The January 6th Hearings. Part 7: Assembling the Mob

For three hours, all this atheist could get out was "Jesus!" "My gawd!" "Holy christ on a cracker." "Dear lordt are you kidding me?" 

You know it's serious.

On Tuesday we watched another jaw-dropping, chock-full-o'-facts hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. This one focused on the Smelly Cheese's last-ditch plan for his coup: to set a violent mob upon the Capitol building. The building where our 535 representatives and senators, the vice president, and all of their staff members, were conducting the business of the People: certifying the Electoral College votes and officially declaring Joseph Robinette Biden Jr as our 46th president-elect.

The hearing featured statements and questioning by Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) 

The committee illustrated that it was clear to the outgoing president* that he had lost the election by December 14, 2020, when the Electoral College met and cast their votes, declaring that Biden had won the election by a vote of 306 to 232 electors.

All of his previous coup plot points had failed: he failed to win in the courts; he failed to strong-arm the state election officials and legislators; he failed to corrupt the Department of Justice; he failed to subvert the Electoral College; he failed to bully Mike Pence into abandoning his oath. The only "winning" he had in his pocket was his massive deception of millions of Americans who believed him. And, on his bidding, tens of thousands of them descended upon Washington D.C. that Wednesday, January 6. He would see to it that they would do his dirty work.

The committee started by laying the blame entirely at SCROTUS's feet. They rejected any attempts at blaming the ne'er-do-wells that orbited him. As Lyn Cheney succinctly put it: 

"President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices. As our investigation has shown, Donald Trump had access to more detailed and specific information showing that the election was not actually stolen than almost any other American, and he was told this over and over again. No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion. And Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind, nor can any argument of any kind excuse President Trump's behavior during the violent attack on January 6th."

 Full stop.

Contrast with a real statesman president:

President Harry S Truman posing in the reproduction of the Oval Office at the Truman Library in 1959. The sign "The Buck Stops Here" was given to Truman by Fred M. Canfil on October 2, 1945. (Truman Library)

The committee reminded us that there was no evidence of fraud. Every official in his orbit knew there was no evidence. He was told there was no evidence over and over and over. They encouraged him to concede after the Electoral College met on December 14. But he still managed to find some sycophants that would help him assert the Big Lie and feed him what he wanted. And on December 18, 2020, some of those weasels got into the Oval Office and decided to conspire some more.

The Unhinged Meeting

On the evening of December 18, Team Crazy convened. That attorney from outer space Sydney Powell, the attorney from the bottom of the whiskey barrel, Rudy Giuliani, the CEO from Overstock.com (who?), and the most treasonous American since the Rosenbergs, Mike Flynn, all snuck in a side door into the White House and met with their supreme leader. 

Jesus.

They had been talking for 10-15 minutes before the president's official advisors got wind of it and sprinted to the Oval Office. It seems "Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record" according to Powell. It was at this meeting that Powell pushed her theories that long-deceased Hugo Chavez and Valezuelans had messed with the Dominion voting machines. Flynn promoted a theory that Nest thermostats were involved in connecting communications from around the world. 

Dear lordt are you kidding me? 

Team Normal soon joined the meeting. It got heated. And then it became, as Cassidy Hutchinson described it, "unhinged." For the next several hours -- about six hours -- this "meeting" turned ugly. What ensued? Screaming, flying insults, and it nearly came to fisticuffs! It moved like a schoolyard rumble from the Oval Office to the Roosevelt Room, to the "Yellow Oval," which is the president's office in the residence, and back again. 

Holy christ on a cracker. 

The Toddler-in-Chief wanted to draft an executive order to seize voting machines from the states. He also, by virtue of his saying so, named Sydney Powell as special prosecutor and granted that whack-job security clearance! The Whitewash House advisors in Team Normal tried to push back on the cray-cray conspiracy theorists. Giuliani gleefully recalled that he called the advisors "pussies" and at one point had been alone in the Cabinet Room, "which is kind of cool. I really liked that, all my — all by myself."

My gawd.

Cipallone and others all described the chaos within in the Unhinged Meeting and the one question weaving throughout the evening that was never answered: Where is the evidence?

Finally, sometime after midnight, Mark Meadows himself escorted Giuliani out, as Cassidy Hutchinson said, to "make sure he didn't wander back into the mansion." The ruckus finally ended. Did this mean that the president* took the better advice of his inner circle and decided to finally concede? HA! No! Shortly thereafter, at 1:42 a.m. on December 19, 2020, Twitler issued his beckoning tweet. 

And after that, he tweeted more than a dozen times to promote the event.

The Organization

His devoted followers took his tweet and ran. Social media was buzzing from the get-go. The very next day, they started to organize. Hours after his 1:42 a.m. tweet, Women for America First, a pro-T**** organization, changed the permit for their rally from January 22 to January 6. And in the following days, a disturbing alliance began forming between far-right militia groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Homeland Security intelligence official Dr. Donell Harvin described how after the initial tweet there developed a "blended ideology" as nonaligned groups became aligned. He became quite concerned.

King Ketchup knew his followers were ready for war. Keep in mind that Roger Stone and Michael Flynn were both closely aligned with these groups. The groups' leaders saw an opportunity for legitimacy as they communicated and coordinated with those traitors. Stone and Flynn, of course, are close allies of 45, and there is no way that he did not know what was brewing. 

It came to light after the hearing that the committee chose to forego illustrating the ties the Traitor-in-Chief had to the alt-right groups in favor of including long-sought testimony from Pat Cipollone. I hope they show that evidence. It will be in their final report, but it is important for us to see it. 

Social media developed a growing hum, with all the alt-right groups' planning and coordination. They were whipped up by people such as Alex Jones and Ali Alexander, de facto alt-right leaders and agitators. The language in videos and tweets were clearly war-like. "Locked and loaded," lists of weapons to bring, cries of "1776!" and "Ready for civil war!" The website thedonald.win had discussions going about the tunnel system in the Capitol building. Even "milder" Steve Bannon made a provocative video the day before the 6th. It was all there, in plain sight and in plain language. They had accepted the president's* invitation and were gearing for war.

Deaf Ears

The committee wasn't the first one to connect the dots between The Tangerine Toddler's tweeted invitation and continuing promotion of the January 6 event and the alt-right's open organization. At least one Twitter employee expressed concern about the growing chatter. This individual (who was anonymous and voice-disguised in their testimony) had urged Twitter to take action reigning in T**** ever since his "stand back and stand by" comments during the September 29th presidential debate. The warnings were ignored. The Twitter employee's concern only grew after the December 19 tweet, but their concerns continued to be dismissed. They testified that if it were any other person on the planet, the account would have been shut down long before. The day before the 6th, they said, they feared the violence that was coming. 

The Congressional Conspirators

On December 21, several Republican members of Congress met with the President to discuss the upcoming certification ceremony. These members of the U.S. House of Representatives were invited to the Whitewash House to discuss the "Eastman theory," that Pence could reject the count and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power. It's the usual suspects:

• Mo Brooks
• Brian Babin
• Andy Biggs
• Matt Gaetz
• Louie Gohmert
• Paul Gosar
• Andy Harris
• Jody Hice
• Jim Jordan
• Scott Perry
• Marjorie Taylor Greene

The Night Before the Insurrection

The committee outlined TЯUMP's activities on the night before the 6th. 

First, he spoke to Steve Bannon twice that day. After his first phone call, Bannon made a video and said, "All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. It's all converging and now we're on, as they say, the point of attack, right, the point of attack tomorrow. I'll tell you this, it's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen, Ok? It's going to be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is strap in." Strap in. Point of attack. Are those not words of war?

Later that day, there was a rally at the Freedom Plaza, just a couple blocks as the crow flies from the Whitewash House. The Douche of Hazard brought his aides into the Oval Office and insisted on opening the door so that he could hear the rally. He was quite excited and fired up about the energy coming from the rally. 

At the rally, people like Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and Ali Alexander were riling the crowd with more war-like rhetoric. 

As he sat in the Oval Office listening to the rally, he tweeted "Washington is being inundated with people who don't want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats. Our country has had enough. They won't take it anymore. To the crowds gathering in DC he added, we hear you and love you from the Oval Office." 

Then he set about revising his speech.

The Rhetoric 

It was the rhetoric that brought his troops to the front, and it was his words that sent them to do violence. 45 knew that his words were powerful to his followers. You recall from a prior hearing that SCROTUS had a phone call with Mike Pence the morning of the 6th, in which he became very agitated and called Pence a "wimp" and a "pussy" for resisting the pressure to break the law and refuse to certify the electoral votes. After that phone call, he wanted to re-write his speech to include statements about Mike Pence. 

He and his speech writer swamp lizard Stephen Miller set about adding lines like, "we will see whether Mike Pence enters history as a truly great and courageous leader. All he has to do is refer the illegally submitted electoral votes back to the states that were given false and fraudulent information where they want to recertify." After much back and forth with the lawyers, they removed that line but added one reference to Pence. True to form, however, the next morning the Commander-in-Cheese ad-libbed seven more statements about Pence as he spoke to the armed crowd. The word "peacefully" was removed and words about "fighting" were inserted. And he ad-libbed numerous references to going to the Capitol, including the one about him joining them.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

Live Witnesses

We heard from two live witnesses, one regular Joe from Ohio who participated in the Insurrection but was not part of any organized group, and the former media director of the Oath Keepers, who had resigned from the organization years ago and was not in Washington D.C. that day. 

Stephen Ayers from Ohio gave us some insight into the many participants who were not part of any group. He testified that he bought all of what Uncle Scam was selling. In his gee-whiz Hicksville drawl, his testimony pretty much consisted of, "Welp, we went cuz 45 asked us to. When he told us to leave, we did."

Simple, but telling: They truly believed him, and they were simply following orders. 

Ayers gave good advice to the millions who still "hang on every word" of the former president*: "Biggest thing for me is take the blinders off, make sure you step back and see what's going on before it's too late."

Ayers has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct during the insurrection and will be sentenced in September.

The second witness, Jason Van Tatenhove, was entrenched with the Oath Keepers for years as a media guy. He worked for the group from approximately 2014 to 2016. Van Tatenhove issued a stark warning about this group, saying they are a dangerous armed militia and have nefarious goals. He testified that the Oath Keepers are a dangerous paramilitary organization and that January 6th fit into their goals of a violent revolution. One shocking tidbit that Van Tatenhove offered was that the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, wanted him to develop a deck of cards, like those the military had during the Middle East conflicts, with political enemies depicted, including Hillary Clinton as the queen of hearts.

The Final Bombshell of the Day 

Lyn Cheney did what she does best: dropped another stick of dynamite in the final moments of the hearing. She revealed that a witness that has met with the committee, but that the public hasn't heard from yet, got a call from Don the Con himself. Instead of answering the call or responding, the witness alterted their lawyer who alerted the committee. The matter has been turned over to the DOJ.

Ann Telnaes

The Next Hearing

The eighth, and presumably final, hearing will be next week. It is expected to take place on Thursday, July 21 during primetime. We'll hear about the actions, or rather inactions, that Old McFraudle undertook during the day on January 6. Check your local listings, and head over to the Church of LSR afterwards.

In the meantime, if you missed it, here is Tuesday's hearing in its entirety. 

Click here for Part 8: Dereliction of Duty

The Audacity of Heinz: Cartoons and Thoughts

After last week's televised hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, the artists in the political cartoon arena came out in force. 

Thanks to Sister Resister Pagrs for pointing me to some of these, as well as The Week. 

I appreciate these artists so much! (Side note: where my female cartoonists at?!)

Lalo Alcatraz

Jack Ohman

Pat Byrnes

Chris Britt

Dave Whamond

Bill Bramhall

David Horsey

Drew Sheneman

Clay Jones

Clay Jones

Mike Luckovich

Marshall Ramsey

Steve Benson

Steve Kelly

Lalo Alcatraz

John Deering

So. Thoughts.

Will there be justice? Friends have been asking me, "Do you think they'll put 45 in jail?"

The Department of Justice must move forward with indictment. Whether or not it will be perfect justice is another question. Imperfect justice is better than no justice. 

Some say, "There will be such a backlash from the right if they move to indict. Think of what they will do!" News Flash: they've done it. They attempted a violent coup! We cannot let that stand unpunished. If we are truly a nation of laws, no one is above the law. Everyone involved with the coup, from the bottom to the tippy top, MUST be prosecuted. 

And as Liz Cheney said in a recent interview, not moving forward with prosecution of 45 would be more dangerous to the country. On ABC's "This Week," she said:

 I have greater concern about what it would mean if people weren’t held accountable for what’s happened here. I think it’s a much graver constitutional threat if a president can engage in these kinds of activities and, you know, the majority of the president's party looks away or we as a country decide, you know, we're not actually going to take our constitutional obligations seriously. I think that’s a much -- a much more serious threat.

Who should get indicted? All of them. The DOJ has done a pretty good job of identifying (well, they identified themselves on social media) the seditionists in the crowd. But up from there: Giuliani, Meadows, state officials who conspired, all those members of Congress who aided and abetted, and the former president* most of all. 

Nearly 60% of those polled by ABC/Ipsos agree with me. 

So, to answer the question: I think 45 will be indicted on some charge or other. Whether he goes to jail is a whole 'nother question. He seems to be as slippery as a snake covered in his own snake oil when it comes to consequences.

The Committee. The Committee has been masterful laying out the case. Each hearing has had a theme, and they have kept it simple and easy to understand who and what comprised each part of the nefarious plan. Each hearing has been a simple and direct presentation of the facts. 

They have done a great job of weaving video testimony, live testimony, and other video evidence and documents. It has been good TV. The video presentations have been mighty powerful. The committee has former ABC News exec James Goldston to thank. He has been producing the powerful videos and advising the committee on their presentations. 

The Committee itself cannot bring criminal charges, but they can make criminal referrals to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Those referrals would hold no legal water, but the DOJ does not need a referral to bring charges anyway. And they are performing their own investigations. The Committee has laid out numerous chargeable offenses neatly and clearly with evidence. The possible charges against 45 being floated around by pundits:

• Obstructing an official proceeding
• Conspiracy to defraud the United States
• Seditious Conspiracy
• Obstruction of Justice

The tell. It's telling that after the damning testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, the right glommed onto the grabbing-the-steering-wheel vignette as the one to contest. 

• Allowing weapons knowingly to the rally on the Ellipse? It's a given. 
• Sending that armed mob to the Capitol, asking them to "fight for me"? No dispute. 
• Witness intimidation, from the top? Eh, it is the way. 
• Urging his followers to murder the Vice President of the United States? Pence deserved it. 
• Grabbing the steering wheel and lunging at an agent to try to get to the Capitol? THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE IF HE WERE SITTING IN THE BACKSEAT! HE WASN'T IN THE BEAST – HE WAS IN A SUV! SHE LIES! SHE LIES!

The backlash. It's getting ugly out there. Listen to what people have said when they call into Rep. Adam Kinzinger's (R-Ill.) office. Warning: foul, disturbing language!

Threats of violence over politics has increased heavily in the last few years. But the darkness has reached new lows. My new interns made this compilation of recent calls they’ve received while serving in my DC office.

WARNING: this video contains foul & graphic language. pic.twitter.com/yQJvvAHBVV

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 5, 2022

I've always urged my readers to contact your members of Congress. I want to make clear that I would never, ever advocate words or actions like this. Please, continue to contact your MoCs. But please, always always be civil and direct to the point of what you want them to do on your behalf. Be the better person. Every time. 

The next hearing. The next hearing will be next Tuesday, July 12 at 10 a.m. Eastern time, 7 a.m. Pacific. A witness list has not been released, but it will focus on the crime of assembling a mob: the financing, the organization, the participants. Watch with care: don't hurt your jaw when it drops again. 

See you after. 

Have Hope this Independence Day. Or the Fascists Will Have Won.

Another Independence Day, another struggle. Do we feel like celebrating? 

We need to dig deep again in 2022. Maybe the deepest yet. 

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." – Mark Twain

Here we are, on our most patriotic holiday, our hallowed Independence Day, when we not only celebrate the founding of our country, but all the freedoms that our founding fathers set forth, the progress we have made, and the promise of a more perfect union.

It hasn't been easy in recent years to feel proud of the U.S. In 2020, we were sickened on Independence Day when we had to witness the brazen racism in South Dakota. The year before that, it was hard to feel proud when SCROTUS was planning his Ego Fest Military Parade Rally N Shit. In 2018, friends were quite broken-hearted and finding it hard to be patriotic in the face of the news that children were being separated from their families and held in cages. 

And now, our rights are being stripped from us, bad people tried to violently take the country away from us, and the United States is becoming a dangerous place, especially for people of color and women. 

But I ask you again, please, dig deep and find your patriotism. Find that kind of patriotism that means supporting the country's ideals, its potential, its best. Cling not to pride for the past, nor the now, but hope for the future. If we don't embrace that hope, then we've given up and the fascists win. 

Patriotism means dissent. 

Patriotism means hope.
Patriotism means optimism.
Patriotism means participation.
Patriotism means effort.
Patriotism means resilience.
Patriotism means resistance.

What does patriotism mean to you?

As Adlai Stevenson II said, "Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." And so, let us be steadily patriotic today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. Let us support the country all the time, even when the government doesn't deserve it. It is our patriotism that will save the United States of America.

There is a movement out there to wear black for Independence Day as a statement against the Supreme Court's decision. I understand; it's a time for mourning. Yet I say to wear the red, white, and blue. It is powerful symbolism. Do not hand it over to those who would pervert it. Really? We're going to turn our flag over to the MAGATS who "love the country" so much that they would overthrow the government? No. Reclaim the flag. "The shame is on the other side." (David Bowie, Heroes)

Fly your flag today for the potential it holds. 

Engage in meaningful celebrations today. Spend time with friends and family. Let your heart swell as you watch the fireworks. 

You can feel outraged the whole time. Feeling disgusted and angry is feeling Patriotic! The reason you are furious and less-than-patriotic is because you instill the very hope and the values that are at our base. Feel the fury! We must not abandon American ideals now! We know that over the last 245 years, we've made progress. We have much more progress to make, and we can't give up now. We must, more than ever, embrace the standards that have driven Americans.

Dave Granlund

 

So, go! Enjoy your hotdogs and fireworks today. Create celebrations as well as self-care. Dig down and find your strength as individuals so that we can, together, lift America out of this pit. We need to work hard to make it better!

“Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. No kind of life is worth leading if it is always an easy life. I know that your life is hard; I know that your work is hard; and hardest of all for those of you who have the highest trained consciences, and who therefore feel always how much you ought to do. I know your work is hard, and that is why I congratulate you with all my heart. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt, American Ideals: And Other Essays, Social and Political

Why must we be Patriotic?  Because it's hard.

Go Team Resistance!

The January 6th Hearings. Part 6: Holy Mother of Gawd How Do I Title This?

:

Choose Your Title:

A Madman Takes the Wheel

Holy Shit It Was Worse Than We Knew (If That is Possible)

What Did We Just Hear?

Giving New Meaning to "Pass the Ketchup"

Sedition. Period. 

"He doesn't think they are doing anything wrong."

Unhinged

In The Room Where It Happened

Cassidy Hutchinson: American Patriot

Cassidy Hutchinson, the 25-year-old chief aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified in front of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol for over two hours on Tuesday. It was explosive.

(I apologize that my thesaurus has run out of descriptors for the testimony we hear at each hearing. This shit hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper, and words do not travel down that far.)

Hutchinson was steps away from the Oval Office every day during her Whitewash House tenure. As one in the most inner circle, she saw and heard the conversations and the behaviors. I'll outline some of the bombshells she brought with her. The testimony today is the most consequential yet. Please watch the entire hearing (video below). It’s jaw-dropping.

Shrug. Weapons? So what! Let 'em in! Hutchinson testified that during the rally, several attendees had had weapons confiscated from them as they entered through magnetometer machines ("mags"). Hutchinson testified, "I remember Tony [Chief of Operations Anthony Ornato] mentioning knives, guns in the form of pistols and rifles, bear spray, body armor, spears, and flagpoles. Spears were one item, flagpoles were one item. But then Tony had related to me something to the effect of and these effing people are fastening spears onto the ends of flagpoles." The committee also said that law enforcement had confiscated pepper spray, knives, brass knuckles, tasers, body armor, gas masks, batons, and blunt weapons from those entering the Ellipse area. 

The committee played law enforcement recordings describing members of the mob outside the Ellipse climbing trees with AR-style weapons as well as handguns and long guns. There were many in the crowd who declined going through the mags so as to not have their weapons confiscated. 

And the president* knew they were armed. The first reports of weapons spotted came as early as 8 a.m., and Mark Meadows was informed. Later, when 45 bitched about the empty spots in the area, he was told that the thinness of the crowd in the Ellipse area was due to people staying outside the mags area so that their weapons wouldn't be confiscated. He became angry. "The primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren't letting people through the mags with weapons." 

He said, "I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take that effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away."

And later, he urged that armed mob toward the Capitol.

Who is Going to Protect the Secret Service? One of the most astounding revelations was the description of the scenario after 45 left the rally. 

The then-president* wanted badly to go to the Capitol building. He had been wanting to do it for days, and his words of “I'll be right there with you” was not “just metaphorical.” He desperately wanted to be there in person, presumably to see and participate in the actual violent coup.

He worked with his team on a plan to walk with his minions to the Capitol. As late as 12:47, staff were working on a plan for him to do so. When it was becoming clearer that the Capitol police were severely undermanned, the security team nixed the idea. 45 was finally persuaded by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that “they were working on” getting him down there in “The Beast,” the armored limousine that is the official presidential vehicle. When he got in the Beast after the rally, he thought he was going to the Capitol.

Once they were in the Beast, however, secret service announced that it was too dangerous to go to the Capitol building and that they were going back to the West Wing. 45 became unhinged.

Hutchinson testified that he became "irate." "The president said something to the effect of I'm the f'ing president, take me up to the Capitol now, to which Bobby [head of security Bobby Engle] responded, 'Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.' The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel. And Mr. — when Mr. Ornato had recounted this story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles."

The President* of the United States of America. Lunging toward his secret service agent’s throat. 

Granted, this story is secondhand. Ms. Hutchinson told us that this was told to her by Anthony Ornato, Whitewash House deputy chief of operations, about 45's primary secret service agent Bobby Engel while they were all together in Ornato's office after the rally. We need to get them under oath and have them answer some questions. And the driver of the Beast, too.

Baby get mad? Baby throw things. Hutchinson also testified that at times of frustration, the Toddler-in-Chief would throw plates of food, break dishes, or turn over tablecloths. She personally helped wipe ketchup from the walls of the dining room after at least one such tantrum, after da baby got wind of Barr's public statement denying election fraud. 

Mark Meadows's sense of duty was on “Empty.” Ms. Hutchinson had riveting testimony about the events at the Whitewash House on January 6. She described numerous times how Meadows was completely checked out on that day. 

Before the rally: In his office, sitting on the couch scrolling his phone the morning of January 6, he was told by Chief of Operations Tony Ornato that people were arriving to the rally armed. He didn't look up from his phone. "Anything else?" When asked if he had any questions, the reply was, "What are you hearing?" Meadows then asked if 45 had been notified that the attendees were armed, and Ornato answered yes. 

During the rally: Hutchinson twice tried to inform Meadows of impending violence, but he was in a car on the phone, keeping the door closed. When she finally spoke to him many minutes later and told him that Capitol Police were being overrun,  "He almost had a lack of reaction. I remember him saying Alright, something to the effect of how much longer does the President have left in this speech?"

After the rally: She testified about the afternoon of January 6, after the 45 had returned to the Whitewash House. It was about 2:00 and Mark Meadows was again in this office scrolling his phone. Hutchinson had been monitoring the events on TV, and she went to Meadows's office and asked if he was aware that the mob was getting closer to entering the Capitol. Meadows seemed unperturbed. She testified, "I said, the rioters are getting really close. Have you talked to the President? And he said, no, he wants to be alone right now; still looking at his phone."

A minute later, Pat Cipollone, Whitewash attorney, came "barreling down the hallway." In some distress about the events unfolding, Cipollone went into Meadows's office. Meadows was still scrolling his phone looked up and said, "he doesn't want to do anything, Pat." 

Cipollone insisted that they talk to the president*, and around the time the chants of "Hang Mike Pence" started, Cipollone was becoming more alarmed, urging Meadows to act.

Hutchinson stated, "And Mark had responded something to the effect of, you heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."

Meadows moved his butt off the couch only when Cipollone entreated him again, "Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f'ing hands."

Just a couple minutes after this, the 2:24 tweet went out, in which he said Pence "didn't have the courage."

The more to the "Wow!" 

• The hearing also included testimony that Pat Cipollone asked Hutchinson to do what she could to make sure that the plan to go to the Capitol was junked, because the plan's result would be, “We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable." 
• Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows wanted pardons. 
• Days before, Hutchinson was warned by Meadows that January 6 might get "real bad."
• Whitewash House counsel, including Eric Herschmann and Pat Cipollone, both warned away from language in the January 6 speech which included terms like "fight for me" and references to Pence.
• 45 had to be urged to recite the dead-eye speech on January 7. His legal team wanted language about prosecuting rioters; he wanted to include language about pardoning them.

The Mafia Threats. The committee also presented a soupçon of evidence of witness intimidation. As an aside to Hutchinson's testimony, Liz Cheney presented examples of veiled threats that have been offered to witnesses, urging them to "do the right thing" because they are truly "loyal." The committee showed these two quotes, without disclosing who the witnesses are or who was the consigliere. I'm sure we'll hear more.

Witness testimony describing phone calls received prior to appearing before the committee

Today's testimony is a patriot's testimony. But do you know what a treasonous 3-star general says to the question, "Do you believe in the peaceful transfer of power in the United States of America?" If you're convicted felon Mike Flynn, you reply with "I plead the Fifth."

Who is this Cassidy Hutchinson? Ms. Hutchinson worked in the office of Rep. Steve Scalice (R-La.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) before moving to the Whitewash House in 2019 and becoming chief aide to Chief of Staff Meadows in 2020. She set her sights on Washington while still an undergraduate student at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. 

When asked how she personally felt during the events on January 6, she answered, "As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We're watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest. ... I still struggle to work through the emotions of that."

Only 26 years old, she still has a bright future ahead of her. I hope she remains in the service of the United States. We need more Cassidy Hutchinsons. 
 

Watch the entire hearing here. Please. 

Click here for Part 7: Assembling the Mob

The January 6 Hearings. Part 5: Target DOJ

NOTE: This was mostly completed when the devastating news came from the Supreme Court. I will be addressing the death of Roe v Wade in coming days.

Clay Jones Claytoonz.com

Thursday's hearing was another bombshell. 

We heard how 45 tried to bulldoze and weaponize the the United States Department of Justice to his ends. His plot was thwarted by a set of patriots, upstanding public servants in the DOJ, who resisted. He wanted them to help him wage a coup. They wouldn't do it. 

We heard three Republican Department of Justice officials: Acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen, appointed after Bill Barr resigned in December, 2020; his acting Deputy A.G. Richard Donoghue; and the main attorney from the A.G. Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Engel They testified live Thursday with Rep. Adam Kizinger (R-Ill.) questioning. 

By the end of December, 2020 and the beginning of January, 2021, Coup Hand Luke was becoming more and more desperate. He had been told over and over that his claims of fraud were false. He wasn't gaining traction with the states. The next spike he tried to attach to his mace and chain was the DOJ.

My takeaways:

It's important to remember the role of the Department of Justice. It is an independent body, serving the United States of America, upholding the Constitution, and enforcing its laws. Its mission statement: "To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." Notice it does not say that the A.G. functions as the president's personal attorney. 

Why did the DOJ authorize investigations into state elections at all? The committee asked Bill Barr why the department didn't let the investigations take their own course, at the state level, after January 6? Barr answered, "I felt the responsible thing to do was to be — to be in a position to have a view as to whether or not there was fraud. And frankly, I think the fact that I put myself in the position that I could say that we had looked at this and didn't think there was fraud was really important to moving things forward. And I — I sort of shudder to think what the situation would have been if the — if the position of the department was we're not even looking at this until after Biden's in office. I'm not sure we would have had a transition at all."

Republican members of Congress were amplifying the Big Lie. Republican representatives Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Louie Gohmert (Tex.), were all getting on the boob tube and continuing to spout the lies and vilifying the Justice Department to the nation. 

Watch their idiocy here. (It wouldn't let me clip, but this is the beginning of their televised comments as seen during the hearing.)

And they asked for pardons. As Rep. Kinzinger said, "The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you've committed a crime." These criminals asked for presidential pardons:

• Mo Brooks of Alabama
• Andy Biggs or Arizona
• Louie Gohmert of Texas
• Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
• Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
• Matt Gatez of Florida   Former Whitewash attorney Hershmann (who I am liking more and more as I see his deposition) said Gaetz's request for a pardon was "as broad as you can describe, from beginning ... from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things."

Donoghue took notes. During a long telephone conversation he had on December 27 with 45 and Rosen, Donoghue spontaneously picked up a pad of paper and started taking notes. He documented many of Combover Caligula's statements verbatim, including:

• "Where is the DOJ?" Rosen and Donoghue tried to educate Calludacris about the roles of the DOJ. They told him that "the DOJ is not quality control" for states' elections, and the department did not have a role in bringing suits surrounding election matters.

•  The DOJ is "obligated to tell people that this was an illegal corrupt election." They continued to tell him that none of the allegations of fraud had any evidence.

• "What I'm just asking you to do is to say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen."

The Orange Lump didn't take no for an answer. He continued his pressure campaign, asking acting A.G. Rosen to do two things: to appoint a special counsel to investigate the "massive fraud" (suggesting the whack-job Sydney Powell to be appointed to the role), and to send a letter to the legislative leaders in all the battleground states. The letter was to read in part, "the U.S. Department of Justice's investigations have 'identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states.'" Rosen pushed back and said he would do neither. We'll discuss the letter and the former president's* desperate attempt to get it sent in a bit. 

Baby Hands did not have a good grasp on the workings of the government. He asked acting A.G. Rosen to seize voting machines. Rosen informed him that the Department of Homeland Security has the authority over machines. POOTUS immediately dialed up Ken Cuccinelli, number two at the DHS, and said, "I'm sitting here with the Acting Attorney General. He just told me it's your job to seize machines and you're not doing your job."

The conspiracy theories got really really bizarre. And yet, they were investigated. So... ummm.... apparently the Italians were involved in a plot whereby one of their satellites intercepted votes, switched them from Don the Con to Biden, and beamed them back. The plot was conceived and carried out by a guy, you know, some guy. We don't know his name, but here's a picture of a guy with a mask in an airport. There ya go. Proof of massive fraud. Our government officials actually ran this down. The 20-minute YouTube video, culled from the bowels of the internet, was forwarded to the Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller. Get this: the Defense Secretary actually called up the attache in Rome to track the wacko theory down. 

The letter was at the core of the scheme. In order to achieve his ends, SCROTUS asked the acting A.G. to send a letter to the legislators of Georgia and other battleground states alleging fraud in their elections. Acting A.G. Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue refused. They continued to tell Drinks with Two Hands, in their nearly daily phone calls and meetings from December 23 until January 3, that the allegations of fraud were false and they would not send a letter. There was a lot of angst about this letter. It was drafted by one of the assistant attorneys general, the leader of the environmental division, Jeff Clark. Assisting was another DOJ lawyer, Ken Klukowski. This fella Clark was sniffed out by magat Rep. Scott Perry (R- Penn.) as a true follower, who believed in all the fraud theories and would bow to the master's commands. 

You can see the draft letter here, with signature lines for Rosen, Donoghue, and Clark. Rosen and Donoghue continued to refuse to sign it.

All of the assistant A.G.s really really dislike Jeff Clark. Descriptive terms: incompetent, unqualified. Donoghue said that when he pointed out to Clark that he didn't have any experience in criminal cases, "he kind of retorted by saying, well, I've done a lot of very complicated appeals in civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that. And I said, that's right. You're an environmental lawyer, how about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill." Oh snap!

An aside, to illustrate the character of Clark. NBC News reported: 

Clark has continued to be a presence in MAGA world. He has an account with a few hundred followers on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, where his Trump-mimicking handle is @RealJeffClark. 

He has said the Jan. 6 committee is “power drunk and unconstitutional,” and he has shared stories from the conspiracy website Gateway Pundit, including a story about the debunked propaganda movie “2000 Mules.” He has written for the conspiracy website Revolver News about what he described as efforts to “Kill All the Trump Lawyers — By Canceling Them.” He's making appearances on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast. And he's trying to raise money, telling would-be donors that he has "been targeted for cancellation by the hyper-partisan January 6 Committee, the 'mainstream' media, and a collection of leftist law professors and supposed 'Republicans' who are conveniently never-Trumpers."

Another side note. the FBI raided a pajama-clad Clark's home Wednesday night. "They took all the electronics" according to Clark. In another aside, he pled the Fifth 120 times when the committee tried to depose him. Hopefully they'll soon book him into the Graybar Hotel.

But back to the story. Rosen and Donoghue continued to be adamant in pushing back about the fraud allegations and refusing to sign Clark's letter.

Dingus Con had only one recourse to try to bend the DOJ. Get a new attorney general. If Rosen and Donoghue wouldn't sign, Uncle Scam decided he'd simply install Clark as acting A.G. This would be the third A.G. in two weeks. Rosen pointed out this fact at a very important meeting held at the Oval Office on Sunday evening January 3rd, three days before the insurrection. 

This meeting was an extremely pivotal one in the history of our nation. Prior to the meeting, Rosen and Donoghue scrambled to place a phone call to the the rest of the assistant attorneys general (there are six). The pair informed them of the situation and expressed the concern that Rosen would be fired and Clark would be installed. On that phone call, every assistant A.G. said without hesitation that they would resign immediately if this happened. 

Rosen and Donoghue was armed with this information when they met the in the Oval Office, and luckily they were able to convince 45 that their resignations would start a domino of resignations across the justice department and "Jeff Clark would be leading a graveyard." And as such, it would be very bad for 45. Somehow Crooky McCrookpants saw the futility in his plan and decided to give it up. 

He was left with one option to hold on to power: incite violence at the Capitol.

This will be covered in an upcoming hearing. The hearings will resume in mid-July. The committee has uncovered more evidence and needs time to prepare for the next hearing. When they reconvene, LSR will be right here!

If you missed this hearing, please watch it. It is important.

Click here for Part 6: Holy Mother of Gawd What Do I Title This?

The January 6 Hearings. Part 4: The Intimidation Campaign

Tuesday's hearing was probably the most emotional of the four so far. 

We got a glimpse into the threatening intimidation campaign against state election officials at all levels. By resisting, those citizens defended the Constitution and preserved the institutions of our democracy. If you know LSR at all, you know I am a U.S.A. Pollyanna. I truly deeply believe in the good of our country. The past few years have shaken me, but hearing these patriots renews my hope. 

We heard from four live witnesses: three Republican state officials, one from Arizona and two from Georgia, and a poll worker from Georgia. Two of them received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) (yay!) led today's questioning of the live witnesses. 

It was powerful.

Simultaneously to the pressure campaign waged against V.P. Pence, the Tangerine Palpatine's campaign was launching a similar campaign against election officials and legislators in several battleground states. Even after he was told unequivocally by his own team and the Department of Justice that there was no fraud, 45 placed extreme pressure – intimidation really – upon state officials to "find" extra votes for him, to find fraud, and to install an "alternate" (illegal) set of electors to issue their own faked certificates which would be given to V.P. Pence and Congress in place of the lawful elector votes. Then he set about demonizing those who did not do his bidding.

First up was Arizona State Representative Russell "Rusty" Bowers, the Speaker of the Arizona House. Mr. Bowers has served in the Arizona state government for decades, most recently as a member of the House of Representatives since 2015 and Speaker since 2019. Bowers is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. He's a lifelong Republican, certainly longer than Mar-a-Lardo has been. He voted for him and wanted to see him reelected. He's as far from a "RINO" as you can get. And still he resisted the pressure placed upon him to perform illegal acts.

The first part of his testimony shot down a statement made shortly before the hearing. The former president* had said that during a November phone call with Bowers, Bowers "told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona."

Bowers testified, "I did have a conversation with the president. That certainly isn't it. Anyone, anywhere, anytime who said that I said the election was rigged, that would not be true."

Bowers outlined the pressure campaign and very poignantly explained that his oath to the Arizona Constitution and to the U.S. Constitution would not allow him to comply. He described how Giuliani and Eastman pressured him at different times. He explained that he asked Giuliani for evidence of fraud (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and thousands of dead people voting), and none was provided. And in fact, he recalled of Rudy Giuliani, "My recollection, he said we've got lots of theories. We just don't have the evidence."

He said more than once that his faith (he's Mormon, and he believes the U.S. Constitution is "divinely inspired") and his oath of office guided him. When Giuliani asked him to replace the electors of Arizona with a different slate, he told him, "I will not break my oath." When Old Wack Donald telephoned Bowers, he also told him – more than once – that he would not do anything illegal. And that was it for him. The campaign kept trying, right up to the morning of January 6, when U.S. Representative Andy Biggs from Arizona called him for one more effort. Bowers would not budge. 

Bowers kept a journal during that time, and he read from it: 

It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor. I may in the eyes of men not hold correct opinions or act according to their vision or convictions, but I do not take this current situation in a light manner, a fearful manner, or a vengeful manner. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to.

At the end of his testimony, Bowers described the ways his life has changed, including terrible harassment and threats of violence that has been waged against him and and his family. He was nearly in tears as he described how groups in vans with speakers and video screens have trawled his neighborhood, blaring that he is a pedophile and a corrupt politician. People came through his neighborhood armed with firearms and harassed his neighbors. All of this deeply upset his wife and his daughter who was ill with cancer (and who died three weeks after the insurrection). 

Rep. Schiff asked for a short break after Bowers's testimony, allowing us all to collect ourselves. 

And then there was Georgia. Oh my dear lawd, the pressure on Georgia. As you recall, Dolt 45 lost the election in Georgia by 11,779 votes. He was desperate to find a way to change the results of the election in that state.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his chief operating officer Gabriel Sterling sat before the committee and testified. 

Raffensperger detailed how fast, accurate, and consistent the results of the Georgia counting process was on every one of the three counts. He was proud! 

You'll remember hearing portions of his 67-minute-long telephone call on January 2 with 45, where SCROTUS asked him to "find" 11,780 votes. The Danger Yam knew very well by January 2nd that the claims of fraud were bogus and that he lost the election. But he called Raffensperger anyway. 

The committee played more of this recorded phone call, more evidence of the Quarter Flounder's crimes. Here is the entire recorded phone call and transcript. 

Every single assertion that 45 made was shot down by Raffesnsperger.

There was a mysterious suitcase full of ballots that had been hidden under a table and brought out late at night. No, it was an official ballot-holding box and it was counted in the usual way.

"They dropped a lot of votes in there late at night." No, the poll workers accepted ballots until 7pm on Election Day as allowed by law.

5000 dead people voted. No, they found evidence of four, 1-2-3-4, dead people voting.

You can just 'recalculate' the votes. No, the numbers in the original count, the re-count, and the second hand-count recount all came out remarkably the same. "The numbers are the numbers, the numbers don't lie."

Raffensperger testified that every one of the campaign's claims of fraud was investigated and none panned out. He was crystal clear that SCROTUS lost Georgia: "Simply put in a nutshell, what happened in fall of 2020 is that 28,000 Georgians skipped the Presidential race and yet they voted down ballot in other races. And the Republican Congressman ended up getting 33,000 more votes than President Trump. And that's why President Trump came up short."

During this intimidation campaign, Voldemoron insinuated that Ratffensperger was dishonest, incompetent, or criminal. In a veiled threat, Clownigula told Raffensperger, "And I watched you this morning and you said well, there was no criminality, but I mean, all of this stuff is — is very dangerous stuff. When you talk about no criminality, I think it's very dangerous for you to say that."

And yes, Raffensperger and his family also were subjected to terrible harassment and threats by Twitler's supporters, including sexualized threats against his wife and a break-in into his widowed daughter-in-law's home that she shares with her children.

Yet he reamained stalwart. When asked why he didn't just walk away, Raffensperger said, "Because I knew that we had followed the law, we had followed the Constitution. And I think sometimes moments require you to stand up and just take the shots. You're doing your job. And that's all we did. You know, we just followed the law and we followed the Constitution. And at the end of the day, President Trump came up short. But I had to be faithful to the Constitution. And that's what I swore an oath to do."

Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, described how he "lost it" when he saw a tweet doxxing a 20-year-old first-generation American youth who worked as Dominion polling machine contractor. The tweet called the kid a traitor and included a GIF of a noose. 

You remember Mr. Sterling giving the powerful press conference on December 1, 2020 just after he saw this tweet. He angrily called out 45 by name and warned that violence may ensue and there was a risk of the loss of life because of this behavior. 

Here's that press conference in full.

Mr. Sterling also took part in reviewing the videotape that the Mango Moron and his supporters said contained evidence of all kinds of election malfeasance. The videotape showed absolutely normal operations. He was extremely frustrated that the campaign conflated perfectly normal procedures into some sort of nefarious conspiracy theory. He tried to publicly combat the misinformation scheme as best he could. 

Last to testify on Tuesday was Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss, a low-level Fulton County election official and poll worker. She described her love for the job of enfranchising voters by helping them apply for ballots, access absentee ballots, as well as her work in counting ballots. She said she had been inspired to be a poll worker because of her grandmother, who instilled in her the importance of voting because it is a right not to be taken for granted. 

Ms. Moss and her mother "Lady Ruby" Freeman were both working to count votes and were in the building when that famous video was taken out of context and circulated by the campaign as some sort of "proof" of "fraud."  

They became the next victims of the Jabba the Gut's ugly intimidation campaign. Horrible allegations were made about them. Here is what Rudy Giuliani said about them: "Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss and one other gentleman quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine. I mean, it's our — it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor they are engaged in surreptitious illegal activity again that day, and that's a week ago, and they're still walking around Georgia lying." 

That USB device? It was a ginger mint. 

DJT himself used Ruby Freeman's name 18 times in the phone conversation with Raffensperger. These two hard-working poll workers, doing the job for the good of their state and the nation, serving the citizens of Georgia, were directly and by name targeted by the most powerful man in the free world. 

And of course they were traumatized by the abuse and threats they suffered. "A lot of threats wishing death upon me, telling me that, you know, I'm — I'll be in jail with my mother, and saying things like be glad it's 2020 and not 1920."

Here we are, more than a year and a half later, and still their lives are turned upside down. They suffer anxiety and depression and live in fear of threats of violence.

Lady Ruby testified, "I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore. I get nervous when I bump into someone I know in the grocery store who says my name. I'm worried about who's listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I'm always concerned of who's around me. I've lost my name, and I've lost my reputation. I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with number 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen." (I love that Lady Ruby called him "45" in her deposition. Keep that filth out of your mouth!)

I was in tears from the start of Shaye's testimony, celebrating the civic joy of doing election work, to the end of it, lamenting the injustice and pain of the harassment she and her mother endured. 

Ms. Moss was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage in April, 2022.

She no longer works for Georgia elections.

George Winners (thanks to Sister Resister Karen for the 'toon)

There's more.The hearing was chock-full and nothing was superfluous. It deserves a watch. Here it is:

Final thought. 

TЯUMP's brand of misinformation has its own life. It continues. As Chairman Bennie Thompson said in his opening statement, "Two weeks ago, New Mexico held its primary elections. One county commission refused to certify the results, citing vague, unsupported claims dealing with Dominion voting machines. The court stepped in, saying New Mexico law required the commission to certify the results. Two of the three members of the commission finally relented. One still refused, saying his vote 'Isn't based on any evidence. It's not based on any facts. It's only based on my gut feeling and my own intuition, and that's all I need.'" 

We must not let truth and facts become supplanted by the fantastical fantasies of wing-nuts. Keep up the hard work, resisters!

The next hearing is tomorrow, Thursday June 23, at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern. After that, the hearings will be postponed until July, as the committee has uncovered "a mountain of new evidence" and they need time to compile it. 

Again, many thanks to Stephen Colbert and his viewers for nicknames!

Click here for Part 5: Target DOJ