By MARSHALL WARD
Our corrupt, deranged president, his sycophants, and the silence of his complicit enablers set the stage for the Jan. 6 crimes in the People’s House.
As America watched in real time, federal laws were broken by seditious thugs:
1) 18 USC 2383: Rebellion or Insurrection
2) 18 USC 2384: Seditious Conspiracy
3) 18 USC 2385: Advocating overthrow of Government
4) 18 USC § 351 - assault on a member of Congress
5) 18 U.S. Code § 842 - Explosives (the RNC and DNC pipe bombs)
6) 18 U.S. Code § 930 - firearms in federal facilities
7) 18 USC 1361 - damage to gov't property
8) 18 USC 2112, 2114 - robbery/burglary of federal property
Our crazed president immediately praised these criminal seditionists for their attempted coup of our government: “I know your pain…We love you. You’re very special.”
Donald Trump has debased and defiled the presidency. He has launched blistering attacks on Democrats, on judges he disagrees with, journalists who analyze him and the intelligence community. He incited the treasonous behavior on Jan. 6.
Trump urged his supporters for weeks to descend on Washington, D.C., to stop what he insisted was the “stealing of the election.” The riot and “occupation” of the Capitol building was planned for weeks on web sites such as “The Donald."
After Trump’s sedition speech on Jan. 6, his supporters ceased to be protestors and became seditionists when they crossed the threshold to the Capitol building. According to social media posts, their mission was to come armed and ready to occupy the Capitol, take Democrats hostage, hold kangaroo mock trials, and seek their sick form of justice.
Don’t let Trump’s latest video fool you as he criticized the seditionists. And don’t dare believe the conspiracy theorists who are saying that “Antifa” or Joe Biden caused the violence.
Trump and his enablers are like arsonists who set a fire, pour accelerant on it, bask in the glory of the blaze, and show up at the end to help put it out.
Many of these principal enablers are now working overtime to fool you by distancing themselves from Trump as the country has finally awakened to see the carnage.
Let’s not forget Mitch McConnell's complicit behavior. “No person has done more in living memory to undermine the functioning of the US government than the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell," said Robert Reich, a former labor secretary. "Many of these deranged rioters say the government has left them behind. They have been led by Fascist activists intent on destroying our Republic.”
In his sad-faced speech on the Senate floor Jan. 6, Mitch McConnell spoke of overturning millions of votes by subverting the electoral vote count. "It would damage our republic forever," he moaned.
McConnell has been overturning the votes of millions voters for years by allowing bipartisan bills to sit on his desk. He is one of the problems that manifested itself on January 6. He is the second person on the “accessory before the fact” list that America needs to hold accountable.
We must not dare praise Mitch McConnell or anyone complicit in this sedition which has been festering since Trump announced his candidacy. By his deafening silence, McConnell has aided and abetted Trump’s rhetoric of violence by refusing to call witnesses during the president's impeachment trial, putting young, unqualified right-wing ideological judges on the bench for life, and allowing this Grifter-in-Chief to steal taxpayers’ dollars to pad his pocket at every turn.
Maybe the worst of the worst is freshman Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo), the silver-spooned Stanford, Yale Law school graduate, and former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts. He raised a power fist in support of the seditionists. And during the assault on the People’s house, he and Sen. Ted Cruz sent out fundraising emails.
Remember that Hawley and Cruz, to curry favor with Trump's base, initiated the objection to the electoral votes of the swing states that would delay the final certification of Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris's victory.
Lastly, there are troubling questions about the Capitol police, Homeland Security, and Interior Department officers who seemed to stand down and “help” these seditionists make their way into the Capitol building.
The picture at the Lincoln Memorial steps before the Black Lives Matter march speaks volumes about the racism in law enforcement that must be addressed now. Dressed as soldiers, about 100 officers from Homeland Security, the Park Service, Metro DC police, Secret Service, and Capitol Police joined National Guard from about a dozen states. They were ready to shoot. But where were they on Jan. 6?
“I guarantee you if that [Jan.] was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C., there would already be people shackled, arrested or dead,” said Joy Reid, the MSNBC host.
There are too many “accessories before and after the fact” to list who will be working hard to hide their involvement. But social media--recorded quotes, photos and hashtags--will help lead law enforcement to the perps.
The most important lesson: all these complicit enablers should be held to account and punished to the fullest extent of the law if we want to restore our foundation that “we are a nation of laws and not men.”