Trump Tried to Lead a Violent Insurrection to Overthrow the U.S. Government

Trump wasn’t just morally and politically responsible for inciting the January 6th Insurrection. He wanted to physically lead the armed mob of domestic terrorists into the Capitol.

Trump knew violence was coming. He empowered it. He wanted to lead it.

Trump wasn’t just morally and politically responsible for inciting the January 6th Insurrection. That much was apparent and impeachable on January 6th. We now know that he wanted to physically lead the armed mob of white supremacists and domestic terrorists into the Capitol after knowing they were heavily armed with guns and other weapons, after he knew they threatened his own Vice President, and after he enthusiastically told his staff that the terrorists threatening to hang Mike Pence “had the right idea,” that Pence, “deserves it.”

The violence at the Capitol on January 6th, the threats toward lawmakers, the shit smeared on the walls of the Capitol building, the vandalized offices, the dead police officers—it was not a riot out of hand. It was what Trump wanted. Violence was the objective. After inciting a rabid crowd toward violence and returning to the White House, he sat down in the dining room, started shoving fast food covered in ketchup into his face, and joyously watched the insurrection unfold on TV.

We now know from eyewitness testimony under oath that when Trump’s staff and the Secret Service informed him that a violent, armed mob was approaching the Capitol Building, that lawmakers’ lives may be at imminent risk, he replied, “I don't fucking care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away! Let my people in! They can march to the Capitol from here! Let the people in! Take the fucking mags away!”

By mags, he meant the magnetometers that detect guns and weapons to keep the President and others safe. Trump was instructing the Secret Service and police to lower defenses as a violent mob approached, knowing that they would storm the Capitol with the intent to harm, kill, or kidnap members of Congress.

Trump tried “to strangle” a Secret Service agent.

We also know that Trump assaulted one of his own Secret Service agents when the agent refused to drive him to the Capitol. Trump wanted to lead the mob into the Capitol. When the agent refused, Trump grabbed the steering wheel. When the agent instructed Trump to let go of the steering wheel, Trump grabbed the agent by the neck, shouting, “I am the f—cking President of the United States! Take me to the Capitol!”

Trump, his inner circle, and Congressional Republicans all coordinated the insurrection.

The President of the United States didn’t just incite a violent coup to overthrow a duly elected government. He was instrumental in coordinating it. He wanted to physically lead it. He tried to strangle his own Secret Service agent to get there.

We now know the coordination of the Insurrection reached all levels of Trump’s own staff, from top to bottom, his legal teams, and extended throughout several members of Congress. We know Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has also been accused of raping young girls, actively sought a pardon both before and after January 6th. We know Congressman Mo Brooks and others also sought pardons. We know multiple members of Congress gave tours of alternative pathways through connected Capitol office buildings in the days leading up to the insurrection despite previously lying and saying they didn’t. Multiple lawyers and staff members expressed to others in their own circles that they were sure they were breaking laws. They all knew what they were doing was illegal. And, we now know Trump, his staff, and lawyers tampered with witnesses on multiple occasions.

Fox News hosts were in on it. They lied and spread propaganda.

We now know that his Chief of Staff was in direct communication with hosts at Fox News as the Insurrection was unfolding. In text messages, the Fox News hosts, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, admit that Trump’s supporters were violently trying to overthrow the government and that they were worried they wouldn’t be able to credibly bash BLM and Antifa if MAGA nutjobs became violent. They later went on to lie, to peddle conspiracy theories that Antifa was really behind the violence.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party that does his bidding are a clear and present danger to the security of the United States.

The United States has never faced a crisis like this.

This was a violent coup, incited and led by the former President of the United States to keep control for himself. He had support throughout the Republican Party. He continues to have support from the Republican Party. They’ve abandoned their values to become an authoritarian party of MAGA. The GOP is unsalvageable, and the rot goes deep into its roots.

We now know from eyewitness testimony that some members of Trump’s cabinet were actively discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment as a way of stripping the full power of the presidency from a man who was desperately unhinged in the final hours of his term.

Multiple experts, even very conservative ones, believe the testimony heard today from eyewitness Cassidy Hutchinson is a smoking gun, irrefutable evidence that means Trump and many in his inner circle will now face criminal charges of seditious conspiracy. In a normal, healthy, functioning democracy, they absolutely would, but in such a healthy, rational country, Trump would have already been impeached and convicted. We are not living in that healthy democracy. These are dark times, and the only solution is the complete and utter destruction of the racist, nationalist, authoritarian ideology that elevated Trump to power in the first place.