Power’s out. A little snow. A lot of wind. Dodgy signal. Grinding coffee with a mortar and pestle. Going to make this brief.
In case you missed it on Sunday, Rep. Liz Cheney tells ABC News that the Jan. 6 committee has receipts, at least on Donald Trump. In the immediate aftermath of the riot, mayhem, and death, some Republican lawmakers insisted what the world witnessed live was the work of anti-Trump infiltrators. Those closest to Trump, however, were convinced that day that the domestic terrorists were (as even the blind could see) Trump supporters. Trump supporters the (literally) sitting president could, with an appearance from the White House briefing room, call off with a few words.
The committee has firsthand testimony that even as Trump sat watching the riot on television, daughter Ivanka came to him twice to ask him to make a televised statement to stop the violence at the Capitol. He sat doing nothing.
Stephen Collinson (CNN):
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the panel has “significant testimony” that shows the White House was told to “do something” as the crowd of Trump supporters fired up by his election fantasies smashed their way into the Capitol. Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, told ABC News of “firsthand testimony” that Trump’s daughter Ivanka, then a West Wing adviser, twice asked him to intervene in a melee in which police officers were beaten by his crowd.
Thursday’s anniversary will revisit the horrors of the attack, before which Trump had told his supporters to “fight like hell” in support of his conspiracy to steal power from Joe Biden in violation of the will of the people expressed in a democratic election.
If Trump had wanted to stop the assault, he could have. Republican lawmakers under siege called to ask him to call off his supporters:
“We don’t know … If there’s anything we come upon as a committee that we think would warrant a referral to the Department of Justice, we’ll do that,” Thompson told Dana Bash. Cheney added on CBS that Trump was guilty of a “supreme dereliction of duty” and that the committee was looking at whether there was a need for “enhanced penalties” for such behavior, though she appeared to be referring to legislation that would not likely be retrospective in relation to Trump’s conduct.
Cheney did, however, warn that Trump’s conduct was so egregious that he should not be allowed anywhere near power again, as the former President considers a potential new tilt at the White House in 2024.”This is a man who has demonstrated that he’s at war with the rule of law. He’s demonstrated that he’s willing to blow through every guardrail of democracy,” Cheney said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “And he can never be anywhere near the Oval Office again.”
Trump should never have been near it the first time.