Thursday night’s congressional hearing on the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol lived up to its billing as a season finale. A modern-day Nero, Trump watched reports of the invasion of the Capitol on Fox News from the comfort of his private White House dining room. The commander-in-chief ignored repeated calls to end the mayhem.
“The mob was his people.” Trump never reached out to the military, the FBI, the defense department or the national guard to intervene. He rebuffed entreaties from Ivanka Trump, Mark Meadows and Pat Cipollone to end the downwardly spiraling situation.
Trump never walked to the press briefing room to say “enough”. He liked what he saw. His minions had taken matters into their own hands and brought Congress to a halt.
Trump struggled to record a message to disperse to his fans. He “loved” them; they were “special.” We heard this before. There were “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville.
Chillingly, the security detail assigned to the vice-president began to say “good-bye” to their families. If Mike Pence came to hang from makeshift gallows that was his problem. Trump thought he deserved it. Pence was his vice-president, he believed – with loyalty to him, not the US constitution. He was expendable.
The vice-president “folded,” he “screwed us,” according to the rioters. Trump’s tweet at 2.24pm blamed no one but his hapless running mate.
Sarah Matthews, Trump’s deputy press secretary, testified that her boss had given the rioters a “green light”. He “poured gasoline on a fire,” to use her words. “Rioters heard the president’s message”, to quote Rep Adam Kinzinger. In turn, they acted accordingly.
Senator Josh Hawley fled the Senate that day after earlier riling up the crowd with his outstretched arm and clenched fist. Cosplay can be dangerous to your health. Hawley reportedly harbors ambition for 2024.
The tumult of 6 January was not spontaneous. Trump knew that that the crowd was armed, but sought to accompany them to the Capitol. He wanted to obstruct the certification of the election with a phalanx behind him.
Carnage and destruction were OK. The ends justified all means.
Here, past was prelude. In 2016, Trump signaled that he might not accept the election’s results if they did not meet his expectations. As Covid descended in the spring of 2020, he began to refer to November’s upcoming ballot as rigged, months before a single vote had been cast. The events of 6 January horrify and shock, but they cannot be characterized as a surprise.
A recording of Steve Bannon evidenced that Trump’s reaction was premeditated. The prosecution has rested in his criminal case; he will not be taking the stand.
Trump’s standing slowly erodes, even as Trumpism retains its firm grip on Republicans. Hours before the committee’s eighth public hearing, Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, announced that it would “suck” to nominate a presidential candidate who labored under criminal indictment. A poll of Michigan Republicans released earlier this week places Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, in a foot-race with the 45th president.
Still, the Republicans are no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln. On Tuesday, Maryland Republicans selected a novitiate of QAnon to be their gubernatorial candidate and a neo-confederate secessionist as their pick for state attorney general. Even as Trump loses altitude, the “Big Lie” – the false claim that he actually won the last presidential election – retains its vitality.
Also on Tuesday, Arizona Republicans censured Rusty Bowers, a Republican and leader in the state’s legislature, after he had testified last month before the committee and denied that Trump won Arizona. Fealty to “Dear Leader” remains a tribal litmus test.
Trump’s dream remains alive. That nightmare is now woven into America’s political tapestry. Our “very stable genius” continues to demand that state legislators undo the results of 2020 – as if they possess that power. This month, Robin Vos, speaker of Wisconsin’s state assembly, told of Trump recently asking him to do just that.
Beyond boosting DeSantis’s ambitions, the latest hearing won’t do anything to improve Republican chances of retaking the Senate. Despite inflation, rising crime and Joe Biden’s record-shattering unpopularity, Democrats are mild favorites to retain the upper chamber.
Trump’s antics exact a price. This was not the committee’s final hearing. After Labor Day, broadcasts will resume. The midterms will be less than two months away. By then, the justice department will likely be immersed in weighing whether to prosecute Donald J Trump.
Lloyd Green is a regular contributor and served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992
