Trump’s 187 Minutes
As I have noted before: he betrayed his oath.
William Saletan, writing for the Bulwark provides an annotated timeline of Donald Trump’s Infamous 187 Minutes. I have written about this before and will note again that Trump, who was President of the United States at the time. He was, therefore, the highest elected official and the pinnacle of the federal law enforcement structure. And he did nothing about lawlessness a few blocks from his locale. So, at the barest of minimums, his lack of action was a violation of his oath to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed. No discussion of motives is necessary to point out this basic fact and even the most ardent defenders have to do some serious mental gymnastics (if not resort to outright lies) to defend the inaction.
I would argue that his inaction alone should disqualify him for the presidency, as he demonstrated dereliction of duty.
But, of course, as Saletan notes, there is plenty of evidence of not just mere inaction and ignoring duty, but instead of active support for the actions of the mob that day.
As Saletan concludes:
In sum, the report demonstrates that Trump condoned violence, encouraged it, and sought to exploit it. He repeatedly sided with the mob against the people—not to mention the democratic process—it was attacking. It took him more than an hour to agree, grudgingly, to call for peace. It then took him another hour and a half to agree, again grudgingly, to ask the mob to go home.
May I also note, that when he did tell the mob to go home he expressed understanding concerning their behavior and expressed “love” for them. He clearly condoned what they did.
At any rate, I bring all of this up because Saletan does a good job of providing a thorough timeline and also because I think his behavior in those 187 minutes is the best place to try and persuade the persuadable on the topic of Trump’s culpability and guilt (granted, it may well be that those who can be persuaded already have been).
I would also say that the timeline is an indictment of McCarthy’s craven power-grab and damns any Republican who refuses to shake off fealty to Trump (now and in the future).
More on Trump’s rhetoric and lack of action in another post of mine from January of 2021: Trump Deserves to be Impeached, Plain and Simple.
Saletan doesn’t seem to mention the bit about wanting to go to the Capitol. I’ve seen nothing about what he planned to do if he got there. I feel like he had a mental picture of himself striding into the House chamber like MacArthur landing in the Philippines, but carrying a flag. But being him, who knows if he even had that much of a plan. (Having no plan, or silly plans, seems to be his best legal defense.)
@gVOR08:
Yes, it’s interesting to speculate on what his plans might have been once he arrived at the Capitol. I imagine he would have treated it at first as one of his rallies, then slithered off stage once he’d whipped the mob into a real frenzy.
What was the plan behind sending mobs to the Capitol? And if Benito wanted to go, why didn’t he arrange it with the Secret Service beforehand?
One thing that got mentioned often here at OTB over the dark years of the Cheeto era, was that Benito’s incompetence was the only restraint on his damaging actions.
January 6 wasn’t an idiot’s coup attempt, it was an incompetent idiot’s attempt.
@Kathy:
Navarro’s narrative is holding up. Per his statement the plan was to have a mob outside yelling in the hope it would influence the Rs they imagined to be straddling the fence on the issue. The problem was the mob got out of hand and when they invaded it pushed nearly all of those Rs to the wrong side of that fence.
It’s likely Trump’s inaction was a combo of not anticipating that happening, not knowing what to do, followed by a pondering of the what-ifs of a successful coup by the mob. Fortunately, he is merely a con man, not a Stalin.
@dazedandconfused:
Hm. Did they even yell before breaking into the Capitol? And how were they going to get the people inside to even notice?
Yeltsin shelled the Duma. That was a terrible time, but I guarantee he got their attention.
To add to the obvious:
Here is Claire McCaskill talking about the timeline and how Trump was informed of a civilian being shot at the capital… and doing nothing. Allowing it to continue.
https://twitter.com/leslsenior/status/1607849520012079104?t=XIn9eXiz9sumV8OuRSNzig&s=19
Good video.
Here’s the thing: as the conspiracy theories go through their rotation, we inevitably get the claim that the riot was actually Antifa. It’s not true. But if it were … wouldn’t that make Trump’s failure to act worse not better?
@Hal_10000: Do not seek intellectual consistency from cultists. They will twist their thoughts into whatever pretzel shapes are necessary to maintain their devotion to Trump.
@Hal_10000:
Doubleplusungood.
If it was Antifa and Benito did nothing, then he was aiding and abetting his own enemies. I don’t mean he didn’t call them off or even try to, but he did not convene any relevant officials nor offered to help the local and federal authorities on the scene (BTW, the article linked fails to mention this as well).
@Mikey:
They have long practice in quadruplethink.
@gVOR08: @CSK: He was never going to the Capital. It was performative, all hat, no cattle. The idea that trump might actually go somewhere where he might be in danger???
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHA…
That’ll be the day.
@dazedandconfused: The ‘mob got out of hand’ narrative does poorly after the OathKeepers verdict.
And ‘all those Rs’ still left (carbon based memory here) 180-some who voted no.
@One American:
@Liberal Capitalist:
I’m quite sure bots know as much about their algorithms as ants know about their DNA.
@Kathy: Even if it is a bot, I still don’t know what the point of posting that comment here was.
I believe that Trump wanted to participate.
If he had been able to get 5-10 thousand troops to accompany and ‘protect’ him as he addressed the mob, and march up to the Capitol Steps with the mob … the outcome would have been a fear and loathing intimidation fest in the chambersc for the Electoral College vote.
It was historically bad, it could have been far worse.
With Trump it can always be worse.
@Kathy:
Oh yes they yelled. That crowd was downright rowdy. I don’t see enough in common between Jan 6 and what happened at the Kremlin for that to be relevant.
@JohnMc:
No, it holds up fine. The trials show the OK was a small minority of that crowd. Only a small percentage of it was convicted of advance planning of the B&E. Most were just deluded FOX/Q idiots.