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Opinion A new Jan. 6 witness shows why Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet is lethal

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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This week, the House select committee on Jan. 6 will hold a prime-time hearing designed to demonstrate Donald Trump’s depraved and venal conduct as the violence raged on the day itself. If you wanted to boil down the significance of this into two sentences, here’s one way you might do it:
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  • During his final days as president, Donald Trump launched an extraordinarily corrupt effort to persuade his vice president, Mike Pence, to abuse his official duty in order to help Trump cling to power illegitimately and probably illegally.
  • When that pressure campaign failed, Trump turned to a violent mob as the weapon that might finish the job for him.
It might never be definitively proved that this is how Trump conceived of his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021. But fresh indications suggest the committee might be able to demonstrate something very close to this with unexpected force.
A new witness is set to testify publicly at Thursday’s hearing: former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, who resigned on Jan. 6. In videotaped testimony, Pottinger told the committee that he stepped down after Trump tweeted another attack on Pence at 2:24 p.m., as the violence raged.


That 2:24 tweet represents a key moment, when the procedural coup and the mob violence became one and the same story. In it, Trump ripped Pence for lacking the “courage” to delay the congressional count of presidential electors, suggesting this would have allowed states to revisit the voting and appoint electors for Trump, which was his underlying coup scheme.


Let’s put this plainly: Many of the people around Trump understood perfectly what his intent was when he sent that tweet. In their apparent understanding of the moment, Trump was directing the mob to help intimidate Pence into helping carry out the potentially illegal overthrow of an incoming, legitimately elected government.
Numerous people around Trump saw this as a breaking point. Pottinger told the committee that “I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign.”







Indeed, as journalist Jonathan Karl reports in his book, as all that unfolded, Pottinger was “shocked” and “horrified.” If and when Pottinger repeats this in live testimony, it should be powerful.
That tweet was also the threshold moment for Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She testified that she found it “un-American” and was “disgusted,” precisely because of what was going on around Trump at that moment.
Which is really the rub of the matter. As Hutchinson also testified, moments earlier, as the mob converged on the Capitol, Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cipollone had urgently warned that something must be done to call off the mob, or people would die and there would be blood on the hands of Trump and his inner circle.

And even as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” Hutchinson testified, Meadows suggested that Trump thought he “deserved” to hang. All of this means Trump and his inner circle knew full well that the violence was surging out of control when Trump harangued the mob one more time to target Pence.










Trump also refrained from calling off the attackers for hours. To what degree can it be demonstrated that he wasn’t merely a sore loser who enjoyed seeing his supporters fight for him, but, rather, that he wanted and even directed the mob to terrorize Pence for his betrayal, or intimidate him into doing Trump’s bidding, or both?
All this could have legal significance as well. As former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade suggests in an interview, Trump’s tweet attacking Pence already provides some evidence that he deliberately weaponized the crowd to finish the job of disrupting the electoral count in Congress.

“If prosecutors can establish Trump’s intent to do so, then this could bolster charges of obstruction of an official proceeding,” McQuade told me. She added that this could conceivably “support charges of seditious conspiracy, which requires an agreement to use force to oppose the execution of federal law.”


In such an understanding, it would be shown that Trump consciously used the violence itself to disrupt the election’s lawful conclusion. We don’t know whether this will be legally demonstrable, but the committee is plainly trying to get as close to this as possible.
Strangely, even as this is happening, Trump appears closer than ever to announcing a 2024 presidential run. That could be possible only given this fact: For the vast majority of elected Republicans and party leaders, deliberately standing by to enable a violent insurrection to unfold — or even perhaps actively encouraging it — simply isn’t disqualifying.
The only remaining question is whether the rest of us will find a way to impose accountability for it.

 
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I still don’t see anything they can nail him on aside from the Georgia phone call.
 
WITCH HUNT! ;)
I am tired of this Bulls**t. Trump should have just accepted that it was stolen and moved on. Just look at the mess Biden and the Democrats have made of everything. Gas food 401ks etc. Let alone we are a laughing stock to Russia and China and others because of Bidens weaknesses. The hearings are no more than revenge tactics from those who hated Trump. What a circus. Don't tell me to point out specifics just check your pockets . People will know and remember come November all while Dimocrats will hang their hats on abortion rights.
 
A public tweet. 16 months later and billions of dollars and the smoking gun is a public tweet........ JFC.
There'll be more revelations in tonite's televised hearings that you will probably choose to ignore.

I know some Trumpsters can never be convinced. But those people, such as yourself, continuing to ignore the findings, don't want to know the truth.
 
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There'll be more revelations in tonite's televised hearings that you will probably choose to ignore.

I know some Trumpsters can never be convinced. But those people, such as yourself, continuing to ignore the findings, don't want to know the truth.
Is tonight the night Bannon's ex wife talks? Or is tonight when they show us the "smoking gun"?
 
I am tired of this Bulls**t. Trump should have just accepted that it was stolen and moved on. Just look at the mess Biden and the Democrats have made of everything. Gas food 401ks etc. Let alone we are a laughing stock to Russia and China and others because of Bidens weaknesses. The hearings are no more than revenge tactics from those who hated Trump. What a circus. Don't tell me to point out specifics just check your pockets . People will know and remember come November all while Dimocrats will hang their hats on abortion rights.
Adam schiff has already started the process of covering hisnass on the tactics he used to get information, when the repubs get in power thst dude is going to get a train ran on his ass.
 
I am tired of this Bulls**t. Trump should have just accepted that it was stolen and moved on. Just look at the mess Biden and the Democrats have made of everything. Gas food 401ks etc. Let alone we are a laughing stock to Russia and China and others because of Bidens weaknesses. The hearings are no more than revenge tactics from those who hated Trump. What a circus. Don't tell me to point out specifics just check your pockets . People will know and remember come November all while Dimocrats will hang their hats on abortion rights.
You are so damn backwards. You think the dish thrower was tough.
 
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I am tired of this Bulls**t. Trump should have just accepted that it was stolen and moved on. Just look at the mess Biden and the Democrats have made of everything. Gas food 401ks etc. Let alone we are a laughing stock to Russia and China and others because of Bidens weaknesses. The hearings are no more than revenge tactics from those who hated Trump. What a circus. Don't tell me to point out specifics just check your pockets . People will know and remember come November all while Dimocrats will hang their hats on abortion rights.
What world do you live in?
The “laughing” began when Trump took office in. 2017. He was a complete tool for Putin. He mishandled to Covid outbreak badly from Day #1. His tax cut is one of the leading reasons America suffers from high inflation rates today. His handling of the Fed when they desired to start raising rates just added to the inflTionary Fire. Tax cuts for the rich and “free money” have had their ( negative) affects on today’s economy. We are paying the price now, but thankfully, the economy is remaining strong and vibrant. Now, the WORLD (not just the USA) needs to figure out a way to get folks back to work. The work is plentiful, it seems....it just needs to get done. Biden has done what he can to iron out supply problems from the US perspective...now Asia and China have to take care of their business. Gas, food and stock market will correct themselves once the world gets back to normal. Understand, these current economic issues are not isolated in the USA.
If you don’t think Trump tried to er of governmental power on 1/6 you are a fool. That act of treason is deserving of a prison sentence. This is NO witch hunt....the witch hunt was Trump’s quest to gain and hold on to power. The guy got his everlovin’ ass whipped in Nov of 2020. He lost...by a lot!
 
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