What did you get out of the select committee hearing yesterday? For me it was just an overall sense that Trump should be quickly tried and then immediately afterwards dragged out in front of a firing squad and shot. I’d like to see this all over and done with by the middle of next week and not have it drag on for years and years of acrimonious and divisive bickering.
Most of the media would like to see it drag on and on. Rolling Stone,for example, isn’t quite there yet. Late last night, Nikki Ramirez and Ryan Bort reported that “The biggest takeaway wasn’t simply that Trump didn’t do anything to stop the attack; it was, as Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) put it at the top of the hearing, he chose to not do anything. Instead, Trump holed up in the White House dining room, watching the attack unfold on Fox News and rebuffing efforts from everyone around him— from administration officials to family members— to call off his supporters. He even encouraged them, attacking Vice President Mike Pence on Twitter for refusing to illegally stop the certification of the 2020 election results, and, according to a White House security official, leading Pence’s security detail to fear for their lives. Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, two administration figures who were in the White House on Jan. 6 and resigned later that day, testified during the hearing. ‘I thought that Jan. 6, 2021 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,’ Matthews said, ‘and President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion.’” [Trump’s response was to claim he doesn’t know Matthews, his deputy White House press secretary, and Elise Stefanik called her “Just another liar and pawn in Pelosi’s witch-hunt” in a tweet that has now been deleted.]
For a lot of people who watched yesterday, this is probably the most shocking moment— the one where the Secret Service agents guarding Pence called their families to say goodbye because they thought they were going to be killed by the insurrectionists:
The main point of the hearing, though, was to make the point that Trump is guilty of dereliction of duty in not stopping his supporters from sacking the Capitol. This morning, CNN reported that "Former officials who were with Trump as he watched the riot unfold on television, including then-White House counsel Pat Cipolloni and Trump's body man Nick Luna, told the committee they had no knowledge of the former President making a single call to the heads of various agencies who could have responded to the violence, including the secretary of defense or attorney general. Keith Kellogg, Pence's national security adviser who was also with Trump that day, testified that he never heard the former President ask for the National Guard or a law enforcement response. Kellogg also reaffirmed that he would have been aware if Trump had made such an ask. ‘To me, his refusal to act and call off the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible,’ Matthews said at the hearing.”
That testimony fit with other evidence presented on Thursday, like the outtakes of Trump's videotaped speech on January 7, where he tried to water down some of the prepared language and told his aides, "I don't want to say the election's over, OK?"
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told the House select committee that he was astonished by the fact that he never heard from Trump as the Capitol attack was unfolding -- suggesting his failure to act amounted to an abdication of his duties as Commander in Chief, according to previously unseen video from his close-door deposition.
"You know, you're the Commander in Chief. You've got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America and there's nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero?" he said in the clip.
…The committee played video of Milley's deposition where he said he had "two or three calls" with Pence.
"He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that," Milley said. "He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller: Get the military down here, get the Guard down here, put down this situation."
Trump has since stated he wants Milley tried for treason.
You are wrong. Traitors are not executed by firing squad. They are hung.
so... always remember it was the democraps who let nixon, reagan, hw, w, cheney skate. they charged none of them with anything. they held hearings about iran/contra but that was just for show. they've held hearings on trump but THAT is clearly just for show. And when a DOJ refuses to prosecute open and shut cases... then what nixon said is true. In fact, when nobody enforces any laws, nothing is illegal (for the rich and powerful).
All that said, and it should be plenty... what Barney Fifes do they hire for the secret service? aren't those guys armed? could they not just have killed as many brownshirts as they have bullets? and if the brownshirts keep coming, are t…