2020/01/06 - Another Day of Infamy in America's History

2021/01/06 Wednesday

Today was one of the darkest hours in America’s history. in the War of 1812, the U.S. Capitol was attacked and overrun by the British. Today, for the second time, the U.S. Congress was stormed by “thugs and mobs” in the words of Mike Pence, the VP, and Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, a Republican.

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) denounced Trump for the riots and violence at the U.S. Capitol, “Today, the United States Capitol — the world’s greatest symbol of self-government — was ransacked while the leader of the free world cowered behind his keyboard — tweeting against his Vice President for fulfilling the duties of his oath to the Constitution… Lies have consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division."

On the Objection to the AZ electoral votes, the Senate rejected by 93 to 6. It meant 6 GOP senators changed their mind. One by one, the majority of GOP Senators finally stood up against Trump’s baseless claim of voter fraud and stolen election. Just too bad that these GOP politicians found their courage way much too late.

GOP Senator Romney said to people like Ted Cruz and John Hawley, “We gather today due to a selfish man's injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning… What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States." He warned that "those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. They will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history. That will be their legacy… the best way to show respect to voters, it is by telling the truth… Biden won the election, Trump lost."

And former President George W. Bush, the last living Republican president, derided the rioters in a pointed statement on Wednesday, calling the scene "sickening and heartbreaking" and lamenting "the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election."

Bret Stephens, a lifelong conservative, wrote in his column today that the Congress should immediately impeach and convict Trump to remove him from the office immediately because "To allow Trump to serve out his term, however brief it may be, puts the nation’s safety at risk, leaves our reputation as a democracy in tatters and evades the inescapable truth that the assault on Congress was an act of violent sedition aided and abetted by a lawless, immoral and terrifying president."

"From the moment Trump became the G.O.P. front-runner in 2015, it was obvious who he was and where, if given the chance, he would take America. He was a malignant narcissist in his person. A fraudster in his businesses. A bully in his relationships. And a demagogue in his politics."

"He did not have ideas. He had bigotries. He did not have a coalition. He had crowds. He did not have character. He had a quality of confident shamelessness, the kind that offered his followers permission to be shameless, too."

"All this was obvious — but was not enough to stop him. America in 2015 had many problems, many of which had gone too long ignored and were ripe for populist exploitation. But by far the biggest problem of that year was that a major political party capitulated to a thug. And the biggest problem of every subsequent year has been that more and more of that party has excused, ignored, forgiven, colluded in and celebrated his thuggery."

"For five years, Republicans let him degrade political culture by normalizing his behavior. For five years, they let him wage war on democratic norms and institutions. For five years, they treated his nonstop mendacity as a quirk of character, not a disqualification for office. For five years, they treated his rallies as carnivals of democracy, not as training grounds for mob rule."

Indeed, Today, Jan. 6, 2021, will go down into America’s history as another Day of Infamy… as a result of Trump’s endless attack on truth, science, decency, democracy and the Constitution since 2015, and as a result of many GOP elected politicians who have enabled Trump…looked the other way when Trump committed countless lawless and corrupt acts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/impeach-trump.html