The President's actions. I was working at home Wednesday morning when I received a text message from a friend telling me to turn on the TV. I texted back "why?" He replied "put it on." I was shocked and appalled by what I saw. I saw what appeared to be hundreds of people storming the Capitol building of the United States. The Capitol police were clearly outnumbered, but thankfully, no Representative and no Senator and no staff were injured. Sadly, a Capitol police officer was killed, as was a female Army veteran taking part in the occupation of the Capitol building. The condemnation of those breaking into the Capitol building has been nearly universal, from both sides of the aisle. I add my voice to condemn what I saw.
When the President spoke to the crowd assembled near the White House (estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands) he said they should march over to the Capitol Building to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." That was not the problem. The problem was that he also said we would be "stuck with a President who lost the election by a lot, and we have to live with that for four more years. We're just not going to let that happen." And Trump said this: "we're going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we're not going to stand for that." Trump expected Mike Pence to change the votes of the electoral college.
In my first post after the election, I wrote that I had accepted that Biden won on election night. (See the 11/15/20 post.) Trump and his team decided to file numerous lawsuits challenging the results in several states. I neither advocated for nor against it, although I recognized that he had the right to do so. And I had my own concerns about election integrity, given the overwhelming number of mail-in ballots, some without signature verification, and some apparently received after the state mandated deadline - but counted anyway. Still, as an attorney, I thought let the cases play out until the electoral college votes in mid-December. Trump did not succeed in his court cases. On December 14, the electoral college confirmed that Joe Biden had won. That should have been the end of it.
From that point forward Trump's focus should have been on the transition, and on helping the two Republican Senators in Georgia win reelection. Instead, we learn that on January 2, Trump called the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to find more votes. I previously wrote that I wanted Trump to be at Biden's inauguration. (See the 12/20/20 post.) That would have meant, of course, that he would have conceded the election and congratulated Biden. That's what should have happened after the electoral college vote. When none of it happened, and especially after that January 2 phone call, it was clear that Trump should be out of politics. I said to my wife that I would like to see Nikki Haley run in four years. I would not vote for Trump again. That was before Wednesday. Trump actually undermined the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia by belatedly advocating for a $2000 Covid relief payout, after his own Administration negotiated a $600 payout with Congress.
On Wednesday, Congress was meeting in joint session for the formality of counting and approving the vote of the electoral college. Trump expected the Vice President, who presides at this joint session of Congress, to single handedly overturn the electoral college vote. Of course, the Vice President has no such authority, nor should he. The law does allow challenges to a state's electoral college vote, as long as at least one Representative and One Senator object. That did happen, and when it does each house of Congress meets separately to vote on the objections. With the House of Representatives under Democratic control, there was no chance of any objection passing there. Even in the Republican controlled Senate there was virtually no chance of success.
Now, the reactions to Wednesday. What about the objections to the electoral college vote? Some Democrats want to see those Representatives and Senators who objected to the electoral college vote kicked out of Congress. Aside from the fact that such objections are allowed by law, we see yet again the hypocrisy of the Democratic left. In 2005, 31 Democrats in the House and one Senator (former California Senator Barbara Boxer) objected to the electoral college vote of Ohio. Recall that George W. Bush beat John Kerry. Those Democrats who objected, said they had concerns about how the election was run and were simply pointing out the need for election reform. Oh, so just like the Republican objectors on Wednesday. But we know when the Republicans do it, it is because they are evil.
What about impeachment? I am not having the same reaction as the Democrats first impeachment, which to this writer was nothing other than a coup attempt, an effort to reverse the results of the 2016 election - results that the Democrats have never accepted. With Trump being out of office in 10 days anyway, it hardly matters. So, why do it? The purpose, it seems to me, would be to tarnish his legacy. Because, notwithstanding the Democrats allegation of Trump being an "incompetent" President. the reality is that he accomplished quite a bit. (See the 1/2/21 post.) Joe Biden has repeatedly called for "unity." How would another impeachment of a man that 74 million Americans voted for bring about that unity? If Biden has not at least privately told Pelosi not to do it, then his call for unity is just a big lie. We will see tomorrow if the House moves forward, as they are promising to do.
What about the "protesters?" Was it a mob? An insurrection? A coup attempt? While I did not see the size of the crowd listening to Trump's speech, at least one source said there were hundreds of thousands there. But let's assume it was only tens of thousands. I saw most of that crowd that marched to the Capitol peacefully standing outside the building, many holding American flags, and letting their presence be known. The mainstream media (aka the Democratic, left-wing media) used harsh words to describe those who broke into the Capitol building. But this past summer, when rioting, looting and burning took place across the country (in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kenosha and Los Angeles, to name a few cities that saw violence) and caused approximately $2 billion worth of damage to mostly small businesses, but also to a federal courthouse, police station, and so on, we were told that it was "mostly peaceful protesters," and that a few bad apples managed to infiltrate those peaceful protests and cause all the damage. And we heard precious little from Democratic leaders actually condemning the violent "protesters." When a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down by "peaceful protesters" in Baltimore, a city where Nancy Pelosi's father and brother were Mayors, she was asked what she thought about it. Pelosi: "People will do what they do." No condemnation.
This time, when it wasn't Black Lives Matter and Antifa, but rather Republicans misbehaving, there was no differentiating between the many who remained peaceful outside the Capitol and those who broke in - they were all just "Trump supporters." The implication is clear, Trump supporters are all evil. After all, if you voted for Trump, you caused Wednesday to happen. You knew or should have known that it would happen. Really? Trump must have had dozens of rallies during his first run in 2016, and continuing to the present. Often, tens of thousands of people attended. I watched a number of those rallies. None that I saw resulted in violence. The only time that I saw violence was when left-wing thugs showed up to intimidate and harass and assault the Trump supporters. I should add that, as a conservative, I believe that people are responsible for their own behavior. No, I'm not excusing Trump's involvement.
What about the anti-Semitism? I assume many of us saw some of the shirts being worn by those who occupied the Capitol. One said "Camp Auschwitz" and another said "6MWE" (standing for 6 million wasn't enough). Disgusting! I've said it before - whether anti-Semitism comes from the left, the right, radical Islam or anywhere else, it needs to be condemned by everyone. But it's not. The left protects their own, even if they're anti-Semites. The "peaceful" protests in Los Angeles last summer by Black Lives Matter caused damage to Jewish shops and at least one synagogue in the Fairfax area, a heavily Jewish area. On one synagogue was spray painted "Free Palestine" and "Fuck Israel." Said the city council member who represented the Fairfax area: "As we watched the fires and looting, what we didn't get covered were the anti-Semitic hate crimes and incidents. Under the guise of protests, some advanced their anti-Semitic agenda." The mainstream media's interest in anti-Semitism begins and ends with the anti-Semitism from the right.
What about the anti-Semitism of Democratic Representatives? After Ilhan Omar made repeated anti-Semitic comments, Nancy Pelosi excused her, appointed her to the important House Foreign Affairs Committee, and called her a "valuable" member of the Democratic caucus. How about Rashida Tlaib getting a "calming feeling...when I think of the Holocaust."
What about the racism? Here is Joe Biden: "No one can tell me, that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, that they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol." Thereafter, Harris said the same thing, and the mainstream media dutifully joined in. Odd that the one person shot and killed was a white woman. While I watched on TV, I saw four white security people inside either the House or Senate chamber, with guns drawn and aimed at the door that they had barricaded from within. Those guys looked ready to shoot to kill whomever may have broken through the door to the chamber. And it appeared that most of those inside the Capitol were white people. It's not always about race, Joe.
What about the big three? Pence and McConnell had no hesitation in doing the right thing. McConnell called it his most consequential vote in the decades he has served in Congress, making it clear that Biden had to be declared the winner of the electoral college vote. Pence did his job, counting the votes and declaring Biden to be the winner. Pelosi? She took it upon herself to call Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike." In doing so, she abused her own power and attempted to assume the office of President. We have a chain of command, and the Speaker is not part of it. The Defense Secretary and the President are. She not only made the call, she posted what was discussed on her website. Highly inappropriate, especially if an enemy of the US tries to act against us in the next ten days.
What about social media? Twitter has permanently suspended (banned) President Trump from their platform. If you approve, I would ask why it is okay for the Ayatollah to be on Twitter, after threatening the United States, and threatening to wipe Israel off the map? Why is it okay for the leading anti-Semite in the country, Louis Farrakhan, to remain on Twitter? And why is it okay for the Chinese Communist party to remain on Twitter? If you do not see the bias against conservatives (such as some Prager University videos being banned from YouTube) then you need to look again.
A word to my conservative friends and readers. If you supported what you saw on Wednesday in the Capitol, because you believe that the election was conducted in an unfair manner, then you may need to rethink your criticisms of last year's riots. After all, Black Lives Matter told us that the judicial system was unfair. If the perception of "unfairness," justified or not, warrants rioting, looting and ransacking the Capitol, then we can expect violence on a regular basis. Ultimately, we need to let the system play out. We can work to improve it. But we need to let it play out, with the understanding that no system is perfect.
