"Mike Pence Deserves It"

On January 6th, Trump behaved like a psychopath and Kevin McCarthy was "scared"

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In the latest retelling of what happened on January 6th, Liz Cheney has emerged as the most stalwart Republican defender of our Constitution and Mike Pence is the brave patriot who saved America in its darkest hour.

In this version, America was and is being “saved” by two conservative extremists whose views and policies have horrified Democrats for years. Simply to get through this moment we have to set aside the fact that they both agree with Trump 99% of the time and continue to be A-OK with overthrowing American democracy the old fashioned white supremacist way, through blatant voter suppression.

But that’s the best we’ve got from the GOP right now.

American Democracy Is Still Hanging By a Thread

After night one of the televised January 6th Committee Hearings, the reality of what happened on that day has been brought into sharper, more terrifying focus.

We already knew what happened. But there were some new reveals. We saw clips of Bill Barr saying Trump’s election fraud claims were “bullshit,” Ivanka Trump saying that she was influenced by Barr because he’s always so trustworthy, and a clip of Jared saying all he really cared about was getting as many of his criminal associates pardoned before the Trump Crime Family had to leave town.

Even for those who already knew that Trump was a psychopath who would become even more frantic when backed into a corner, it was shocking to hear Liz Cheney say:

Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves it.’

Last night was just a taste of what is still to come but it highlighted exactly why Fox News decided not to show its viewers the reality of what Tucker Carlson attempted to pass off as a “forgettably minor” incident. One example: Texts between Sean Hannity and then-White House Press Secretary (and current Fox News host) Kayleigh McEnany discussing the 25th Amendment were displayed.

Cheney’s opening statement teased that:

You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the President for help, including Republican Leader McCarthy, who was “scared” and called multiple members of President Trump’s family after he could not persuade the President himself.

Committee Chair Bennie Thompson set the tone for the two-hour hearing with opening remarks that described the historic enormity of what happened on January 6th:

Unlike in 1814, it was domestic enemies of the Constitution who stormed and occupied the Capitol… who sought to thwart the will of the people…to stop the transfer of power.

And Thompson made clear that it was Trump himself who played the Bin Laden role in orchestrating this attack on America:

Donald Trump was at the center of that conspiracy. And ultimately, Donald Trump—the President of the United States—spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy.

We heard that some Congresspeople sought pardons from Trump before he left office, indicating the widespread consciousness of guilt among those who spread the Big Lie, planned the day’s events and incited the mob.

We saw new video of the buildup to the attack, including a video of a January 5th parking garage meeting between Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was caught on tape by documentarian Nick Quested. Multiple members of both groups are new charged with seditious conspiracy.

We saw new video of the attack itself.

“I Was Slipping in People’s Blood”

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards delivered vivid personal testimony, rooted in her family’s personal history of service to America, that will forever shame “Back the Blue” Republicans who try to dismiss what happened on January 6th as just a tourist visit.

Officer Edwards was knocked unconscious at the start of the insurrection, got back up and kept fighting for hours. “I’m not combat trained,” she said, even as as she fought “hours of hand-to-hand combat,” while “slipping in people’s blood.”

Mike Pence is being called a hero for doing his job that day. The true heroes are those, like Officer Caroline Edwards, who did so much more than just a day’s work to help ensure what should have been a routine and peaceful transfer of power actually happened.

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