Even after the Capitol riot, Trump kept trying to steal the election
Quin Hillyer
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Perhaps the most appalling new revelation from the newest indictment of former President Donald Trump is that he and his henchman continued pressuring senators to wrongfully overturn Joe Biden’s election even after the horror of the U.S. Capitol riot.
According to the indictment, even after Trump made his bizarre video asking rioters to leave the Capitol but saying he “love[d]” them, Trump and his consiglieres spent hours continuing to try to impede the key civic ceremony signaling a peaceful transfer of power. At 6 p.m., Trump reportedly tried to call two senators. Two “co-conspirators” tried to ascertain the phone numbers of six senators and call five of them, with Trump personally having “directed” one of them “to call and attempt to enlist in further delaying the certification” of the election. In one of the calls at Trump’s behest, the henchman urged a senator (by voicemail) to “object to” the electoral votes of numerous states. In another call, the henchman repeated flagrant lies that governors had knowingly certified “incorrect” results and that 65,000 underage people had voted in Georgia.
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And as late as 11:44 p.m., another alleged co-conspirator emailed then-Vice President Mike Pence urging him to “adjourn for 10 days” without certifying the election.
All of this came even as all of them had been told numerous times, even by many Trump-friendly officials, that their claims were false, and in a few cases, had already reportedly admitted they were false.
Worse, all of this came after the nation had been traumatized by hours of scenes of their sacred Capitol building being physically attacked, windows and doors broken, scaffolds erected, and Capitol police viciously assaulted. This was after 140 law enforcement personnel were wounded, some of them seriously, after a rioter had been killed, after people with zip ties were seen yelling for the capture of the speaker of the House. This was after Trump’s own vice president had been subjected to multiple cries for his execution, after rioters had come within 100 feet and less than a minute of overtaking the vice president’s family (which came after Trump had tweeted more insults about Pence even after knowing Pence was endangered).
This was after rioters literally defecated in the Capitol halls, after an unexploded pipe bomb had been found and publicly reported, after Trump had been told that some of the crowd listening to his speech were carrying weapons.
Trump knew all this, yet he not only rejected pleas from the White House counsel to withdraw his objections but actively directed his associates to keep pressuring senators to do what every one of his hired government officials told him was the wrong thing – the inarguably wrong thing – to do.
While we must leave it to the special prosecutor to prove that Trump’s behavior was, in multiple ways, actually criminal, there can be no doubt that Trump’s actions collectively amounted to an ethical monstrosity. This was the most serious breach of the U.S. political system since the Civil War – and the first time the Capitol had come under assault since the War of 1812. Yet even then, Trump was willing to put the entire nation through more turmoil, indeed to put the whole political system in hock, for his selfish ambitions.
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There will be more to say later about why Trump’s post-riot activity also puts Republican senators in an even worse light, but for now, let’s concentrate on Trump himself. The man appears to be a dangerous megalomaniac. He should never again come even within sniffing distance of political power.