The one-man crime wave
A new memo has been uncovered revealing that Republicans had a detailed plan for thwarting the newly elected government. It turns out that many plans for the January 6 coup attempt were created in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election.
The memo in question was created by Boston attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and it spells out a contorted multi-day program for having Mike Pence take control of the electoral certification in the Senate. As it happened everyone else who was vital to the success of the plan did their part and stood ready for Pence to do his. — except Pence didn’t.
It is unclear what would have happened had Pence cooperated with the attempted coup. But one thing is clear, he didn’t cooperate, and many Republicans blame Pence for the coup’s failure.
It’s ironic when you take a moment to think about it. For nearly two years now, in the run up to the 2020 election and to the present day, the extreme element of the Republican Party has insisted that the election would be and indeed has been stolen. While there still exists not one single solitary scrap of evidence to support this narrative, mountains of evidence has come to light that Republicans actually did try to steal the election. That they failed doesn’t make their obstreperous claims less ironic or less hypocritical. Were they being brutally honest they would have to say that their attempt to steal the 2020 election was thwarted. That’s what they’re really angry about.
All the concerted attempts to unseat Joe Biden, the lawfully elected President, track back to Donald Trump. Trump, who in a Salon interview Jamie Raskin recently referred to as a “one-man crime wave,” never saw a coup attempt he didn’t love. Indeed, Trump was prevented from calling in the army to remove voting machines by the less radical elements in his midst.
In the same Salon interview Mr Raskin also said Trump is “guilty as sin.” The evidence he has seen that leads him to make these assertions is about to be laid out before the American people in live broadcasts in a few days. The Department of Justice will also be watching. Once the DOJ has the evidence it should be a short step to indictment. Whatever the outcome, I would not want to be Donald Trump just now. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.