Sunday Update:The plan now seems to be for the House to officially request that Pence invoke the 25th amendment within 24 hours, at which point the House will fast-track Impeachment, probably by midweek. But the Senate won’t meet until after Trump is constitutionally gone, and it can’t begin a trial until officially notified of the Impeachment by the Speaker. So Rep. Clyburn suggested that the Speaker might delay it for several months, while Congress plays its part in assisting President Biden in confronting the urgent issues he faces.
On Sunday, more arrests were made, more calls for Trump’s removal, more details of how prepared some of the rioters were to stage a violent coup, and more finger pointing of who was responsible for the security failures. Meanwhile, one of the Capitol Police officers who dealt with the insurrection committed suicide. And millions watched this video by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking very personally about his memories from his Austrian childhood of the aftermath of the Nazi takeover, saying that Wednesday was the American equivalent of Kristallnacht, “the night of broken glass” perpetrated by Nazi youth (the equivalent, he said, of the Proud Boys) that initiated the rise of Nazism that consumed Europe and left a broken generation.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
As more information is reported and posted, an article on the CNN site Saturday observed: “it’s becoming clear that as heinous as the attack looked in real time, on live TV and in our social feeds, it was even worse than we knew then... It was even more violent. It was even more treacherous. And Trump’s behavior was even more disturbing.”
Evidence grows that some of the rioters were armed, some with explosives, and appeared to have goals and knew their way around the Capitol. Several were photographed carrying the kind of plastic ties that police use to restrain suspects. Kidnapping and holding hostages is a frequent theme in the web chatter of right wing extremists, including white supremacists (some known to be there) and neo-Nazis.
Witnesses heard shouts of attackers inside the Capitol looking for Speaker Pelosi and others, including vice president Mike Pence. A Reuters photographer heard several people claiming to be intent on capturing Pence and hanging him.
With top officials spirited away—and other Members hiding in the gallery, in fear of their lives—actual violence was limited to the Capitol Police, one of whom has since died of his injuries—reportedly beaten with a fire extinguisher.
The gathering of the mob, reportedly financed by Trump campaign dark money, was organized on social media. In the past two days, Trump has been banned for life by Twitter and Facebook, and they have begun to police posts advocating violence more stringently. The extremist platform Parler has lost its ap status on Apple and Google, and Amazon will stop hosting it.
Still, right wing extremists are making plans to gather in Washington and at state capitals, armed, on the 17th (to specifically carry weapons) and the 19th and Inauguration Day.
Trump is their unifier—apparently he is sometimes referred to as GEOTUS: God Emperor of the United States. But even as some AlwaysTrumpers fall away, the most violent and extreme continue—because their cause is what the others have implied and tried to hide: white supremacy.
But they have lost the element of surprise (if not collusion by law enforcement.) They will face the full array of security in Washington. There will be armed forces with riot training around them, snipers on buildings, helicopters and other aircraft above them. They will not get within a mile of the Capitol this time. Their whiteness will not fully protect them again.
In the short term, federal law enforcement is identifying and charging miscreants from the Capitol. Others being identified by Internet sleuths and reporters are being fired or resigning (including a now former state legislator from West Virginia, several local law enforcement and teachers.)
But what happens in the longer term, after this still-building anger is superseded by other concerns, will depend on how committed the appropriate federal government agencies are or will be during the Biden administration to countering a white supremacist terrorist movement that has become a violent clear and present danger. Those agencies must systematically approach these groups as they would any terrorist organizations. Certainly in the past year and past week, these groups have left no doubt as to their terrorist capabilities and intentions.
Racism is a real and independent element in American life, and has always been. Race has also been the flashpoint even when class oppression is the operative cause of distress and injustice Racial injustice is partly the result of this error, exploited by the class and economic exploiters. Racism is how all kinds of fears are expressed. While societally these deep problems become questions of policy and politics, the danger of white supremacists is a matter of self-defense.
Meanwhile in Washington the fervor for impeachment grows. Unless Speaker Pelosi comes up with a different plan, Trump will be impeached by the House this coming week. Reverting to form, Senate Majority Leader McConnell announced that the Senate will conveniently not begin the resulting trial until after Trump’s term is over at noon of January 20. Trump is said to have made clear to White House staff that he will not resign.
On Saturday, the vice president’s office leaked the information that VP Pence may still try to invoke the 25th amendment, if Trump does something else to warrant it. Whether this is a political smokescreen, or an indication that the groundwork has been laid to do this quickly, is anybody’s guess at this point. But State Department diplomats and career officials have twice urged invoking the 25th amendment in group cables to the Secretary of State. A Reuters poll shows 57% of respondents want Trump gone immediately.
Also over the weekend, two major Texas newspapers called for Senator Ted Cruz to resign (Houston Chronicle) or be expelled from the Senate (San Antonio Express.) Several Democratic Senators have also called for the expulsion of Cruz and Hawley. That also cannot happen until after January 20, when the Senate will be faced with the need to advise and consent on Biden cabinet nominees, pass emergency legislation, and possibly conduct the trial of Trump—if only to vote afterwards to ban him from federal office (or federal contracts) for life.
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