Murder on their minds
If you have been watching the second impeachment trial of the defeated one-term monster, it should be clear to you by now that the thugs he sent to attack our country on January sixth had murder on their minds. This reality was brought home effectively and chillingly by the brilliant impeachment manager and delegate to the US Virgin Islands, Stacey Plaskett.
Ms. Plaskett recalled her days when she was at the Capitol nearly 20 years ago on September 11, 2001. That day her life was saved — as were the lives of many others working for the federal government then, including some Senators who were present at the second impeachment trial. Forty-four heroic Americans deliberately crashed their plane in a Pennsylvania field, rather than allow it to reach its ultimate destination, the United States Capitol Building. They were patriots.
January 6, 2021 was a very different day from September 11, 2001. That was the day when American thugs posing as patriots did the filthy work of their hateful and cowardly leader, who cravenly remained behind in the Oval Office chuckling at the terror they inspired and inflicted. Ms. Plaskett presented horrifying footage seen by the public for the very first time on Wednesday, including body cam footage and security footage, of the carnage and terror of the attack.
She played for us disturbing calls from a Washington DC Metropolitan Policeman telling his dispatcher that the rioters had broken in, calling in vain for backup that never arrived. Despite numerous calls to Trump from members of the House and Senate who were still inside the Capitol, Trump sat back and permitted the rioters to do their worst. It was to be three or four hours before any real help arrived.
Meanwhile, the most powerful government on earth with the largest military muscle in the world by a factor of seven, was helpless. Meanwhile none of the soldiers of Fort Myer, just a mile and a half from the Capitol Building, were alerted to the problem. No National Guard was called in. The cavalry (not the “Calvary,” as January 6th protest organizer, rabid Trump supporter and fool Kylie Jane Kramer mistermed it) was not on its way. Not for a very long time. Lawmakers were abandoned to the terror and whimsy of the mob.
Rioters came in, some with full tactical body armour and carrying baseball bats. Some with high voltage stun guns, stormed into the Capitol shouting, “Bring out Pence!” and “Where are you, Nancy?” Officer Eugene Goodman may have saved Mitt Romney’s life and many Senators in the Senate, including some who voted not to impeach Trump, by turning Romney back and purposefully drawing the rioters away from the Senate chamber.
Dominic Pezzola, also known as “Spaz,” led the attack inside the Capitol. Pezzola has been charged with eight federal crimes for his conduct relating to the January 6 insurrection. The criminal complaint included quotes from an anonymous witness. The indictment says in part, “W-1 stated that other members of the group talked about things they had done during the day, and they said that anyone they got their hands on they would have killed, including Nancy Pelosi. W-1 further stated that members of this group, which included ‘Spaz,’ said that they would have killed [Vice President] Mike Pence if given the chance.”
Throughout the attack, the Vice President remained locked down with his family. He was a target because he refused to overturn the election, a thing he was not empowered to do in any case.
The mob sought out Nancy Pelosi with intent to kill her because Donald Trump sent them. Capitol police evacuated Pelosi from the entire complex, rushing her to a secure location. Had they found her the mob almost certainly would have killed the eighty year old Speaker. Eight of Pelosi’s staff hid in an interior room in her suite of offices and huddled there waiting for a rescue that took hours to come. In the Capitol Building. In the very seat of government.
William Calhoun, a lawyer from Georgia, was one of the thugs hunting for Speaker Pelosi. Calhoun wrote on his Facebook page, “And get this – the first of us who got upstairs kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door and pushed down the hall towards her inner sanctum, the mob howling with rage – Crazy Nancy probably would have been torn into little pieces, but she was nowhere to be seen.”
“Crazy Nancy,” Plaskett added with horrified exasperation, “that’s Trump’s nickname for the Speaker of the House.” Calhoun has also been charged with several federal complaints and probably faces disbarment.
Delegate Plaskett summarised it this way: “That was a mob that was sent by the president of the United States to stop the certification of an election … President Trump put a target on their backs, and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.”
We only need 11 more Republican Senators to vote to convict the vile monster Trump, and he will for all time be disqualified from holding public office. I plan to call my two Senators from Pennsylvania today, Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr and Republican Senator Pat Toomey, to urge them to vote to convict. You may call yours by way of the main switchboard and ask for your Senator by name. The number is 202-224-3121. 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.