On January 6th, 2021, President Donald J. Trump intentionally incited and deliberately delayed quelling an insurrectionary riot against the United States of America
NOTE — This is my honest attempt to recount the events of today as I watched them unfurl largely through Twitter, PBS, and other sources from Chicago, Illinois. This obviously an ongoing episode and it is nearly impossible that I am completely correct in my entire summary. I normally cite these essays with hyperlinked sources, but this is my best effort under the circumstances.
Donald Trump intentionally stokes hatred with lies and orders a march on the United States Capitol
Prior, during, and after the 2020 election, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged. Despite those claims being repeatedly tested in courts of law and demonstrated to be baseless conspiracy theories or outright lies, the President continued to encourage the American people to reject the results of the election. He continues to do so to this day. Presumably he will tomorrow as well.
Since losing the election, the President has routinely urged the Vice President and Senators to violate the Constitution by straying from their largely ceremonial counting role and, instead, rejecting some, but not all, of the Electoral College’s state certified votes. The President was so committed to this ploy that (a) his own Vice President had to make a statement that it was not constitutional and (b) his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, recently attempted to leave a voicemail for newly sworn-in Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville urging him to delay the count so he could get state legislatures to pull their votes. Mr. Giuliani’s efforts were foiled by his own incompetence as he accidentally left the voicemail on the machine of another Senator who turned it over to the press.
Having queued up his desired outcome, the President repeatedly promoted attendance at a #MarchForTrump rally on January 6, 2021 rally in Washington D.C. where he promised to speak.[1][2][3][4] The rally had been heavily promoted on social media by a variety of groups serving numerous purposes both lawful and unlawful. However, it was specifically characterized by the President as a march against the counting of the Electoral College’s votes as well as, and this is not a complete list, (a) invisible actors with the government; (b) the Chinese Communist Party; and (c) internal enemies of the Republic.
Making good on his word, after several speakers before him, on January 6, 2021 at approximately 12:00 PM CST, President Trump addressed the assembled crowd. He said, inter alia, the following:
“We beat them four years ago. We surprised them. We took them by surprise and this year, they rigged an election. They rigged it like they’ve never rigged an election before […]”
“After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong […]
[W]e’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here, this is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.”[5]
Almost immediately after, a sizable number of Trump supporters — at this point in the day estimates presently range from five hundred to a thousand — did, in fact, march down Pennsylvania Avenue as instructed.
The President’s march becomes the President’s riot
After arriving outside the United States Capitol, the marchers chanted and shouted while the Congress was in the process of counting the Electoral College’s votes inside. Several Republican members of both houses repeated the same lies as the President concerning the election’s conduct and outcome. However, the vast majority did not and were quick to regularly point out the lack of evidence for the claims made by the Trump loyalists and the demand to the republic.
At approximately 1:00 PM CST, several dozens of Trump supporters started rioting by, inter alia, (a) threatening / physically attacking law enforcement; (b) tearing down security barricades; and (c) scaling / defacing / destroying the Capitol building. After about thirty minutes of skirmishing, the Capitol police retreated, and the Trump rioters “broke through” a seemingly meaningful boundary of the Capitol’s outer stair set and barricades. There is video which appears to depict Capitol police simply opening a barricade and letting the Trumpist riots breach this boundary at some locations.
After breaching the grounds, the Trumpist rioters took quickly to breaking the building’s doors in and smashing its windows in an effort to storm the building. They acted with violence and several law enforcement officers were injured. After this breach of the Capitol’s outer barricade, hundreds and then thousands of Trump rioters joined the fray.
Once the riot moved inside the Capitol, the Trumpist (a) continued to chase and attack law enforcement officers through Congress; (b) broke into the halls of Congress as well as several congressional offices; and (c) destroyed / looted property throughout the building. Most of the Trump rioters were unmasked and a large percentage of them recorded themselves throughout. Several of the Trump rioters happily gave interviews while rioting within which they chanted the President’s lies, screamed invectives against the media, and howled that this was “their” country. Congress and their staff were forced into hiding or evacuation. One Senate staffer had the presence of mind to abscond with the physical Electoral College ballots.
The Trumpists’ riot reached a fever pitch approximately an hour later when the rioters (a) planted active pipe bombs in the Capitol at two separate locations; and (b) walked through the chambers of Congress armed, armored, and grasping zip ties made for arrests, presumably, looking to detain or capture hostages. Having already broken into the Senate chambers, attempted to break into the House chambers. Law enforcement had already barricaded the door and had weapons drawn. Undeterred, the Trump rioters continued to beat against the door trying to break it down for several minutes. Despite warnings from the armed officers, the rioters did not stop and, ultimately, an officer shot through the door into the riot killing a woman. A total of four people have died and seven were hospitalized today at the Capitol, according to D.C. police.
Donald Trump delays quelling of his riot by both (a) refusing or delaying deployment of the National Guard; and (b) failing to call off his supporters despite the means and obligation
Three days prior to the riot, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested the National Guard be deployed in anticipation and, throughout the riot described above, Capitol and District of Columbia law enforcement requested the Department of Defense send the National Guard. The Department of Defense controls the National Guard and, as part of the Executive Branch, is under the control of President Trump. While the specifics are still being investigated, some, including a journalist from the Washington Post, are claiming that the Department of Defense flat out denied the initial request for aid. The Department of Defense’s position is that they were hesitant to get the military involved in political protests — which is, in at least one way, strange because the Department of Defense had planned to deploy at least 340 troops earlier in the week. Regardless, everyone agrees the ultimate deployment — which came several hours after rioting had started — was noticeably late.
At approximately 2:30 PM CST, long after the riot had already begun, President Trump tweeted that the rioters should stay peaceful and respect the police. Shortly after he issued a brief prerecorded statement wherein, he offered sympathy for the rioters, told them he loved and they were special, repeated his lies about the election, and said “you have to go home now.” The President is reported to have been awake, alerted, and glued to television coverage of all these events. He had access to all normal channels of communications and was implored to call off the riot by hundreds including Senators and President-Elect Biden. The President is constitutionally obligated to take care that the laws of the United States — which explicitly prohibit insurrection — are faithfully executed.
While summarizing the wind-down from the foregoing is impossible as these events are literally still unfolding, what has happened since is, essentially, (a) Mayor Muriel Bowser had imposed a curfew; (b) the National Guard and other law enforcement took control of the Capitol largely by non-violently walking the Trump rioters out of the Capitol building. By approximately 5:00 PM CST the vast majority of Trump rioters had left the premises. There were reportedly only between thirteen (13) and thirty-three (33) arrests in total.
By 6:00 PM CST, some Fox News personalities had started insinuating or outright claiming that “antifa” was at fault for the riots.
Conclusion
President Trump has knowingly stoked and cultivated the rage of his followers through lies for years for several purposes. In the last six weeks, he did so by specifically and falsely claiming the election was rigged and, on that basis, urged his supporters to march on the Capitol in protest.
Earlier today, immediately after regurgitating the same lies described above, President Trump directly instructed his supporters to march on the United States Capitol specifically to make a show of strength against the normal functioning of Congress. As was completely foreseeable under the circumstances, approximately one hour after his instructions, the President’s march became the President’s riot which was explicitly directed against the United States Congress — actively in session and carrying out legislative activity the President opposed. The President, at the very least, delayed both instructing the rioters to stand down as well as the deployment of the National Guard despite the ability to do so.
On January 6th, 2021, President Donald J. Trump intentionally incited and deliberately delayed quelling an insurrectionary riot against the United States of America. He should be immediately impeached, convicted, and criminally prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 2383 (“Rebellion or insurrection”) with a sentence of ten years imprisonment and being barred from holding any office under the United States.
