A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series, that will serve to
remind us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we
encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others
in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our
memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming
elections.

This week’s recap brings into focus the events leading up to the January 6
insurrection, which marked its three-year anniversary yesterday. Now, as
Trump seeks to win the White House once again in the 2024 election, many
MAGA conservatives have begun rewriting or outright denying the events
surrounding that day and downplaying any involvement of the former
president. It’s crucial to remind ourselves – and the rest of the public –
of the severity of the events that day and the perilous danger our
democracy was in:

At the beginning of 2021, President Donald Trump was not having a happy
new year. He was angry, bitter, and increasingly desperate to find a way
to stay in power after losing his bid for reelection.

By January 1, Trump’s legal efforts to overturn his election defeat had
been rejected by dozens of courts. His behind-the-scenes scheming and
cajoling had failed to convince Vice President Mike Pence to assert the
unconstitutional power to block congressional affirmation of
state-certified Electoral College votes. But Trump and the die-hard
political operatives gathered in Rudy Giuliani’s “[ [link removed] ]war room” at the
Willard Hotel were not ready to accept the will of the voters.

On Saturday, Jan. 2, Trump, Giuliani, and lawyer John Eastman [ [link removed] ]held a
conference call with Republican state legislators from swing states Trump
lost, trying to convince them to convene special sessions and reassign
their states’ Electoral College votes from Joe Biden to Trump.

That same day, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger
on the phone. With White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump
lawyer Cleta Mitchell occasionally chiming in, Trump repeated one false
claim after another about the Georgia elections, demanding that
Raffensperger “recalculate” the election results and “find” him the 11,780
votes he needed to declare victory. Trump told Raffensperger that to
refuse to do so would be a crime.

Raffensperger calmly told Trump that his claims were false, that his phony
numbers of dead people voting and votes being scanned multiple times had
been investigated and rejected. When the call failed to get the results he
wanted, Trump took to twitter to bully Raffensperger, who responded by
giving reporters audio of Trump’s call, undeniable evidence of Trump’s
illegal attempt to stay in power.

On Jan. 4, Trump and now-indicted attorney John Eastman met with Pence to
argue one more time that the vice president could unilaterally refuse to
accept Electoral College votes certified by battleground states that Biden
had won.

On Jan. 5, so-called “Stop the Steal” activists, flooding Washington in
response to Trump’s repeated urging, held an hours-long rally near the
White House, where speakers insisted that Trump was God’s choice, vowed
that Biden would never be president, and threatened violence against those
who stood in Trump’s way.

On Jan. 6, the day members of Congress were scheduled to meet to formally
count the state-certified Electoral College votes, some Trump supporters
gathered around the Capitol while others came to the Ellipse near the
White House to hear from Trump. Before the rally, Trump spoke to Pence,
who told the president he was not going to disrupt the electoral vote
count.

Trump’s Christian nationalist aide and spiritual adviser Paula White began
the rally with a prayer asking God to give the crowd “holy boldness” and
praying that “every adversary” would be “overthrown right now in the name
of Jesus.” John Eastman repeated false claims about election machines
being rigged to flip the election to Biden, and demanded that Pence
prevent Congress from affirming the results. Trump himself [ [link removed] ]riled up the
crowd, claiming that he won the election “by a landslide” and repeating a
litany of false claims about the election. He denounced Republican
congressional leaders who didn’t back his efforts to stay in power as
“pathetic.”

Trump said that if Biden is inaugurated, “You will have an illegitimate
president. That’s what you’ll have. And we can’t let that happen.”

“We fight like hell,” he said, “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re
not going to have a country anymore.”

The rest is history — much as Trump and his supporters try to deny and
revise it.

Even before Trump finished speaking, some of his supporters began tearing
down security barriers surrounding the Capitol. After Trump was back in
the White House, the attack intensified, with the mob brutally attacking
the overwhelmed Capitol Police officers who stood in their way. They used
flagpoles as weapons, smashed through windows and doors. Once inside, they
hunted for Vice President Mike Pence and then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
robbing congressional offices and vandalizing the Capitol.

With the attack in progress, and protestors screaming “Where is Mike
Pence” and chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” [ [link removed] ]Trump sent a tweet slamming
Pence for not having “the courage to do what should have been done to
protect our Country and our Constitution.” Fourteen minutes later, he sent
a tweet telling supporters to “stay peaceful.”

For hours, as Pence, Members of Congress, and staff hunkered down in
various secure locations within the Capitol, Republican leaders,
right-wing media figures, and even members of Trump’s family pleaded with
him to go on television and call off the attackers. Instead, he remained
silent, watching the attack unfold on television, apparently reveling in
his supporters’ willingness to fight on his behalf.

Finally, at 4:17 p.m. and after President-elect Biden went on television
to demand an end to the “unprecedented assault” on American democracy,
Trump [ [link removed] ]tweeted a video message telling people to “go home now”—while
still repeating his false claims that he won in a “landslide,” adding, “We
love you.”

Just after 6:00 p.m., about two hours before Congress reconvened, Trump
[ [link removed] ]sent one last unrepentant tweet: “These are the things and events that
happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously &
viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly
treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day
forever!”

We should all remember that day forever—and especially between now and the
2024 presidential election. Trump’s actions before, on, and after the
insurrection make it clear that he is a threat to the future of our
democracy:

* He and his lawyers lied to the public and to multiple judges about
“rigged” elections.
* He encouraged state legislators to betray their oaths and their voters
and declare him the winner.
* He urged his supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6.
* He refused to intervene while Congress was under attack—even egging
the rioters on with his tweeted attack on Pence.

Since then, he has:

* Continued to lie about winning the 2020 election.
* Promoted right-wing efforts to rewrite history and downplay the
seriousness of the insurrection.
* Portrayed protesters being held accountable for their lawbreaking as
victims of political persecution and suggested that he would pardon
them—and himself—if he returns to office.
* Resisted every effort at holding him accountable, including
congressional impeachment, the House investigation, and criminal
investigations into his illegal attempt to hold onto power.
* Undermined millions of Americans’ faith in our democracy.

A few days after the insurrection, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney announced
that she would support Trump’s impeachment, [ [link removed] ]saying, “The President of
the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame
of this attack. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of
the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.” Let’s
not give Trump a chance to do even worse.

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back THIS week, this MONTH, this
election cycle.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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