Before I begin, I want to reiterate how profound the events of Jan. 6th, 2021 at the Capitol building portray the United States to the rest of the world, i.e. what a “Constitutional Republic/Democracy” looks like today. Those disturbing events at/inside the Capitol also show after one week how grossly insufficient our legal response to those terrorist attackers has been.

The necessary precedent is NOT being cemented and as a consequence tells our enemies and doubters, both foreign and domestic, that violent insurrection (ala Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, or El Salvador) is apparently okay when it occurs again in the future at any of our national landmarks of Constitutional democracy, to be assaulted and defaced. It also tells current or future American enemies that if you do not like our way of life, liberty, freedom, governing, and free democratic elections of a Republic’s officials and supporting institutions by its citizens, then one can merely and violently break into any of our sacred buildings and wreak total havoc and murder its defendants! It’s all now an approved method of “American” protest/insurrection identical to Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, or El Salvador. Yes, those are the dark, repugnant depths we (Conservative) Americans have reached. From here forward, brutality against our legal democratic process is condoned for posterity by our Republican officials and Senate majority; or as our POTUS put it, to “show [brute] strength.”

That is the political landscape in which America has put herself over the past four years, arguably more. As you read further, remember one important fact: one man, one office could have immediately stopped the Jan. 6 terrorist attack by making one phone call… instead of watching the horrific events on TV inside the White House and calling panicked Senators inside the Congress to break their vows to the Constitution.

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On Jan. 6th, where was the on-call reinforcements of law-enforcement, or SWAT, or National Guard for the Capitol building and its Congressmen and women? That is one of the critical investigative questions of that Wednesday’s reprehensible events. For all law-abiding Americans the answers are near impossible to stomach. Let’s examine the timeline of that Wednesday as reported by Steven Harper of BillMoyers.com.

It is critically important by Harper to first note that in his report: “The Department of Defense’s January 8, 2021 initial press release purports to “memorialize the planning and execution timeline” of the deadly insurrection that it calls the “January 6, 2021 First Amendment Protests in Washington, DC.” He goes on to say:

[Late in the afternoon of January 11, 2021, the Defense Department changed the title of its January 8 memorandum and reissued it “to more appropriately reflect the characterization of the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.” The retitled summary is the “January 6, 2021 Violent Attack at the U.S. Capitol.“]

The memo’s minute-by-minute account creates a false illusion of transparency. In truth, its most noteworthy aspects are the omission of Trump’s central role in the insurrection and the effort to shift blame away from Trump and his new Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

Who is Christopher Miller?

By November 9, every news organization declared that former Vice-President Joe Biden had won the election. On that day, Trump fired Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and replaced him with Miller, an Army retiree who worked for a defense contractor until Trump tapped him as his assistant in 2018. Miller’s promotion began a departmental regime change that embedded three fierce Trump loyalists as top Defense Department officials: Kash Patel (former aid to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)), retired Army Gen. Anthony Tata (pro-Trump FOX News pundit), and Ezra Cohen-Watnick (former assistant to Trump’s first national security advisor, Mike Flynn.)

At such a late date in Trump’s presidency, many asked, why the shake-up at the Department of Defense? We may be learning the answer.

Steven Harper, “Insurrection Timeline: First the Coup and Then the Cover-Up” – accessed Jan. 13, 2021, BillMoyers.com

The Contextual Backdrop

• Dec. 19, 2020: Trump tweets: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
• Jan. 3, 2021: Replying to a tweet from one of the rally organizers, Trump tweets: “I will be there. Historic day.”
• Jan. 4: The National Park Service increases the crowd estimate on the January 6 rally permit to 30,000 – up from the original 5,000 in December.
• *Jan. 5: Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) receives a call from White House Political Director Brian Jack asking him to speak at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6. Brooks agrees.

Now for the day of Jan. 6, 2021

• 8:17 a.m.: Trump tweets: “States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
• Noon: Trump begins to address the mob and continues speaking for more than 90 minutes.
  • “We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
  • “We won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election.”
  • “I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people.”
• 1:00 p.m.: While Trump continues his rant to the mob, some members of Trump’s crowd have already reached the US Capitol building where Congress assembles in joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. An initial wave of protesters storms the outer barricade west of the Capitol building. As the congressional proceedings begin, Pence reads a letter saying that he won’t intervene in Congress’s electoral count: “My oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority.”
• 1:10 p.m.: Trump ends his speech by urging his followers to march down Pennsylvania Avenue. “We’re going to the Capitol. We’re going to try and give them [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country…  If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

The Attack Begins

If the District of Columbia were a state, its governor alone could have deployed the National Guard to crush the riot. Instead, Trump and his Defense Department had that responsibility, and an unprecedented assault on a sacred institution of government succeeded, if only for a few hours.

• (DoD Memo) 1:26 p.m.: The Capitol Police orders the evacuation of the Capitol complex.
• 1:30 p.m.: The crowd outside the building grows larger, eventually overtaking the Capitol Police and making its way up the Capitol steps. Suspicious packages – later confirmed to be pipe bombs – are found at Republican National Committee headquarters and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington.
• (DoD Memo) 1:34 p.m.: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asks Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy – who reports to Miller – for more federal help to deal with the mob.
• *Also at 1:49 p.m.: Trump retweets a video of the rally, which includes his previous statements that: “our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you came up with, we will stop the steal. . . You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
• *Shortly after 2:00 p.m.: While the senators are in a temporary holding room after the Senate chamber is evacuated, Trump tries to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), but mistakenly reaches Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who hands the phone to Tuberville. Trump then tries to convince Tuberville to make additional objections to the Electoral College vote in an effort to block Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. The call is cut off because senators are asked to move to a secure location.
• 2:15 p.m.: Trump’s mob breaches the Capitol building – breaking windows, climbing inside, and opening doors for others to follow.
• (DoD Memo) 2:22 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy discusses the situation at the Capitol with Mayor Bowser and her staff.
• They are begging for additional National Guard assistance. Note the time. It’s been almost an hour since Bowser requested help.
• 2:24 p.m.: Trump tweets: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”

After erecting a gallows on the Capitol grounds, the mob shouts, “Hang Mike Pence.” Rioters create another noose from a camera cord seized during an attack on an on-site news team. Remember, one man, one office could have immediately stopped the Jan. 6 terrorist attack by making one phone call.

• 2:26 p.m.: Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund joins a conference call with several officials from the DC government, as well as officials from the Pentagon, including Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff. Piatt later issues a statement denying the statements attributed to him.

“I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance,” Sund says. “I have got to get boots on the ground.”

The DC contingent is flabbergasted when Piatt says that he could not recommend that his boss, Army Secretary McCarthy, approve the request. “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background,” Piatt says. Again and again, Sund says that the situation is dire.

• (Memo) 2:30 p.m.: Miller, Army Secretary McCarthy, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff meet to discuss Mayor Bowser’s request.
• (Memo) 3:04 p.m.: Miller gives “verbal approval” to full mobilization of the DC National Guard (1,100 members).

It has now been more than 90 minutes since Mayor Bowser first asked Army Secretary McCarthy for assistance. It took an hour for Defense Department officials to meet and another half-hour for them to decide to help. And Bowser still doesn’t know the status of her request.

• (Memo) 3:19 p.m.: Pelosi and Schumer call Army Secretary McCarthy, who says that Bowser’s request has now been approved.
• (Memo) 3:26 p.m.: Army Secretary McCarthy calls Bowser to tell her that her request for help has been approved.

The Defense Department’s notification of approval to Bowser came two hours after her request.

While Miller and his team were slow-walking Mayor Bowser’s request, she had sought National Guard assistance from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R). At about the same time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called Northam directly for help and he agreed.

• 3:29 p.m.: Gov. Northam announces mobilization of Virginia’s National Guard. But there’s a hitch. Federal law requires Defense Department authorization before any state’s National Guard can cross the state border onto federal land in DC. That approval doesn’t come until almost two hours later.
• (Memo) 3:47 p.m. Governor Hogan mobilizes his state’s National Guard and 200 state troopers.

The Defense Department “repeatedly denies” Hogan’s request to deploy the National Guard at the Capitol. As he awaits approval, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) calls Hogan from the undisclosed bunker to which he, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have been evacuated. Hoyer pleads for assistance, saying that the Capitol Police is overwhelmed and there is no federal law enforcement presence.

• 4:17 p.m.: Trump tweets a video telling rioters, “I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side… It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us — from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.”
• (Memo) 4:18 p.m.: Miller gives voice approval to notifying surrounding states to muster and be prepared to mobilize their National Guard personnel.
• (Memo) 4:32 p.m.: Miller gives verbal authorization to “re-mission” DC National Guard from city posts where most have been directing traffic and monitoring subway stations “to conduct perimeter and clearance operations” in support of the Capitol Police force.
• 4:40 p.m.: More than 90 minutes after Governor Hogan had requested federal approval to send his state’s National Guard troops to DC, Army Secretary McCarthy calls and asks, “Can you come as soon as possible?” Hogan responds, “Yeah. We’ve been waiting. We’re ready.”
• 5:40 p.m.: The first DC National Guard personnel arrive at the Capitol.
• (Memo) 5:45 p.m.: Miller signs formal authorization for out-of-state National Guard personnel to muster and gives voice approval for deployment to support the Capitol Police.

The first Maryland National Guard personnel don’t arrive at the Capitol until January 7 at 10:00 a.m. The first Virginia National Guard members arrive at Noon.

• 6:01 p.m.: Trump tweets: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
• *7:00 p.m.: Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, intends to call Sen. Tuberville but, like Trump five hours earlier, he reaches Sen. Lee. Unaware that he has reached the wrong number, Giuliani leaves a voicemail message saying, “Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the President’s lawyer. I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow.”

When Congress resumes the session at 8:06 p.m., Tuberville votes in favor of objections to certifying Biden’s election.

• (Memo) 8:00 p.m.: The DC Capitol Police declare the Capitol building secure.

The Aftermath of the Attack

Remember, one man, one office could have immediately stopped the Jan. 6 terrorist attack by making one phone call. The President never considered at any time that afternoon to make that call to stop the violence at the Capitol, only to keep pushing Sen. Tuberville and Rudy Giuliani to bulldoze his personal egotistical agenda. Read this paragraph again!

8:31 p.m.: After widespread media reports that Pence, not Trump, had actually given the order to deploy the National Guard, Kash Patel—Miller’s chief of staff and former top aide to Rep. Nunes—tells the New York Times, “The acting secretary and the president have spoken multiple times this week about the request for National Guard personnel in D.C. During these conversations, the president conveyed to the acting secretary that he should take any necessary steps to support civilian law enforcement requests in securing the Capitol and federal buildings.” But according to the Defense Department’s January 8 memo, the only such conversation with Trump occurred on January 3.

• Jan. 7: Trump releases a video in which he lies, saying, “I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.” Defense Department officials confirm that they did not speak to Trump on January 6.
• Jan. 8: Trump tweets: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
• Shortly thereafter, he tweets again: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
• Jan. 9: Twitter issues a statement saying that it has banned Trump because his “statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate… and encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a ‘safe’ target, as he will not be attending.”

Twitter’s statement continues, “The use of the words ‘American Patriots’ to describe some of his supporters is also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol. The mention of his supporters having a ‘GIANT VOICE long into the future’ and that ‘They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!’ is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an ‘orderly transition’ and instead that he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election.”

The statement concludes: “Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021.”

• *Jan. 12: Preparing to board Marine One for Andrews Air Force Base en route to a speech in Alamo, Texas, Trump says, “And on the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s absolutely ridiculous. This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and you’re doing it, and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing.  For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country and it’s causing tremendous anger.”
• *Also on Jan. 12: As he prepares to board Air Force One, Trump says, “So if you read my speech — and many people have done it, and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television — it’s been analyzed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate. And if you look at what other people have said — politicians at a high level — about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle, in various other — other places, that was a real problem — what they said. But they’ve analyzed my speech and words and my final paragraph, my final sentence, and everybody, to the T, thought it was totally appropriate.”
• *Also on Jan. 12: Speaking to his Texas audience, Trump says, “Before we begin, I’d like to say that free speech is under assault like never before. [But the legal reality is actually that privately owned social-media corporations like Twitter have every right to censor and/or ban whomever they deem inappropriate, criminal, or as criminal accessory. “Blocked free speech” applies only to a censoring government, not private entities] …The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes: Be careful what you wish for.  The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country, and it is causing tremendous anger and division and pain — far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.”
• *Also on Jan. 12: The House Judiciary Committee issues a 76-page report of the events before, during and after the January 6 riot that culminated in the deaths of five Americans, including a US Capitol Police officer. It concludes, “President Trump has falsely asserted he won the 2020 presidential election and repeatedly sought to overturn the results of the election. As his efforts failed again and again, President Trump continued a parallel course of conduct that foreseeably resulted in the imminent lawless actions of his supporters, who attacked the Capitol and the Congress. This course of conduct, viewed within the context of his past actions and other attempts to subvert the presidential election, demonstrate that President Trump remains a clear and present danger to the Constitution and our democracy.”
• *Jan. 13: As the article of impeachment and House Report head to the House floor for a vote, CNN reports that members of Congress, under pressure from Trump, are “scared” and “fear for their lives and their families.” Appearing on MSNBC, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) says, “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues. … A couple of them broke down in tears … saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment.”

Motives, planning, outrageous words, and combative actions were publicly disclosed by this Administration and its radical supporters well before November’s election results as Rolling Stone reports going back to 2017. Nonetheless, from Aug. 20th to Oct. 26th, 2020 Trump retweeted QAnon propaganda and conspiracy theories at least 216-times according to Media Matters. By day’s end Jan. 2nd Trump escalated deranged lies even more with his 1-hour phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” that is, make-believe votes. Is not election fraud or voter fraud a felony offense punishable by a year or more in prison, in most 50-states? That is a rhetorical question.

Remember, one man, one office could have immediately stopped the Jan. 6 terrorist attack by making one phone call. The President never considered the safety of other Americans inside the Capitol, much less the overrun Capitol Police Officers. Read this paragraph again please.

Given the non-stop, deranged escalation of lies and misinformation by this President during the following November and December, ‘the writing was clearly on the wall‘ what was about to happen well before the attack Jan. 6th. So WHERE were the additional reinforcements for the safety of the Congressmen and women, the Capitol, and inadequate Capitol Police Officers?

Calls and pleas for additional reinforcements were ignored, overlooked as unnecessary, even unavailable, tied up, and/or delayed… not only in bureaucratic red-tape, but also held hostage up by key Trump loyalists and the President himself. Please tell me, does anyone else see this as a crucial component leading up to and during the attack January 6? Is that not an obviously impeachable crime when the President had a pretty good idea Jan. 5 and 6 what was going to happen at the Capitol that Wednesday?

As the ongoing federal and D.C. investigations continue—already over 30 arrests made and many more to come, including murder investigations—all indications are showing that high level authorities, not excluding the POTUS, were apparently not concerned, were intentionally complicit as to what was transpiring at and inside the Capitol and its two Chambers. This damning evidence of high level disregard and to the highest executive level in the country, the White House, are surfacing by the day. Many of the rioters and terrorists explicitly state on their own social-media videos that “We were invited here. We were invited [to the Capitol] by the President of the United States.“ In the coming days and weeks I am quite confident that because most all of these idiotic terrorists delusionally believed they were “Patriots” and freely broadcasting and posting their criminal behavior and indecency, will add much more condemning evidence collected and subsequent, appropriate prosecutions will be dealt to all guilty terrorists.

I hope this happens exhaustively. Why? Because the alternative long-term consequences for the safety and future of our TRUE Constitutional democracy depends on it for our next 2-4 generations. The House of Representatives impeached this psychotic President in an unprecedented bipartisan vote. Let’s also hope over the next several days, weeks, and months that specific Republicans in the Senate do what must be done to never again allow this delusional, narcissistic deranged man to ever hold office again! Doing that will cement their own American political historical legacy on the correct moral-ethical principles, they swore an oath to uphold, and our Constitution has required from all sitting Congressmen and women for 245-years. Do not believe for one second that by impeaching this fake President “it will only divide this country further.” No, no, NO!!!

Our country has already been deeply divided the last four years! This was already the condition of America well BEFORE this 2nd impeachment. This was exacerbated these last 2-months by the same mentally-unstable man you Republican Trumpanzees constantly enabled for the past two months, on top of these last four years. The overwhelming evidence today is undeniable. It cannot be denied any further in any circus-like Republican diversion. Just STOP you misguided Trump-Republican robots, minions, and enablers. Enough, enough, enough already! The world implores you to come back to reality! By not doing what you must do—you frightened, delusional Republicans—will only prolong this madness and clinical schizophrenic insanity from the White House. Mark my words right now my readers, January 15, 2021: if Trump is not impeached, this nation will suffer in the near future an untold amount of hate, division, delusional lies, and federal-global impotence. Guaranteed.

And remember, one man, one office could’ve immediately stopped the Jan. 6 terrorist attack by making one phone call. The President, nor his own hastily, newly appointed Secretary of Defense (Miller) saw/thought no reason to release police and military reinforcements to the Capitol—yet there were already at least four deaths.

Over the next several days and weeks may cooler, stoic, more intelligent, much more principled, morally ethical heads prevail in this badly fractured hate-filled nation. 😔 Please stay safe everyone from the new variants of COVID-19 and get your vaccinations against them as soon as possible!

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Additional reading — If you would like further historical background and contextual components over the last 3-4 decades leading up to how hateful, how polarized the United States has now become toward itself, then I strongly recommend these two exceptional and acclaimed books by scholars of American government/history and award-winning investigative journalism:

“The Architect of the Radical Right” — an outstanding review of Dr. Nancy MacLean’s book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. ASIN: B01EH1EL7A.

“Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” — In her book, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump’s victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system and more oligarchical political system versus our originally designed Constitutional democracy of full equality for all, not just the wealthiest few.

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