(4 minute read)
Beginning at the end
The title “187” refers to the number of minutes from the time that Trump finished his speech at the Ellipse until the time when he finally told his MAGA Head insurrectionists that stormed the Capitol in an attempted coup to go home.
The biggest threat to our republic is the weaponized ignorance that culminated with the attack on our Capitol. That unbridled ignorance continues unabated. Ignorance seeking the counsel of ignorance.
You can access the Select Committee To Investigate The January 6th Attack On The United States Capitol Supporting Materials Collection here. All the material from the 117th Congress has been archived so previous links from when that congress was in session no longer work.
This post will be a little repetitious because it includes what a lot of people already know to be the truth. I’m reading through the January 6 Committee Final Report as well as transcripts of testimony provided by witnesses and perpetrators. Perpetrators like Michael Flynn and Alex Jones for example are easy reads. They, like 30 plus other witnesses called before the committee, just pled the 5th Amendment to all the relevant questions that they were asked.[i] Who does that? Well, according to Trump innocent people don’t plead the 5th Amendment like he did.[ii]
“If you’re innocent why are you taking the 5th Amendment?” Donald J. Trump[iii]
Lantern carriers
The January 6 Committee worked their way back from the attack on the Capitol in order to ascertain the entire truth of what led to the insurrection. They did a good job. The evidence that they gather is compelling and convincing.
The majority of testimony that they received was provided by Republicans that were working in key positions in the White House. I make a difference between Republicans and those that I consider to be Republican fascists.
Now, I am going to provide links as we go along here but it’s possible that the documents that I am linking to will be removed when the Republican Fascists eventually take control of the House. The truth triggers them. The truth is an impediment to them attaining their objectives. For them “draining the swamp” means overthrowing our republic. It’s why they bash our government so much. They seek to irreparably break it, tear it apart and make it non-functional. They want to replace it with their brand of the authoritarianism of fascism.
Republican Fascists try to minimize the events that took place and the amount of time that it took for Trump to respond to calling off HIS MAGA HEADS. But, Republican Fascists did attempt a coup and for the first time in our nation’s history there was not a peaceful transfer of power, due to one man—
Donald J. Trump.
From the final report:
“To fully understand the President’s behavior during those hours—now commonly known as the “187 minutes”—it is important to understand the context in which it occurred. As outlined in this report, by the afternoon of January 6th, virtually all of President Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election had failed. Virtually all the lawsuits had already been lost. Vice President Mike Pence had refused Trump’s pressure to stop the count of certain electoral votes. State officials and legislators had refused to reverse the election outcomes in every State where Trump and his team applied pressure. The Justice Department’s investigations of alleged election fraud had all contradicted Trump’s allegations.”
January 6, a day also celebrated in the Christian faith, did not happen spontaneously. It was planned and orchestrated. A lot of moving parts were coordinated. A couple of different breaks and the coup attempt could have gone the other way. But it didn’t. Much to the disappointment of millions of people that call themselves American patriots without understanding all that the obligation that title brings.
What has occurred to me several times as the country has been going through this entire ordeal is that there were and are people that were with the President every step of the way that had full knowledge of what was taking place of what he was planning.
There was staff from the Trump Administration that was upset with the insurrection but for different reasons. Here is what Trump’s Communications Director Hope Hicks said in a text message to Ivanka Trump's chief of staff Julie Radford:[iv]
"In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn't include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter," Ms Hicks said in her text message to Ms Radford on the day of the riot.
"Yup," Ms Radford replied.
In other messages, the former Trump aide said, "And all of us that didn't have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I'm so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now," she wrote.
"Oh yes I've been crying for an hour," Ms Radford responded.[v]
Evidently there were people working for Trump that thought being a part of an administration that attempted a coup to overthrow our government would have a dampening effect on their job prospects.
Sadly, we’re seeing otherwise.
[i] https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/a-list-of-all-the-jan-6-committee-witnesses-who-pleaded-the-fifth
[ii] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-deposed-ny-ag-civil-probe-business-practices-rcna42355
[iii] Trump on the 5th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpfDwx7tiLY
[iv] https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/we-look-like-domestic-terrorists-capitol-riot-panel-reveals-ex-trump-aides-text-messages-3660220