Today the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol held its seventh public hearing. This one focused on how former president Trump summoned right-wing extremists to Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, in a last ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Once the hearings conclude, or at least after Garland issues the indictment, I have one additional plea as a retired servicemember: President Biden: please order that Michael Flynn be brought back on active duty, and tried under Article 94 (Mutiny and Sedition).
Heather, your work assembling and displaying the multi-faceted and far spread details of this sordid attempt to undermine American democracy is always brilliant, always illuminating. This is one of your best Letters yet, and they're all terrific.
Thank you for your tireless labors. I'm one of a large number of people who have come to depend on your near daily commentary and have found it consistently accurate and fair. I only wish your readership were ten fold what it is, so more of our American friends and neighbors would be able to see as clearly as you spell it out.
I will redouble my efforts to get more folks to read you.
Does anyone else come away from these hearings with a gaping question the media leaves unasked? Namely, are the FBI and DOJ compromised institutions? I mean, it's kind of ridiculous to learn today that a Twitter employee found it obvious that far-right groups were coordinating violence for Jan. 6, yet the FBI either didn't, or just refused to act on it and protect our Capitol. Nor did it arrest the instigators and plotters afterwards. We the public now learn about an avalanche of evidence from over a year and a half ago that points clearly to treason. Yet the FBI does nothing to protect us even now. I don't remember the same wait-and-see approach with 9-11. Comical to imagine the FBI letting terrorists stay free for a couple of years until the DOJ could build an airtight case.
I suppose this question goes hand in hand with another conclusion that no one dares to speak at the hearings: the Republican Party itself is indistinguishable from a terrorist organization in its tactics, strategies, and goals. It is no longer a part of the Constitutional conversation. And we Democrats don't really have a clue what to do about that.
The name Steve Bannon never fails to remind me that in 2016 he told a reporter for The Daily Beast: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Makes his January 5 comments all the more haunting.
Thank you for this clear summary of the hearing and of the attempted coup. So many White House insiders knew about the plans to overturn the election, and yet not one of them alerted the FBI or DOJ or even the NY Times, even when they knew Trump and his accomplices were planning violence for January 6. What a nasty bunch of takers.
'Van Tatenhove warned that the danger is ongoing.'
This committee is more important than any of us ever knew.
Heather, we all has such respect and gratitude for your ability to distill and share what has been and is being done to our precious country. There is not a strong enough expression for 'Thank you'.
Since Professor Richardson seems reticent to toot her own horn, I'll toot it for her. The latest Now and Then hosted by her and Joanne Freeman, had Carol Anderson, noted historian, on board. Though one could argue it is only tangential to the narrow moment we are in, I would argue it is exactly on point. You decide.
Why are these gangsters not in prison? Anyone else, would be. The evidence is so clear regarding the subversion and treason of 45, Bannon, Flynn, Guiliani, Stone, Powell, Pillow Guy, Overstock Guy, I just don’t understand why they have not been arrested, awaiting trial. Low-level criminals get treatment that locks them up. These high-level conspirators should be in prison. Even the Oathkeepers’ INSIDER Van Tothaven says there is ongoing danger. This is just the beginning. God help us!
What the committee’s revealing is terrifyingly evil. Rather than get swept up in it, I’m writing Vote Forward letters to get out the Democratic leaning vote in swing states. Despite the usual headwinds of mid-term elections, even a majority of Republicans don’t want tfg to run again.* The January 6 Select Committee hearings are taking their toll. Voters are energized to vote against Trump Republicans.
Guilty as charged, if he ever gets charged. Todays hearing was the crown for me. Everything came together and there’s no doubt that tfg is and was not only unhinged but surrounded by enablers and criminals even before the election. This country, this Democracy is so so lucky that we survived the post election months and even the entire four years of this presidency. Barely. From Charlottesville on we knew we had the beginning of Trump’s American Carnage. And he isn’t the only elected official guilty. How long before he escapes to safely?
Over and over I’ve thought “Okay, this *has* to be the straw that finally breaks the 🐪’s back” …and it hasn’t been. 🤞🏼🤞🏼for this time, but….still worried.
On the other hand, oh how I long for that worry to be proven mistaken!
One could almost see the impatient scurry of the media after Liz Cheney’s pointed warning of the unannounced, already harassed upcoming witness. Incoming call from president refused, not recorded, but reported to DOJ? What? Did Trump leave a voicemail? On, hmmmmm, possibly Ginni’s phone? One does wonder.
Once the hearings conclude, or at least after Garland issues the indictment, I have one additional plea as a retired servicemember: President Biden: please order that Michael Flynn be brought back on active duty, and tried under Article 94 (Mutiny and Sedition).
Heather, your work assembling and displaying the multi-faceted and far spread details of this sordid attempt to undermine American democracy is always brilliant, always illuminating. This is one of your best Letters yet, and they're all terrific.
Thank you for your tireless labors. I'm one of a large number of people who have come to depend on your near daily commentary and have found it consistently accurate and fair. I only wish your readership were ten fold what it is, so more of our American friends and neighbors would be able to see as clearly as you spell it out.
I will redouble my efforts to get more folks to read you.
Does anyone else come away from these hearings with a gaping question the media leaves unasked? Namely, are the FBI and DOJ compromised institutions? I mean, it's kind of ridiculous to learn today that a Twitter employee found it obvious that far-right groups were coordinating violence for Jan. 6, yet the FBI either didn't, or just refused to act on it and protect our Capitol. Nor did it arrest the instigators and plotters afterwards. We the public now learn about an avalanche of evidence from over a year and a half ago that points clearly to treason. Yet the FBI does nothing to protect us even now. I don't remember the same wait-and-see approach with 9-11. Comical to imagine the FBI letting terrorists stay free for a couple of years until the DOJ could build an airtight case.
I suppose this question goes hand in hand with another conclusion that no one dares to speak at the hearings: the Republican Party itself is indistinguishable from a terrorist organization in its tactics, strategies, and goals. It is no longer a part of the Constitutional conversation. And we Democrats don't really have a clue what to do about that.
The name Steve Bannon never fails to remind me that in 2016 he told a reporter for The Daily Beast: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Makes his January 5 comments all the more haunting.
Thank you for this clear summary of the hearing and of the attempted coup. So many White House insiders knew about the plans to overturn the election, and yet not one of them alerted the FBI or DOJ or even the NY Times, even when they knew Trump and his accomplices were planning violence for January 6. What a nasty bunch of takers.
'Van Tatenhove warned that the danger is ongoing.'
This committee is more important than any of us ever knew.
Heather, we all has such respect and gratitude for your ability to distill and share what has been and is being done to our precious country. There is not a strong enough expression for 'Thank you'.
Since Professor Richardson seems reticent to toot her own horn, I'll toot it for her. The latest Now and Then hosted by her and Joanne Freeman, had Carol Anderson, noted historian, on board. Though one could argue it is only tangential to the narrow moment we are in, I would argue it is exactly on point. You decide.
https://cafe.com/now-and-then/racism-and-the-second-amendment-with-carol-anderson/
Can we start a Go Fund Me to just air that Bannon tape incessantly until the election?
What else needs to be said?
The deck of cards.......
It’s just as bad as we knew it would be.
Why are these gangsters not in prison? Anyone else, would be. The evidence is so clear regarding the subversion and treason of 45, Bannon, Flynn, Guiliani, Stone, Powell, Pillow Guy, Overstock Guy, I just don’t understand why they have not been arrested, awaiting trial. Low-level criminals get treatment that locks them up. These high-level conspirators should be in prison. Even the Oathkeepers’ INSIDER Van Tothaven says there is ongoing danger. This is just the beginning. God help us!
What the committee’s revealing is terrifyingly evil. Rather than get swept up in it, I’m writing Vote Forward letters to get out the Democratic leaning vote in swing states. Despite the usual headwinds of mid-term elections, even a majority of Republicans don’t want tfg to run again.* The January 6 Select Committee hearings are taking their toll. Voters are energized to vote against Trump Republicans.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/us/politics/trump-approval-polling-2024.html
Guilty as charged, if he ever gets charged. Todays hearing was the crown for me. Everything came together and there’s no doubt that tfg is and was not only unhinged but surrounded by enablers and criminals even before the election. This country, this Democracy is so so lucky that we survived the post election months and even the entire four years of this presidency. Barely. From Charlottesville on we knew we had the beginning of Trump’s American Carnage. And he isn’t the only elected official guilty. How long before he escapes to safely?
I am speechless. One thing I can say, though, is how much I appreciate Liz Cheney's manner -- her directness, clarity, and steadiness.
Over and over I’ve thought “Okay, this *has* to be the straw that finally breaks the 🐪’s back” …and it hasn’t been. 🤞🏼🤞🏼for this time, but….still worried.
On the other hand, oh how I long for that worry to be proven mistaken!
One could almost see the impatient scurry of the media after Liz Cheney’s pointed warning of the unannounced, already harassed upcoming witness. Incoming call from president refused, not recorded, but reported to DOJ? What? Did Trump leave a voicemail? On, hmmmmm, possibly Ginni’s phone? One does wonder.
Salud. 🗽