Dec.26

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Takeaways from the Select Committee's Final Report

The Select Committee's report has been out now for a few days, so there are plenty of takeaway pieces from different media outlets. Let's take a look at some of them.

• The report shows the full extent of the effort to overturn the election
• Extremists played a key role in the riot
• The push to overturn the election started right away
• Even Trump didn't take Sidney Powell seriously
• Cassidy Hutchinson's lawyer was trying to protect Trump, not Hutchinson
• The Committee thinks Trump should be constitutionally disqualified from ever holding office again

• The Committee submitted criminal referrals for Trump
• Twelve conclusions show that Trump broke the law and knew it
• Law enforcement should have expected the riot and were unprepared

• The report lays out the full case against Donald Trump in one place and pulls no punches
• It is a comprehensive narrative supported by vast details
• It's not just about Trump, but also about Muriel Bowser, law enforcement, the National Guard, and more
• There is no corroboration about whether Trump tried to grab the wheel of the SUV and go to the Capitol
• The court fights over documents were well worth it
• There is more to come, with documents and transcripts

• Many witnesses under oath couldn't remember anything about an extremely unusual and eventful day
• There were many interconnected parts to the plot to overturn the election results
• Recommendations: update the ECA, bar Trump from office, give congressional subpoenas teeth
• Surprising notes: James Watkins is not Q, Trump was furious when USSS protected him in 2020
• Ginni Thomas, Ray Epps, and Robin Vos aren't mentioned anywhere
• Rolling the report out at 9:46 p.m. Thursday with no warning or index was pretty poor form
• The Committee used many sources, including e-mails, phone records, and documents from NARA

• Trump is accused of breaking four laws
• Trump resisted urging peace even after the rioting started
• The rioters were armed with a huge array of different weapons
• His staff repeatedly told Trump the conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines were false
• Trump's team thought Giuliani was crazy
• The report didn't shed any light on Cassidy Hutchinson's story about Trump trying to grab the wheel of the SUV
• Trump might also have tried to obstruct justice

• The report was intended for as a permanent record for the history books
• It lays out the multipart scheme Trump had to try to overturn the election
• It releases many small details not previously known
• It details Trump's lack of action as the riot progressed and he knew about it
• The recommendations are intended to safeguard democracy from a repeat performance

Interestingly, we have been unable to find and "takeaway" pieces from Fox News, Breitbart, or other right-wing outlets. We guess they are slow readers or were too busy decorating their holiday trees.

The PBS story summarizes a detailed list of actions and inactions of Trump's misconduct, many of them illegal:

• Lies: Trump lied endlessly about events and talked about nonexistent fraud over and over. He may have done this to raise money. However, in addition to raising money, the lies also provoked his supporters into coming to the Capitol and rioting.
  
  
• Oath: Trump took an oath to the Constitution and swore that he would see that the laws were faithfully executed. Not only did he violate his oath of office, but he conspired to break laws himself and ordered others to do so as well.
  
  
• Pence: One of the people Trump pressured to break the law was the vice president, Mike Pence. He corruptly pressured Pence—repeatedly—to violate the law and try to interfere with the counting of the electoral votes.
  
  
• DoJ: Trump tried to pressure the Dept. of Justice into helping him overturn the election results. When the officials being pressured threatened to resign, he offered the job of acting attorney general to Jeffrey Clark, who was willing to go along with Trump's lies. Only when the entire top of the DoJ threatened to resign if he did that, did Trump relent.
  
  
• State officials: Trump's pressure campaign was not limited to federal officials. He also pressured many state officials. These included secretaries of state and state legislators who were ordered to make up new slates of electors. This pressure violated many state laws about interfering with an election.
  
  
• Slates of electors: Trump tried very hard to create false slates of electors and get them submitted to Congress. That violates all manner of laws. He may not have known that, but his lawyers sure did.
  
  
• Courts: Trump included false information in court filings, which is also illegal.
  
  
• The crowd: Trump summoned the crowd and when it showed up, provoked it and told it to go commit crimes. Again, he broke various laws here.
  
  
• Condemning Pence: Not only did Trump personally tell Pence to commit a crime, but Trump later went on social media to condemn Pence for refusing to do so. He knew this would provoke more violence. The rioters didn't catch Pence and hang him, but they came within 40 feet of him.
  
  
• Failure to act: Trump watched the riot for hours on television but did nothing to stop it, despite entreaties from his staff, members of Congress, and many others. He knew exactly what was going on and wanted it to continue.
  
  
• Conspiracy: All of these acts were preceded by a multipart conspiracy involving multiple co-conspirators. Trump knew exactly what he was doing since he planned it all carefully in advance. The riot was only part of the plan to overturn the election, but it was anything but a spontaneous uprising.
  

Naturally, Trump reacted to the final report. How could he not? It recommended that he be prosecuted for four felonies and be barred from ever again holding public office. He responded by posting a video to his social media platform saying that the Committee is deceiving the American people with lies. He also rebutted the Committee's observation that he did nothing for 187 minutes during the riot. He said that he sent out two tweets telling the rioters to support the Capitol police and remain peaceful. One might argue that his oath to see that the laws are faithfully executed requires a bit more than sending out two tweets in the middle of a riot. For example, during the Whiskey Rebellion, George Washington actually sent out five tweets telling the crowd to calm down, and then headed to the airport so he could talk to the rioters in person. That's what leadership looks like.

What Trump did not mention is that prior to those two tweets he sent out a tweet saying that Mike Pence didn't have the courage to protect the country. He also lied about the situation in other tweets. The report addressed the "good" tweets and said they had no effect on the rioters.

In addition to defending himself on the strength of two tweets, Trump whined that the Committee didn't conclude that the election was a corrupt disaster. Possibly because the Committee didn't think it was. (V)