I have very mixed emotions about these comments about Trump and a coup by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because I really worry about civilian control and this was a very dicey situation that exposes some serious dangers. (But then, what didn’t during the Trump administration?) Everything Trump did was a destabilizing and threatening.
And as Parker Molloy points out in this tweet thread, there was a whole lot of weird stuff going on that made a lot of us lose sleep at night during that period:
Trump weighs in with a lengthy statement about General Milley: “Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of ‘coup,’ and if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley”
1. Lost the election by a pretty sizable margin despite efforts to sabotage the USPS
2. Spent the time between election and certification trying to strongarm officials into changing the vote totals
3. Tried to recruit “alternate” electors to override the states’ votes4. Installed loyalists at DOD and State
5. Filed all manner of absurd lawsuits hoping that judges he appointed would award him the election in return
6. Called on his supporters to go to DC on 1/6 to urge Congress to throw out the votesCoup. It was all part of a coup attempt.
It wasn’t just 1/6. It never was. And it wasn’t just Trump. It was the entire GOP. Why do you think so many were hesitant to say Biden won? Because they wanted to see if Trump’s coup attempt was successful.
It’s why you had people like Pompeo saying stuff like this AFTER TRUMP LOST: “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”
I’m sick of people downplaying this. “Oh, it was just tourists in the capitol. Big deal.” No, that wasn’t it. That wasn’t the scariest part. That was the last-ditch attempt to stop Congress from counting the EVs. The coup was everything that happened between the election and 1/20
THAT is why it’s beyond unsettling that so many of the Sunday shows keep inviting the people who refused to acknowledge Biden won on. They were part of it. They weren’t just trying to spare Trump hurt feelings, they were sitting back and seeing how it played out.
The safeguards *barely* held. And ever since the election, the GOP has been doing *everything it can* to ensure that next time they won’t hold. Too many in media still treat all of this like it’s totally normal. It’s not.
It’s absolutely infuriating to have been proven right at every turn just for the people who’ve been so consistently wrong to continue to be taken seriously and put on TV to insist that everyone’s overreacting.
Originally tweeted by Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) on July 15, 2021.
We got lucky. And we know now (and really, we knew then) that it was a close thing. I have serious doubts that out luck will hold out again if the Republicans are allowed to do this again. They have tasted the heady nectar of violence and illegitimate power. I’m afraid there will be no going back, at least not for a good while.