A question that’s now on the table: Was Trump foolish enough to play an active role in organizing the uprising at the Capitol, or was he simply an accessory to the crime?
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I don’t have the sense yet that Trump himself was an active conspirator and plotter. (Giuliani almost certainly was.) But the feds need to find out what Trump had been told, because that could make him an accessory to crimes. 1/8
At the Georgia rally on Jan 4 Trump said: “We’re still fighting it [the election] and you’ll see what’s going to happen.” 2/8
But on Jan 6 at the pre-march rally in DC Trump said:
“[“Patriots” aren’t] going to take it any longer…They came from all over our country. I just really want to see what they do.” 3/8
That indicates to me Trump didn’t know all the details, but had been told enough to know that it was going to be an effort to overturn the election (“overturn” being Trump’s own term!). 4/8
(Mobsters like Trump are usually careful to keep their own fingerprints off their crimes. They prefer to leave that to their underlings and stooges. There is plenty of evidence for this about Trump in the Mueller Report.) 5/8
To be clear, though: all of this has to be placed against the backdrop of his telling the Jan 6 mob: “Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we’ll win the election.” 7/8
Note that Pence had already told Trump that he wouldn’t do that because it would be unlawful — and of course Pence was absolutely right.
In short, January 6 was a failed coup— and Trump intended it to be a coup.
That’s the real bottom line here, not what Trump thought would happen when he sent the mob down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Building.
8/8
