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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/14/2128931/-Trump-wanted-people-to-die-so-he-could-invoke-the-Insurrection-Act-and-stay-in-powerTrump 'wanted people to die' so he could invoke the Insurrection Act and stay in power
Dartagnan
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Friday October 14, 2022 · 4:08 PM EDT
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There is a reason, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor explains, why Trump did nothing on Jan. 6 to stop the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The reason is simple: Trump gleefully watched the sordid events unfold on television while his aides panicked and pleaded with him fruitlessly to do something because he wanted people to die.
As Taylor points out, the more deaths that occurred (especially deaths to members of Congress) the better justification Trump would have for invoking the Insurrection Act, declaring martial law, and ultimately preventing the peaceful transfer of power.
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In this clip, which aired Thursday evening on MSNBC, Taylor speaks as someone who knows Trump and has spent a significant amount of time with him. He understands Trumps depraved mindset as well as anyone.
From Matthew Chapman, reporting for Raw Story:
"I believe Donald Trump wanted people to die," said Taylor. "He wanted people to die who were elected officials, en masse, so he could call out the military, so he could invoke the Insurrection Act, so he could prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That's not a conspiracy theory. In fact, in hindsight, it's pretty damn clear to me this is what he had in mind from day one in office."
The news media long ago fell into the trap of portraying Donald Trump as some sort of gruff but still amusing blowhard, boorish but mesmerizingly larger than life, essentially an entertainer spewing riveting (if raw) verbiage tailor-made for media consumption. This was the image he cultivated on The Apprentice, and its the same image that got him elected. To this day, the media regard Trump more with fascination than the horrified repugnance he actually warrants.
Its almost as if the idea that someone in such a position of power could be so utterly bereft of human decency is just too much for our media to process. Thanks in large part to this treatment he received prior to the 2016 election, nearly half the electorateand perhaps morecontinue to regard him as a type of media-savvy clown, playing to his adoring fans by saying just what he thinks, without ever questioning why what he thinks strangely aligns with their own prejudices and predispositions.
Many in this country began to realize exactly what Trump was when they took note of the things he said during his rallies, by his weird embrace of murderous dictators, and by his solicitude toward virulent racists. But what really should have been a colossal, waving red flag to the vast majority of Americans was the complete disregard of human life he exhibited during the COVID-19 pandemic. As things turned out, enough people got the message about the kind of evil we were really saddled with in Donald Trump. Hundreds of thousands of people died miserably and unnecessarily for the sole reason that theyd placed their faith in Trumps words, and the words of those whose political careers stood to profit from their allegiance to him. Even then, at no time did Trump exhibit the slightest degree of empathy or compassion for those deaths, nor has he expressed or intimated such sentiments since.
What we have with Trump is not a clown, not a boor, not a populist, but someone with the mindset of a cold-blooded murderer. The incongruity of witnessing someone with such a mindset placed at the pinnacle of American power, someone fawned upon by the media and who (for many) gave voice to their own inner resentments, operated to obscure that basic fact, even from those who truly should have known better.
The Jan. 6 Select Committee has done yeomans work in unmasking the fact that Trump was intent on maintaining power and instigated a deadly insurrection among his most virulent followers to achieve that end. But it still hasnt managed to convey in the clearest possible terms what is blatantly obvious: that this man fully intended as many Americans as necessary to die for him to preserve his own position and status. And worse, that he would not have lost a seconds worth of sleep over it.
That is the very definition of evil.
Lovie777
(12,272 posts)my family watched the attack on the tv and we all said to each other that shithole wants people to die so he can declare "martial law".
brush
(53,782 posts)right now? Some have said that even if trump declared martial law on Jan. 6, 2021, the Constitution calls for the new president to be inaugurated on Jan. 20th and that would've happened. IMO that's pretty naive to think after all the planning and effort to overthrow the government and violated the Constitution to get to martial law with trump still in power, he would automatically accede to what the Constitution says on Jan. 21.
I don't think so. trump could be still in complete control now. The Nat'l Guard, or even regular Army by trump's decree, could still be in control of the nation and we be in full-on fascism.
Uncharted territory.
Pelosi, Schumer, and even McConnell helped to get the Nat'l Guard in from neighboring states to clear the Capitol so that EC ballot certification could be finished before killing happened, which is what trump was hoping for.
brer cat
(24,568 posts)I have no doubt that was his plan for J6.
Turbineguy
(37,337 posts)He's a fuckup who has proven he has an ability to fail.
Hekate
(90,705 posts)Im out of words
Rebl2
(13,516 posts)I could say that could never happen in the US, but can never say/think that ever again.
Response to babylonsister (Original post)
Rebl2 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)Duh...
Blue Owl
(50,391 posts)Lock him up -- NOW!
sop
(10,190 posts)so he could invoke the Insurrection Act, so he could prevent the peaceful transfer of power." I recall thinking the same thing that day. There's no other conclusion to be drawn.
GreenWave
(6,757 posts)Look at how many died for him! Covid + insurrection,
TigressDem
(5,125 posts)"It made my heart race to watch today's hearing, really, because they brought up Trump's mindset, and the question was, what was his mindset?" Taylor told anchor Nicolle Wallace. "I'm going to demystify that for America right now. I've spent time with the guy in the Oval Office, the White House situation room, and Air Force One. I'll tell you what his mindset was on January 6th."
"I believe Donald Trump wanted people to die," said Taylor. "He wanted people to die
who were elected officials, en masse, so he could call out the military, so he could invoke the Insurrection Act, so he could prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That's not a conspiracy theory. In fact, in hindsight, it's pretty damn clear to me this is what he had in mind from day one in office."
malaise
(269,022 posts)on steroids
musclecar6
(1,687 posts)Been my opinion ever since he threw his hat in the ring to run for president, that he wants to be a modern day Hitler. He is by all indications, a highly manipulative would be amoral totalitarian dictator, completely devoid of one shred of decency.
Maraya1969
(22,482 posts)1/6 would have been a very different day if all those heavily armed people had been allowed in