I know, I know. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Yes, Trump can go lower. After four years, we’ve all learned there is no bottom.
But seriously, this is really, really bad.
A new report from The Washington Post [1] details Trump’s failure to quickly react to the horrific mob violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol Building last week.
Trump’s first tweet as the Capitol was being evacuated last Wednesday was to attack his own vice president Mike Pence for not doing more to save his presidency during the electoral college tally. Remember, Pence was never legally allowed to do what Trump wanted. Everything Trump writes here is not real or true or possible.
His next tweets didn’t exactly help things much, especially the video he put out to tell people to go home in peace — a video that contained his usual lie about the election being stolen, as well as him saying of the people storming the Capitol, “We love you. You’re very special.”
Very special. The people that were storming the Capitol. Looting congressional offices, including the office of Speak Nancy Pelosi. And we must’ve forget the feces [2].
According to the Post, Trump wasn’t very responsive at first:
But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas.
“He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”
Even as he did so, Trump did not move to act.
Then the Post reported these details which are frankly, absolutely shocking:
Shortly after 2:30 p.m., the group finally persuaded Trump to send a tweet: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” he wrote. “They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
But the Twitter missive was insufficient, and the president had not wanted to include the final instruction to “stay peaceful,” according to one person familiar with the discussions.
At one point, Trump worried that the unruly group was frightening GOP lawmakers from doing his bidding and objecting to the election results, an official said.
His calls for healing and reconciliation were more than a day too late, many aides said. Yet as Trump watched the media coverage of his video, he grew angry.
The president said he wished he hadn’t done it, a senior White House official said, because he feared that the calming words made him look weak.
Democrats want Trump impeached, and even some Republicans are calling for the same. After all, if inciting an insurrection isn’t an impeachable offense, what is?
There were brief talks about Mike Pence inciting the 25th Amendment, but I can’t imagine Pence being that brave. So impeachment it shall be. Furthermore, the DC Attorney General is considering charging Trump for inciting the Capitol riots, and he can’t pardon himself out of that.