A day that shall live in infamy, as should Donald J. Trump - by Robert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The is a letter-perfect regurgitation of leftist revisionist history. Dr. Reich recites every false claim with robotic precision. We will simply note that any claim made here by Dr. Reich which has already been thoroughly documented as false will be affixed with a "Did not happen."

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The last time a presidential vote was certified, the losing incumbent attempted a coup against the United States. We must never forget his treachery.

Friends,

The man who instigated a riot at the U.S. Capitol four years ago tomorrow (Did not happen.)

to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president will be certified president.

The peaceful transfer of power lies at the heart of American democracy, but Trump sought to overturn the result of the 2020 election and has not been held accountable. (It is not illegal to contest election results. Democrats do it routinely:

In 2001, House Democrats challenged the certification of electoral votes for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a Republican, but the objection failed because no senator agreed to sign the written objection.

“The objection is in writing, and I do not care that it is not signed by a member of the Senate,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said during the 2001 joint session of Congress.

“The chair will advise that the rules do care,” then-Vice President Al Gore, ceremonially presiding over the session, told Waters. Gore was overseeing the very session that would confirm his loss to Bush.

A similar situation occurred in 2017, when then-Vice President Joe Biden oversaw certification of the electoral votes that handed the presidency to Donald Trump. House Democrats challenged the electoral slate, but to no avail, because they lacked support in the Senate.

“It is over,” Biden told Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who objected to the election results during the 2017 session.

The certification challenge in 2005 was the only instance in recent years in which both a senator and a House member signed a formal objection to an electoral slate. Then-Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., together challenged Bush’s victory in Ohio on grounds of alleged voter irregularities.

The House and Senate adjourned and met separately for no more than two hours, as the Constitution stipulates, but ultimately neither Jones nor Boxer was able to gain enough votes from their respective colleagues to alter Ohio’s electoral slate.)

We must never forget his treachery.

When Vice President Mike Pence walked into the Capitol four years ago tomorrow, on January 6, 2021, he faced a withering pressure campaign by Trump, who had already twisted the arms of governors and election officials around the country to change the result of the election in his favor. (Did not happen.)

Pence was about to throw out the slates of false electors that Trump and his henchmen had hyped for weeks — coaxing loyalists in five swing states to submit signed certificates falsely claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” members of the Electoral College. (Asserted by Pence but not corroborated. It's simply Pence's word, and we have no reason to trust him.)

But as Pence began the electoral vote count, thousands of Trump supporters, many of them armed, stormed the Capitol. (There were no guns possessed by anyone except law enforcement.)

Some chanted they wanted to “hang Mike Pence” for refusing to block the certification.

They came directly from a rally Trump held on the Ellipse, (Impossible. The barriers were breached at 1:05 p.m.. Trump's speech ended about 1:11 p.m. With the large crowds, the Ellipse is at least a half hour walk to the Capitol Building. So those who attended the Trump speech could not arrived until around 1:35 p.m.. The first protestors arrived at the Capitol about 12:40 p.m., so they could not have heard Trump's speech.

There is no way he could have fomented an insurrection.

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said, “I realized at 1 p.m., things aren’t going well. I’m watching my people getting slammed.” The Capitol was breached at 1:30 p.m., before Trump's audience could even arrive, let alone organize a breach of the Capitol building.

So Trump hadn't even finished speaking when trouble began.)

 in which Trump repeated his false claim that the election had been stolen and told the crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” (Full quote: 

We have overwhelming pride in this great country and we have it deep in our souls. Together, we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Our brightest days are before us. Our greatest achievements, still away.

I think one of our great achievements will be election security. Because nobody until I came along had any idea how corrupt our elections were.

And again, most people would stand there at 9 o'clock in the evening and say I want to thank you very much, and they go off to some other life. But I said something's wrong here, something is really wrong, can have happened.

And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country.

And I say this despite all that's happened. The best is yet to come.

Context is a bitch, eh Dr. Reich?

Then of course Trump also said: 

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.)

According to the indictment from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, (A Democratic operative.)

Trump directed those supporters to the Capitol “to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure” on Pence. The indictment further states:

“After it became public on the afternoon of January 6 that the Vice President would not fraudulently alter the election results, a large and angry crowd — including many individuals whom the Defendant had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results — violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding.”

The FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building during the attack, some of whom participated in vandalism and looting, including of the offices of members of Congress. Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers. They occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor.

Within 36 hours, five people had died. ("Within 36 hours." An oddly long timeframe. Dr. Reich is attempting to insinuate that the people were killed by the riotous crowd. But these things are a matter of record. 

This did not happen.)

One was shot by Capitol Police; (Murdered. In actual fact, Babbitt was the only direct casualty of January 6th, And she was not a danger, was not armed, and was not acting in a manner that justified her murder. If her behavior was problematic, then why didn't the officer take out a dozen protestors standing within 5 feet of her? They were all doing the very same thing.)

another died of a drug overdose; (??? This person had an amphetamine addiction. Where she died is hardly relevant.)

and three died of heart attacks or strokes, (Two were protestors with heart problems. Where they died is hardly relevant.)

including a police officer who died the day after being assaulted by rioters. (Sicknick was never attacked by protestors. He died of natural causes after suffering two strokes.)

Many were injured, including 174 police officers. Four other officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. ("Seven months." Again an oddly long timeframe. While any suicide is regrettable, the fact is people take their own lives all the time. 

Howard Liebengood, another Capitol Police officer, committed suicide 3 days after January 6th. From the widow: 

"...Although he was severely sleep-deprived, he remained on duty- as he was directed- practically around the clock from January 6th through the 9th. On the evening of the 9th, he took his life at our home.”

Jeffrey Smith, a D.C. police officer, committed suicide about a week after: 

After visiting a police clinic on Jan. 14 and being ordered back to work, Smith shot himself on the way to work, the Post reported.

He allegedly experienced an injury to his head when his helmet was struck by a pole someone had thrown. So it's not beyond bounds for Dr. Reich to suggest that if indeed he was hit in the head that this death is attributable to the riot.

Kyle DeFreytag, another D.C. police officer, wasn't even at the riot:

In July, six months after the riot at the Capitol, two Metropolitan Police Department officers who responded to the Capitol on Jan. 6 committed suicide.

According to People magazine, Kyle DeFreytag, 26, was not involved with the clashes with rioters during the breach of the Capitol, but was deployed to the Capitol to help enforce the curfew put in place after the mob had been cleared from the building.

The other man, D.C. police officer Gunther Hashida, who was present to secure theCapitol, had pre-existing mental problems. 

Tying suicides to a particular event like January 6 is a political move, not a statistical one.)

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said subsequently. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” (Pence doesn't like Trump and has no reason to not speak badly of him.)

But Trump has not been held accountable. (For what?)

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection. In February 2021, after he had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction but fell short of the required two-thirds majority, resulting in his acquittal. (Thus Trump has been held accountable and was acquitted.)

Senate Republicans then blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, leaving the House to organize its own select committee.

After an 18-month investigation including more than 1,000 witnesses and nine televised public hearings, the House’s select committee identified Trump as the “central cause” of the Capitol attack by the pro-Trump mob. 

The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, (Seven Democrats? Ohhhh. Interesting. An undoubtedly unbiased group with no agenda.)

voted unanimously to recommend charges to the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Following a special counsel investigation by the Justice Department, Trump was indicted on four charges in August 2023.

But after Trump’s reelection to the presidency, all charges were dismissed.

Of the 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the riot, 1,010 pled guilty, and 1,060 have been sentenced. (Plead guilty or have the book thrown at you. An understandable choice to plead.

Here's a list of the largely petty crimes people were imprisoned for. The bottom line is, they were made examples of.)

Enrique Tarrio, then the chairman of the Proud Boys, received the longest sentence, a 22-year prison term. (Tarrio wasn't even present on January 6.)

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Trump and his lackeys in the Republican Party have since promoted a revisionist history of the event — downplaying the severity of the violence, spreading conspiracy theories, and portraying those charged with crimes as hostages and martyrs.

Trump has tried to recast the violent events as a “day of love.” (Again, context is a bitch:

"But that was a day of love," Trump said at the Univision town hall. "From the standpoint of the millions, it's like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I've ever spoken to before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke, and I used the term 'peacefully and patriotically.'" 

Trump was referring to all the people who came out to support him, not the events of January 6th.)

He has promised that in the first day of his new administration he would consider pardons for those who have been prosecuted for their roles on January 6. (Ecellent.)

On December 8, 2024, in his first broadcast news interview since the 2024 election, Trump said members of the House committee that investigated the riot “should go to jail.” (Excellent. Their political witch-hunt is and was an embarrassment.)

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That Donald J. Trump — the same person who instigated a coup four years ago tomorrow, (Didn't happen.)

when Congress last gathered to certify an election — will become president on January 20 is an assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our democracy. (What laws did Trump break and get convicted of that would make him ineligible? Name one, sir.)

We must never forget. January 6, 2021, should live in infamy, as should Trump.