January 6 Casts A Long Shadow

[Scepticalscribe]

Is anyone following the hearings in the House re the events of January 6?

This is truly extraordinary stuff.

On Twitter, AOC has just re-tweeted a tweet by Kate Riga which reads:

"Wow. AOC just backed ex-acting SecDef Miller into admitting that he didn't approve plan for the Nat Guard to deploy on 1/6 until 4:32, a difference from his claim that he ordered deployment at 3. That 4:32 order came after he talked to Pence (after calls from many panicked Dems)."

That, plus attempts to shift the blame (for the delay in authorising the deployment of the national Guard) to General Walker, (officer in command of the DC National Guard), and the fact that it appears that Mr Trump seems to have authorised the (deployment of) NG to protect protestors, not lawmakers, elected public representatives, or the Capitol.

 

[SuperMatt]

Is anyone following the hearings in the House re the events of January 6?

On Twitter, AOC has just re-tweeted a tweet by Kate Riga which reads:

"Wow. AOC just backed ex-acting SecDef Miller into admitting that he didn't approve plan for the Nat Guard to deploy on 1/6 until 4:32, a difference from his claim that he ordered deployment at 3. That 4:32 order came after he talked to Pence (after calls from many panicked Dems)."

That, plus attempts to shift the blame (for the delay in authorising the deployment of the national Guard) to General Walker, (officer in command of the DC National Guard), and the fact that it appears that Mr Trump seems to have authorised the (deployment of) NG to protect protestors, not lawmakers, elected public representatives, or the Capitol.

So now we are beginning to see why the GOP is opposing an independent 1/6/21 commission similar to the 9/11 commission. They are complicit.

 

[Alli]

My favorite part was learning that the National Guard was sent in, not to protect Congress, but to protect the demonstrators!

 

[Pumbaa]

My favorite part was learning that the National Guard was sent in, not to protect Congress, but to protect the demonstrators!

Damn that would have been nice when Trump wanted that photo op with a bible.

Imagine if the National Guard had been called in beforehand to protect the demonstrators peacefully exercising their constitutional rights?

 

[User.45]

Is anyone following the hearings in the House re the events of January 6?

This is truly extraordinary stuff.

On Twitter, AOC has just re-tweeted a tweet by Kate Riga which reads:

"Wow. AOC just backed ex-acting SecDef Miller into admitting that he didn't approve plan for the Nat Guard to deploy on 1/6 until 4:32, a difference from his claim that he ordered deployment at 3. That 4:32 order came after he talked to Pence (after calls from many panicked Dems)."

That, plus attempts to shift the blame (for the delay in authorising the deployment of the national Guard) to General Walker, (officer in command of the DC National Guard), and the fact that it appears that Mr Trump seems to have authorised the (deployment of) NG to protect protestors, not lawmakers, elected public representatives, or the Capitol.

Is there any source on this? Couldn't find it on my search.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Is there any source on this? Couldn't find it on my search.

I looked up AOC's own Twitter account to confirm this, (and yes, I follow her), having come across a reference to AOC's tweet by Kate Riga (there is an inconvenient underscore, in that name) who, in turn, had been quoted by a local journalist I follow, which is where I first encountered it.

Anyway, AOC re-tweeted this again today, with further details of the timeline on January 6.

 

[Huntn]

There should have been a giant uproar from the GOP but instead, it’s time to come together, move forward, and pretend this never happened and ignore that the main culprit of this obscenity is still incharge of our party.
These people are despicable!

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Unless there are some serious top-level prosecutions for this then it isn't going to amount to squat and it will just get repeated, possibly (probably) worse. Trump supporters and the far right will just learn they need to go bigger next time. Trump would love nothing more.

 

[lizkat]

There should have been a giant uproar from the GOP but instead, it’s time to come together, move forward, and pretend this never happened and that the main culprit of this obscenity is still incharge of our party.
These people are despicable!

I think there's still plenty more to come out about complicit Congress critters. Their phone records, etc. But we may never get to the bottom of it.

And the GOP is past caring about rule of law, courts, constitution. All they want is to hang onto their seats. They have this idea in their heads that since they managed to get elected, and since they realize the demographics, education and political awareness of that electorate may be shifting away from their line on the ballots, their only option is to fight tooth and nail against voter rights enforcement or expansion. They're using the ongoing circulation of Trump's Big Lie on social media and right wing news outlets to sell the idea that there's no confidence in our election processes (another big but eventually self-fulfilling false prophesy) and figure if they say it long enough, it becomes true and so justifies new and draconian pathways to the vote.

So benighted, really. Back in 2012 they were on the right track --after analyzing Romney's loss-- in realizing they needed to reach out to ethnic groups who tended to have social conservative values and were often small business entrepreneurs feeling burdened by regulations and taxes. A natural fit for traditional Republican policy, eh?

But then along came Trump and on day one of his entry into the 2016 presidential contest he managed to throw all that in the toilet by playing to racists and xenophobes with his remarks about Mexicans.

And see that's what I don't get. Trump lost them the House, the White House and the Senate in four years flat. Yet the RNC and the leadership of the GOP in both houses of Congress are still kissing his ring. Their 2020 convention was a fascist fantasy, completely policy-free, just adulation of Trump. They have no policy. Their "platform" was and is still largely working from their decades-old "Party of NO" playbook.

Voters watch all this and contemplate their fate as they sit in traffic on potholed freeways and rusty bridges. Meanwhile one of my bros was riding bullet trains in Tokyo in 1965... and when he came back to the USA, still had to hike over to Lexington Ave to catch a sardine-packed experience going downtown. The Second Avenue extension was restarted in 1970 but suspended again in 1975 for lack of funds, having partially completed line for new stations at 110th and 120th streets. Mind you the original four-phase idea for the Second Avenue extension was hatched in 1920. A hundred fucking years ago. I love NYC and love life in the USA but seriously, "superpower" is getting to be a real stretch as far as infrastructure goes.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

And the GOP is past caring about rule of law, courts, constitution. All they want is to hang onto their seats.

I find it ironic that if the Republican party was a corporation it would be a perfect example of socialism. Those at the top aren’t leading. They’re letting the workers set the entire agenda while being terrified of the workers.

 

[lizkat]

I find it ironic that if the Republican party was a corporation it would be a perfect example of socialism. Those at the top aren’t leading. They’re letting the workers set the entire agenda while being terrified of the workers.

Not even the whole raft of workers either. Just the bad apples at the back of the cafeteria spoiling for food fights...

 

[Alli]

Damn that would have been nice when Trump wanted that photo op with a bible.

Imagine if the National Guard had been called in beforehand to protect the demonstrators peacefully exercising their constitutional rights?

Different set of protestors, different rules.

 

[Pumbaa]

Different set of protestors, different rules.

Weird. Pretty sure I’ve been told repeatedly that both sets were Auntie Fa and BLM terrorists.

 

[lizkat]

My favorite part was learning that the National Guard was sent in, not to protect Congress, but to protect the demonstrators!

My favorite part at this point is that idiots from the House like Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Louis Gohmert (R-TX) are still trying to say that the insurrection was more like a tourist visit. A news photo has even surfaced showing Clyde as one of eight House members helping barricade the chamber against incursion attempts... WTF, does he have have amnesia?

Photo emerges of Republican barricading chamber doors during US Capitol attack after he compared rioters to ‘tourists’

‘Do Georgians always barricade doors against normal, everyday tourists?’ one critic asked

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Renzatic]

WTF, does he have have amnesia?

No, but he's betting that his constituency does.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

QAnon Shaman Attorney Defends His Client and Alleged Capitol Rioters as ‘Short Bus People’ in Wild Interview

The Missouri-based lawyer representing Jacob Chansley (AKA the "QAnon Shaman") has offered a highly...um...unorthodox defense of his client.

www.mediaite.com

“They’re all fucking short bus people”

The legal defenses keep getting better and better. Add this to “I’m full of shit” and Foxitus.”

 

[Thomas Veil]

He's been signaling this for a while now, but...

McCarthy won't support January 6 commission and sides with Republicans downplaying the insurrection​

McCarthy won't support January 6 commission and sides with Republicans downplaying the insurrection

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday he opposed an inquiry to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, siding with Republicans who have tried in recent days to downplay and move on from efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

www.cnn.com

Now, this was the situation just a few days ago:

The bipartisan agreement to establish the January 6 commission was reached last week by House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson and the panel's top Republican, Rep. John Katko of New York, who was one of the 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

But of course the Republicans' hypocrisy kicked in...

On Monday, Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a statement that GOP leadership would not lobby their members on the legislation. But on Tuesday afternoon, Scalise's office said in a reversal that leadership was now advocating Republicans to vote against it.

Along with a heaping helping of cowardice.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was noncommittal on the commission Tuesday, saying Senate Republicans were "undecided" about the best way forward.

Oh, and McCarthy?

In a statement explaining his opposition, McCarthy accused Pelosi of failing to negotiate in good faith, while saying that the scope of the proposed legislation needed to also look at other episodes of political violence beyond January 6.

What kind of "other episodes of political violence"?

"Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker's shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation," McCarthy said.

McCarthy and other Republicans have argued that any commission should also look at violence involving Antifa and riots that occurred during protests of police brutality last year.

In other words, to quote a phrase frequently used over at MR...deflection noted.

It is, of course, just an excuse. The man who just a few months ago said that Trump bore a lot of the blame for what happened, now is trying to find any reason he can to make this commission not happen. Why?

Two reasons, as Chris Cillizza noted:

1) McCarthy doesn't want to testify under oath about his phone conversation with former President Donald Trump on January 6. As CNN reported, Trump told McCarthy on that call that the rioters "are more upset about the election than you are" and the GOP leader responded by insisting that the people overrunning the Capitol were backers of the President and that he needed to tell them to stand down.

2) McCarthy wants to be speaker badly.

He's not going to get the job, or even be able to hold his head up among the Trumpistas, unless he grovels and swears his allegiance to both 45 and his angry mob of extremist worshipers.

Analysis: The real reasons for why Kevin McCarthy is afraid of a January 6 commission

Days after a bipartisan agreement was reached in the House to form a commission to examine the roots and events of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that he opposes the bill.

www.cnn.com

So will this commission ever come to be? At the moment I wouldn't bet on it. It sounds like McCarthy is trying to kill it.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Well. On the other hand, that may not work for McCarthy.

McCarthy races to contain GOP defections on Jan. 6 commission

It’s the most recent high-profile, Trump-related fissure to emerge among House Republicans.

www.politico.com

Kevin McCarthy thought his House Republican conference would almost entirely stand behind him in efforts to derail an investigation into the events of Jan. 6.

Now, a last-minute surge of GOP interest is dashing hopes for near-perfect opposition to the independent commission and putting Republican divisions back on full display.

Dozens of Republicans are privately considering voting for the Jan. 6 commission… In a sign of momentum, the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, of which Katko is a member, is expected to encourage its members to back the legislation.

This would be sweet.

 

[User.45]

Well. On the other hand, that may not work for McCarthy.

McCarthy races to contain GOP defections on Jan. 6 commission

It’s the most recent high-profile, Trump-related fissure to emerge among House Republicans.

www.politico.com

This would be sweet.

I'm not an expert, but numerically McCarthy has a much harder job to keep everyone at bay such as McConnell could in the senate.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

One of the reasons for Trump's popularity was some on the right believing the left was calling them a bunch of idiots. Now the defense lawyers for the liars and insurrectionists seem to be doing the same. When both the opposing team and your team are calling you idiots maybe it's time to entertain the possibility that you are in fact an idiot.