“There’s very fine people on both sides.”
Evidence lacking.
”I hire the best people.”
He doesn’t. He fires them quickly like he’s running a game show.
”Fake news.”
Spoken by the guy who talks out of at least three sides of the same mouth.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!”
Okay, he got that one right, since the tweet helped launch the insurrection effort.
We’ve all heard the confusing word salads he’s had when asked to think on his feet at a press conference. It’s why he stopped doing most press conferences.
We’ve all heard the snippy sound bites he prefers because they’re more like ads.
We’ve also heard him take credit for things he had little or nothing to do with. Unlike Reagan, Obama and others, who regularly gave credit to staff, Congress, generals, etc. Projecting the silly notion that he knows more about everything. More than the generals and military planners, for example, even though no Trump family member has spent one day in the military. More than the scientists and doctors during the pandemic, without any background or training in medical science.
But his words when he’s facing criticism are carefully chosen. He’ll tiptoe near the edge of illegality but he does his best to not cross the line where his words can get him convicted for his criminal behavior.
It became clear yesterday that he crossed that line in his efforts to avoid prosecution for inciting the January 6th insurrection. On that day, he used the word ‘peacefully’ one time, which is now the only defense he has for his actions that day. It’s proving insufficient, since multiple testimonies from the team surrounding him indicate:
a) he ignored all legal advice that told him he lost and directed him in mid-December to cease his efforts to overturn a fair and free election.
b) A plan was in place to declare victory before the results were known. He was also calling the voting rigged before any results came in on Election Day. Because the polling indicated a loss was likely.
c) His words were intended to draw people to the Capitol that day. Including people with a long history of using violence. And his words to his audience on January 6th were intended to make the crowd march on the Capitol building and to fight once there.
d) He ignored pleas from staff, from his pro-Trump media supporters and even from his family to call off the visibly violent mob. Those pleas were heard by him and rejected.
e) He refused to call in backup security while the mob raged.
f) He thought his VP ‘deserved’ whatever he got when Mike Pence refused to break the law during the electoral vote certification. Some in the crowd wanted to lynch Pence.
g) He ignored nearly 6 dozen judges - many of them his appointees - when his post-election lawsuits failed due to lack of evidence. Did he read or hear all their verdicts? Yes. And he ignored them, too.
h) He only pardoned those he could speak most openly to: Stone, Burn-government-down Bannon and Michael Russian-Mafia-money Flynn. Only the trio whose testimony could get Trump convicted. The only person he wanted protected was himself. Not the Capitol police, not the VP or House Speaker, not even the people now headed for prison because they were motivated to violence by Trump. Election integrity, the Constitution and democracy were not protected nor did he care. He cared only to protect his own ass.
But Tuesday, the Committee indicated he crossed one line that none should ever cross. He contacted a witness. The Committee forwarded that info to the Dept of Justice because witness tampering is always illegal.
I understand AG Merrick Garland’s slow pace in pursuing action against Trump. Not only is the historical precedent unique - requiring a mistake-free prosecution - but Trump’s base of support is so prone to violence that any prosecution will likely trigger more division and violence. If Garland ultimately pursues legal action, he has to have all the information and be confident that he can get a conviction.
Now, just like occurred with the Watergate conspirators, Trump could more easily be convicted of illegal coverup efforts than of the original crime. This time, at least, it appears he failed to cover his tracks.
Apparently, he doesn’t know everything, after all.
Sure, he’d like somebody else, like his Chief of Staff, to be the fall guy. He and his lawyers are likely to promote that claim. But I don’t see how that will clear Trump, especially on the witness tampering charge.
One Trump supporter has had his life turned into a living hell because of a conspiracy theory Tucker Carlson and Trump himself have spread. He’s been forced to move and keep his new location secret because conspiracy theorists claim Ray Epps caused the insurrection as part of a FBI plot.
While Mr. Epps was a participant in some of the events that unfolded on Jan. 6, the claim that he inspired the Capitol riot in a “false flag” plot is solely based on the fact that he has never been arrested and therefore must be under the protection of the government.
But scores, if not hundreds, of people who appear to have committed minor crimes that day were investigated by the F.B.I. but have not been charged or taken into custody.
Mr. Epps said that he had acted stupidly at times when he and one of his sons took a last-minute trip to Washington for Mr. Trump’s speech about election fraud. But he said that he had managed to avoid arrest because he reached out to the F.B.I. within minutes of discovering that agents wanted to speak with him.
On Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the Capitol was attacked, Mr. Epps learned from a family member that the F.B.I. had issued a be-on-the-lookout alert in his name. He said that he immediately called the bureau’s National Threat Operations Center, and his phone records show that he spoke to agents there for nearly an hour.
The F.B.I. has repeatedly declined to comment on Mr. Epps, but his account of calling the operations center — and of sitting down for a formal discussion with federal agents in March 2021 — is backed by transcripts of those interviews reviewed by The New York Times.
The interview transcripts show that Mr. Epps told agents that he had spent much of his time at the Capitol seeking to calm down other rioters, an assertion supported by multiple video clips.
Trump doesn’t care about lives ruined. Except his.
And speaking of word salad, here’s an original number complete with all meaningless words.