A Perfect President

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”   Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution 

On January 6th, Trump addressed a gathered crowd of “Stop the Steal” Trump supporters on the 52-acre park (referred by the road within, the Ellipse), south of the White House (on the other side of the Mall from the Capitol).  His talk immediately followed some rather inflammatory remarks from his son and personal attorney, which had already worked up the angry crowd. “We’re coming for you!” declared Don, Jr. referencing Republicans unwilling to reject Joe Biden’s ascendancy to the presidency in an angry speech so filled with expletives that Fox News cut it off. Attorney Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat.” Trump said nothing to moderate these two speeches. 

Instead, in his own angry ramble, Trump followed up on those earlier exhortations with: “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore…  “We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about.”

Then Trump added: “We’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you… We are going to the Capitol. … We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” But Trump did not join the crowd as the moved toward the Capitol, where some chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Instead, his motorcade removed him to the White House, from which he watched the unfolding insurrection on television. The Capitol was violently invaded for the first time since 1814.

Pressed by staff and GOP Senators and Representatives to send a clear message to get the rabble out of the Capitol, as Congress people and their staff cowered under seats and desks as violence surrounded them, Trump finally partially and half-heartedly asked those marauders to “go home,” but he also sent his “love” to those “special people.” As he pledged the next day to an “orderly transition,” he iterated that he would continue to “fight” to support his “landslide victory” at the polls. Telling his followers, wink-wink, that he would not attend the inauguration.

As every neutral poll conducted has shown, the majority of the American people hold Trump personally responsible for the insurrection melee at the Capitol. Yet, those seeking to exonerate Trump, particularly presenters on the newly launched One America Network who could not stop touting the President’s many “achievements” as they declared his innocence, found nothing in his speech capable of being viewed as inciting the violent insurrection that ensued on January 6th, carefully avoiding discussing of the less-than-subtle exhortations to escalate to violence (hard to view Rudy’s and Don, Jr.’s remarks which really did work up the crowd) that preceded the President’s speech… and which he clearly heard and did not negate. But the “Emperor of Blame” made it clear that it was the media and the Democrats that were trying to pin the blame on him, but that he was completely not responsible for the violence in any way. 

“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 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 and various other places, that was a real problem, what they said. But they’ve analyzed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence and everybody to the T thought it was totally appropriate.” Yup, everyone except a majority of the American people, a whole lot of Republicans and obviously the House Democrats drawing up the impeachment papers, even knowing that getting a Senate conviction was unlikely.

While addressing the pressing issues of the nation, President-elect Biden would do well to allow the Department of Justice and the Congress deal with these seeming felonies committed by the President to hold power, including his intimidating call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to fabricate the vote tally in Trump’s favor. Everyone responsible for the January 6th debacle, without exception and including members of Congress who encouraged the mob, must be held responsible. Biden can just focus on everything else. For those contemplating additional violence in the coming days – in Washington and in state capitols around the country – let them know that they too will be punished and resisted.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless there is a powerful and unambiguous response to this violent radical right-wing conspiracy theory rabble, the situation might just get a whole lot worse.