Donald Trump planned and directed the whole damn thing -- why is anybody still defending him?
Donald Trump planned and directed the whole damn thing — why is anybody still defending him?
Final Jan. 6 committee hearing yields no blockbusters but a clear narrative: It was all planned in advance. By him
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 14, 2022 9:42AM (EDT)
(Salon) The Jan. 6 committee's final public hearing before the midterm election ended with a bang, not a whimper. At the conclusion of the hearing the committee's nine members voted unanimously to subpoena former President Donald Trump to testify. After their two-and-a-half hour presentation, it's hard to imagine how they ever could have contemplated doing otherwise. They presented a meticulously documented case which showed that Trump had a premeditated plan of many months to deny losing the election, plotted a coup to overturn the results if he did, incited a violent insurrection when that was thwarted, and then refused for hours to respond to the violence as he watched it unfold on television. Whether he will respond to the subpoena remains to be seen, but either way it's another black mark on his uniquely corrupt and dishonest political career.
For most of us who closely followed events in real time, both on Jan. 6 and through the subsequent investigations and revelations, much of this was not news. But it's been a while since we focused on some of these details, and to see it presented in narrative form, with so much video and documentary evidence, is still powerful. For instance, the fact that Trump had planned to contest the election if he lost was no secret. Indeed, he had signaled back in 2016 that he would never concede defeat, famously declaring in the days before that election, "I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win." For years after that victory he insisted that he'd actually won the popular vote but had been victimized by millions of immigrants illegally voting in California. He even convened something called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to try to prove that case. Even his hand-picked hacks couldn't turn up any evidence, and the "commission" was quietly disbanded without even issuing a report.
As 2020 approached with Trump down in the polls and the pandemic wreaking havoc around world, he began to lay the groundwork for denying his loss once again. For months he railed against mail-in ballots — which were being instituted in many states in response to the pandemic — setting up a narrative that they were inherently fraudulent. He threatened to withhold federal funds from states that used mail-in voting and accused California of setting up massive fraud by sending out ballots to all registered voters. Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Bill Stepien, told the committee that he couldn't be talked out of his irrational opposition to voting by mail, even though there were numerous states where it would likely benefit him and Republicans in general.
....(snip)....
The cumulative effect of all the Jan. 6 hearings, culminating in Thursday's wrap-up of the central narrative, has made clear that Donald Trump set up the coup before the election, was personally involved in the various attempts to execute it, understood that violence was possible on Jan. 6, and incited the crowd to storm the Capitol and refused to take any action to stop them. Everything that happened came at his direction and was done in his name. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/14/donald-planned-and-directed-the-whole-damn-thing--why-is-anybody-still-defending-him/
= new reply since forum marked as read
who was spouting election fraud nonsense. I asked the person this question..."If the 2020 Election was wrought with widespread fraud, why aren't the Republicans who were elected claiming fraud for their wins being that they were on the same Ballot as well?"
I got NO response. 
All they have is their archive of previously written MAGA lies and memes. You try to argue or defend, and they ignore it.
I learned that I wasn't very good at ignoring them, so I quit FB after Jan. 6th.
Others continue to watch FAUX Knews amd OAnon as if the FACTS are there.
BLACK IS WHITE. DAY IS NIGHT.
AND THE NARRATIVE IS STILL - VOTES WERE STOLEN - BIDEN ISN'T THE REAL PRESIDENT
IT WASN'T A COUP THAT FAILED. IT WAS AN HONEST ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT.
tRUMP can keep those documents BECAUSE HE IS REALLY STILL PRESIDENT BUT DENIED the White House
HE'S protecting those documents.
PEOPLE WHO DEFEND HIM ARE OUT OF THEIR MIND LISTENING TO LIES.
BUT THE LIES ARE BEING THROWN AT THEM IN WATERFALL FASHION.
THEY ARE DROWNING IN PROPAGANDA and can NOT SEE the TRUTH.
My son is one of those people who still listen to the lies and he thinks I am watching/listening to FAKE NEWS.
sigh
I am working on a communication format to have a conversation with him about the issues that does NOT devolve to yelling.
Kind of a limited debate with guided questions that get at HIS opinion VS what the propaganda says.
And limiting mentions of those sources to printed handouts that can be perused away from conversation.
With the idea that neither of us is there to "convert" the other, rather to listen to each other because we are family and care about each other enough to want to know, even if we already know we disagree.
I am practicing with a Libertarian at work who is game. He hates both sides and politics in general.
The things I do for love.
lol
"How to talk to your right-wing relatives, friends, and neighbors" Book helped me deal with people
in my solid red town. 
The DOJ may be slow, but Justice is patient.
The Truth WILL prevail in the end.
TFG is fucked.
if they want to get to heaven. That's how brainwashed they are.
