is the fact that there was such little comment from either the Department of Justice or security agencies responding to this extraordinary event, apart, of course, from the FBI asking for explicit help in identifying those who instigated the violence — an extremely bizarre request given that it was quite apparent who the instigators were.

BREE NEWSOME BASS: Absolutely. I mean, again, the central issue here is white supremacy. And white supremacy was foundational to the establishment of this nation. That is the central conflict. I mean, that is the main thing that I continue to say as an activist, is that, clearly, this is the central conflict. It is baked into our institutions. It was baked into our Constitution at the founding. And that continues to be the case. And that explains why — I wouldn’t even describe it as a difficulty in figuring out what is going on. It’s just the fact that it is the defining internal conflict of the nation. So, yes, of course, you have people within the military. You have people within policing. You have people within the government. It was elected officials who initiated the events that led to this riot.

One of the things that was most striking to me yesterday — I was among the people who kind of stayed up into the wee hours of the morning watching how things played out at the Capitol — was, you know, you would see congressperson after congressperson condemning the insurrectionist mob — so you’re talking about, you know, the civilians who showed up — but there was still very little acknowledgment of the fact that the people who led the insurrection, the people who have incited these people to mob the Capitol, were sitting there in the chamber, were still voicing their objection to the election.

So, you know, this idea that we are somehow just going to reach across the aisle and shake hands and carry on as though we did not witness things play out as it did, as though the primary inciter of violence yesterday was not the president of the United States, is just completely unrealistic. And there’s no way that that can happen.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Bree, you also — among your tweets yesterday, you wrote that what was happening yesterday was not the culmination of the last four years, but in fact the culmination of the last five centuries. Could you talk about that?

BREE NEWSOME BASS: Yeah, that was actually me retweeting someone else who made that excellent point. And again, it goes to the heart of this false notion that we could not foresee what was happening or that this is not America. This is absolutely America. We have an ongoing, prolonged history not just of colonization and slavery and genocide in this country, but also this constant back-and-forth where we try to make strides towards having a democracy that truly recognizes the rights and citizenship of all people, and violent, white supremacist backlash against that cause.

I mean, you know, people were bringing up the Wilmington riots — right? — of 1898, which that took place here in North Carolina, another example in the aftermath of the Civil War where you had Black people being elected to Congress, working in collaboration with white elected officials, and they were overthrown. There was a white mob that just came to town, burned down buildings and violently overthrew the democratically elected government. And we are still, in our state, in the year 2021, dealing with the aftermath of that conflict.

So this is not something that is foreign to the United States. This is something that is very much baked into our DNA. What happened yesterday cannot be separated, of course, from the fact that we just had an election that not only ousted a blatant white nationalist president, but we just elected a Catholic president, a vice president who is Black and Indian American, and then we had the Senate just flip, day before yesterday, with the election of a Black man and a Jewish man from Georgia. So, yes, you know, of course we’re going to see white supremacists in the Capitol waving Confederate flags. Of course we have known for years now that the greatest imminent threat to the United States is both white supremacist, far-right terrorists and the current president of the United States.

So, again, for anyone in a position of security or authority who is tasked with securing national security and securing the Capitol and the safety of the people who work and reside there to claim that this was somehow unpredictable, again, flies in the face of any logic. And if we are going to be serious about addressing the threats that we face right now from fascism and from the far right, we have to confront the presence of that element in our police forces, point blank, period. This has been the main point that we have been making in the Black Lives Matter movement, in the call for defunding the police and shifting resources, because it is very clear that the primary function of police forces in the United States is to enforce racism above enforcing public safety.

AMY GOODMAN: As you point out, I mean, yesterday was bookended — the early-morning hours of Wednesday, it was announced that the first African American Democrat was elected senator from the South. And that was Raphael Warnock. Then, yesterday afternoon, the Democrat Jon Ossoff, it was announced, had beaten David Perdue. And that shifted the power of the U.S. Senate. This bookends this insurrection at the Capitol. And also, just two days ago in Wisconsin, the DA chose not to bring charges against the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back, the African American 29-year-old, seven times at point-blank range.

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