This is equivalent to a drop of water torture for Donald Trump.
Posted at 5:00 am
At every session of the commission’s public hearings on January 6, the former Republican president is sure to rage and … suffer. It’s torture for a politician who can announce within weeks that he’ll run for the White House again in 2024.
Each time, we are treated to new revelations, each as damning as the next, aimed at proving that Donald Trump and some of his cronies have engaged in criminal behavior.
Now how can one not believe that the January 6, 2021 coup in Washington was the culmination of a long strategy by the former president and the craziest members of his entourage?
How can you not believe that Donald Trump will do anything to stay in power?
Blocking the certification of the November 2020 election results means.. even if it is violent. It’s not like American democracy will recover anytime soon.
The most recent session, last Tuesday, was the seventh (and probably one of the last) in this series. It is possible to understand the extent to which Trump’s December 19, 2020 call to his followers on Twitter to organize a “big demonstration” in Washington acted as a catalyst for the uprising.
As soon as this tweet was published, many officials and members of far-right groups began to work hard and coordinate to make this protest a success.
The tweet was seen by some Donald Trump supporters as a “call to arms,” commission members said.
Various evidence released on Tuesday also showed that the president had already decided to ask his supporters to march on Capitol Hill in the days leading up to the January 6, 2021 protest.
“The aim of the president is to remain in power for the second time even if he loses the elections. Gathered audiences are one of the tools to achieve this goal,” summed up Democrat Stephanie Murphy, one of nine members of the commission.
Everything we’ve heard since the beginning of these public hearings, it’s hard to prove him wrong.
The most disturbing revelations so far came from Cassidy Hutchinson, a valued aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a staunch Trump ally.
Disgusted by what she saw, she sat down to eat. Essentially, she alleged that the president knew many of his supporters were armed before encouraging them to march on the Capitol. He was also reported to have become enraged when they were not allowed to go to where he was giving a speech without going through a metal detector.
Cassidy Hutchinson also said the president pressured the agents responsible for his security so he could go to the Capitol.
It is also clear that many of those who played a role in this coup attempt were aware of the nature of their abuses. About a dozen people sought presidential pardons before Donald Trump left office.
Like their president, they are dangerous traitors.
Happily, the commission’s work appears to have tarnished the former Republican president’s star a little.
A recent survey (The New York Times – Siena College) indicates that nearly half of Republicans intend to vote for a candidate other than him in the next Republican primary season.
However, Donald Trump remains, by far, the most popular of all potential suitors. He garners 49% of voting intentions, compared to 25% for his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
If American democracy had been in good health, many Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, would have rejected the former president long ago. Yet he has tens of millions of supporters. If this is any good news.
Journalist Melanie Marquis told us On this side of the border, ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, the federal government has recently learned that it has suffered a setback at home.
We’re not done worrying.
Hopefully, the commission’s next work will continue to erode the support that Donald Trump still enjoys. And he cannot escape paying the consequences of his actions this time.
