Trump has blood on his hands because he did not stop the January 6th insurrection

This is how it ends for Donald John Trump.

This opinion was published post January 6th 2020, in the The Fayetteville Observer, a North Carolina newspaper.  I have updated this opinion because the analysis is as relevant today as when it was first published.  Besides, the opinion is written by an editorial board in a state that supported the cult of Trumpziism.  Thank you to The Fayetteville Observer.

Trump sparked the mob violence and attempted takeover of the Capitol in D.C. on January 6th. 

Senators and representatives and their staff were forced to flee the Capitol.  A mob was chanting "Hang Mike Pence!"

A noose erected to Hang Mike Pence- where did this noose come from?

A Capitol Police officer died and more than 50 officers were injured; a woman, who was an illegal invader & protester, was shot dead by police, and three more people died in medical emergencies; more than 60 arrests were made.

The violence destroyed what was left of Trump’s fake legacy.

“Trump bears responsibility for the January 6th violent events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point,” said North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who is Trump’s fellow Republican, in a statement. “It is past time to accept the will of American voters and to allow our nation to move forward.”

Calls increased for Vice President Mike Pence to initiate Trump’s removal from office by the 25th Amendment — a rarely enacted emergency measure to sideline a president who is not able to do the job. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began impeachment proceedings. Trump is the only president in American history to be impeached twice.

It did not have to be this way. Trump’s chronic lies and refusal to accept how he lost to President Joe Biden, has consumed him and misled his followers.

He constantly repeated false claims about how the election was stolen. Sixty-two court rulings rejected the fraud allegations outright or refused to hear them because the litigants lacked standing. These included courtrooms with judges Trump appointed himself, most visibly the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has three appointees.

Meanwhile, Trumpzi did not seem to be doing the job he was fighting so hard to keep. He was silent about COVID-19, even as the incidence of the pandemic soared, taking more lives and pushing hospitals to the brink. More than four thousand Americans died in a single day.

Moreover, in an overt criminal act, Trump was caught on tape pressuring Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn Biden’s victory in the state, by “finding” 11,000 more votes for Trump. That incident itself set off called for impeachment and removal.

Trump appeared at a Georgia rally, ostensibly to boost the runoff Senate campaigns of fellow Republicans Kelly Loeffler and (stupid!) David Perdue. He instead spent much of the speech airing out grievances over the 2020 election. On Tuesday, both senators lost to Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, which gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

On January 6th, the US Congress was supposed to vote to approve the states’ Electoral College certifications, usually a formality. Somehow, Trump supporters showed up in Washington by the thousands after organizing on social media and planning to “stop the steal.” 

Numerous posts on Twitter and Parler, a conservative platform, made clear that many Trump supporters believed violence was justified to overturn Biden’s victory. Some supporters exhorted the people to rise up; others called for Trump to enact martial law and force a new election.

Republican members of the Congress irresponsibly added more accelerants to the flames. A number of U.S. House representatives, including Richard Hudson, whose district includes Fayetteville, NC,  announced they would vote against certification of the vote to validate President Biden's election. Even worse, they cited the unproven allegations of election fraud. Senators with presidential ambitions like Texas’ Ted Cruz and Missouri’s Josh Hawley joined in to support The Big Lie, too.

Trump fired up his supporters at a Save America Rally at the Ellipse, near the White House. He repeated his false election claims, including an assertion that Pence, who would preside over the day’s proceedings, had the power to undo or challenge the state certifications. Trump told his supporters to head to the Capitol. 

Indeed Trump said they will have to fight much harder, and support GOP senators and representatives, because “you will never take back our country with weakness.”

Trump supporters began fighting with (brave!) Capitol Police officers, pushing through barriers and eventually breaching the building. They broke in windows, and invaded and looted Congressional offices. They wielded metal pipes, according to police. Some sprayed tear gas inside.

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said in a statement on the department’s website that he and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, consulted with Pence and Congressional leaders to get approval to mobilize the National Guard to quell the violence. Trump was not in the loop, according to the statement.

Instead, Trump was on Twitter, and by some accounts, watching television 

Twitter flagged some of his tweets for their risk of inciting further violence, then finally suspended his account for 12 hours. 

Facebook went even further, suspending Trump from the platform indefinitely, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Some have pointed out the incongruity of a president not trusted enough to post on social media still being in control of the country’s nuclear weapons codes.)

While Trump was “cocooned” away, as some aides described it, Washington grappled with the first invasion of its Capitol building since the War of 1812. At least one protester carried a large Confederate battle flag into the Capitol Rotunda, a stark reminder of the last time Americans sought to defeat their own government. A flag did not appear in the Capitol even during the Civil War.

Trump finally released a video telling his insurrectionist followers to go home, but he repeated the false election claims. He told the rioters he loved them and they were special.

Raffensperger has said that every accusation of fraud will be thoroughly investigated, but that there is currently no credible evidence that fraud occurred on a broad enough scale to affect the outcome of the election.

Somehow, probably on the advice of Justice Department attorneys (IMO), in another video, Trumps changed his tone. He said the rioters had “defiled the seat of American democracy.” He said those who engaged in violence do not represent America and that law-breakers would pay.

He said tempers must cool down. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” he said. “This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”

It was a careful statement, prepared by someone- obviously not by Trump. It was the kind of statement most candidates make within hours or days of defeat. In 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded at 2 a.m. the next morning after her election loss to Trump, in a race that was much closer than the Trump-Biden race.

In that January, Biden, in his role as vice president, presided over the Electoral College certification process in Congress. The event drew little notice that year.

Trump’s post insurrection remarks were too little and much too late.

To the confused and misled people who invaded the Capitol, tRumpzi is one of the greatest (fake!) presidents.

But how it all ends for Donald John Trump will ultimately be the judgment of history, and historians are certain to have a very different take than his (cult!) followers.

He had already failed at the greatest crisis he faced, the pandemic. It is one reason he lost to Biden.

But the lawlessness he has stirred up and the resulting blood on his hands casts his dark legacy in stone.