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 “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 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 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,” 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 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 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, 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.
Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.
– People For the American Way
| DONATE NOW |
|
Do not reply directly to this e-mail. Please use [email protected]. Trouble viewing the email? This email was sent to [email protected]. If you have any thoughts, comments, or criticisms, or if there's a better email address at which to reach you, please let us know. If you'd like to unsubscribe from our list, you can do that here.
|
