Washington DC—The January 6, 2021 coup attempt was the culmination of a carefully laid plan to seize power from Joe Biden, the clear winner of the 2020 Presidential election. Its coup-plotter in chief, Donald Trump, nearly succeeded. If not for several unforeseen circumstances his plans would have made him the 46th President. But how close to overturning the election did he and his coconspirators come? And what would have happened had they prevailed? We take a detailed look at what happened on that fateful January 6, what the consequences could have been, and whether or not such a chain of events can be prevented from ever happening again.
This is part II of a III part series of reports of the state of democracy in the United States. It outlines significant events leading up to the January 6 2021 U.S. Capitol Insurrection which were not widely reported, and discusses flaws in the election system contributing to it, and the continued effects of the insurrection on the 2024 presidential election. It further discusses what can be expected in the days after general public voting has finished on November 6, 2024.
Introduction
Donald Trump’s deadly attempt to forcibly halt certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election came closer to success than many realize. His influence on his base is still widely under appreciated. What is worse is this influence has largely remained unchanged nearly 4 years on and that he continues to call the election “rigged” and claim it was “stolen.” He still holds stunning sway over tens of millions of his ardent supporters despite an enormous number of incidents that would have ended the political careers of most others. Among the worst of those is having been indicted on multiple counts in multiple court cases in separate States:
1. He faces indictment and trial in the U.S. District Court in Washington DC on four charges in connection with his alleged attempts to overthrow the presidential election.
2. In a Georgia State court case he has been indicted along with 18 others in league with him or working inside his administration, for their combined alleged roles in Georgia State election fraud.
3. In Florida State he faces ongoing felony charges over his alleged illegal removal of dozens of boxes of classified defense national intelligence documents. This court case is presently in limbo and waiting an appeal by Jack Smith at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals following dismissal of the case by Trump appointed judge Aileen Cannon.
4. In NY State he has been convicted on all 34 felony counts brought against him for fraudulent payments from his business, the Trump Organization, to his attorney, Michael Cohen, to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels in the months leading up the 2016 Presidential election. He awaits sentencing in this case.
Concurrent with these legal entwines, over 1240 have been charged with 100s of sentences handed down to many of those who took place in the January 6 rioting and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the Department of Justice website. It was unprecedented in American legislative history. One of the insurrectionists was shot outside the House Speaker’s Office in the U.S. Capitol, five died in total, including a police officer, and over a hundred and forty police were injured, two taking their own lives later.
Extensive reporting of the appeals and rulings in these trials have failed to significantly affect Trump’s base of support and most poling results showed nearly undiminished support just days out from the election in which Trump and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris remained in a statistical dead heat. The 2024 election is likely to come down to a thin spread of votes in the Electoral College.
Moreover, Trump continues to push a false narrative about the 2020 presidential election outcome, raising doubts about the legality of it, raising doubt among his supporters as to States’ vote accuracy and refusal to accept the final results reflecting his loss. He continues this false narrative without offering any evidence to support his claims despite over 60 court decisions handed down rejecting all suits his campaign filed to challenge the results. He was afforded every opportunity under the law to challenge States’ election results but would not accept any of the court rulings.
More recently, multiple court cases against dozens of fake electors his party slated in seven battleground States during 2020 are still playing out: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These fake electors—people who were not vetted or approved to cast electoral ballots—allegedly attempted to deliver their own fake election certification results in support of Trump to State legislators.
In Nevada a State judge threw out the fake elector suit in June 2024 based on the venue issue that it was filed in Las Vegas County instead of the County in which the Electors worked. The Nevada State Attorney General disagreed with the Judge’s ruling based on the threat the fake electors posed to the entire State, and promised to appeal the suit to the Nevada State Supreme Court. The Nevada fake elector scheme involved the State GOP Chairman and four other members of the State GOP.
Historically, any one of these events would singularly end the political aspirations of any other candidate running for President. But these are no longer normal political times in the U.S. The traditional conservative GOP leadership has ceded its principles and power to Trump’s cult of personality which has lapped up its entire energy and rejected anyone within the traditional GOP that has not conceded to it. Several GOP State parties voted to censure Senators who voted to convict Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors during his Senate Trial after his second impeachment resulting from his J6 coup attempt. Other notable GOP leaders who stood opposed to Trump for his actions leading to J6 were Liz Cheney and Republican Party Senators who voted against him during his Senate Trial. The GOP no longer exists in its traditionally conservative sense and has morphed into wraparound subservience to one man.
January 6: Not Just A Skirmish But Part of a Grand Conspiracy
Donald Trump’s mob of insurrectionists came unexpectedly close to delaying the election certification in the Senate long enough to cast doubt as to whether or not the election result would be or could be certified, as provided in the Constitution. Delaying the House certification even one day past the J6 requirement would have opened the door to process chaos and allowed one or more States the time needed to refuse to recognize Joe Biden as the rightful winner. The aim of the conspiracy was to delay the constitutional process of tallying and certifying States’ electoral votes, or by introducing fake electors certificates during the ensuing chaos in the House of Representatives. This would delay affirmation of Biden’s win and by default allow Donald Trump to remain in the Presidency past the January 20, 2021 inauguration date as set forth by the 19th Amendment of the Constitution. We discuss the details of how the Electoral College operates in the section below.
Such a split would have caused an unprecedented Constitutional crisis with a delayed or contested result requiring a Contingency Election in the House of Representatives. This could have been delayed even further by uncooperative States’ electors, pushing a final adjudication to the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS). The SCOTUS was itself compromised along a partisan divide at the time. Although no one knew this at the time or understood just how compromised SCOTUS was until a New York Times report published in May 2024 revealed that Justice Alito flew an upside down U.S. flag at his residence in Northern Virginia for 11 days after the insurrection. He later flew an “Appeal To Heaven” flag at his New Jersey vacation home. A compromised SCOTUS could have easily ruled on any appeal in favor of Trump. At that point a deeply divided and angry electorate bathed in waves of conflicting information, would have been pitted against itself and easily parlayed towards further violence and perhaps into massive civil unrest.
Looking at how his teams of attorneys have continually delayed pre-trial rulings by appeals of the four major cases pending against him, his main strategy has been to stifle legal proceedings until after the 2024 election. And 4-years on, he is still delaying these trials. In the only case he was tried, the NY State Election Fraud trial, during which he was convicted on all 34 felony counts for hush money payments from campaign funds through his then attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, he has successfully delayed his sentencing by successive appeals until after the 2024 election.
There is little doubt he would have been able to delay the States’ J6 vote certification of the Electoral College in the House of Representatives. It would have been easy for him to delay the election process in the House by legally stressing the loopholes in the constitutional process in the 2 weeks before the January 20 inauguration. This would have delayed the final decision to a partisan Supreme Court.
Confirming the Presidential Winner: A Convoluted Process
The Founding Fathers never intended for the people themselves to decide outright who the President would be by a majority public vote and this is the first of two keys in understanding the underlying reasons leading to the 2020 presidential election chaos. The second key is that never before had one political party collectively conspired to subvert the election process at nearly every critical decision point in that process. There were many Trump players in this effort but they all had the same goal: Get Trump 4 more years. And yes, there was the Nixon secret scheme and cover-up of 1972-3 to break into the Watergate hotel and bug the phones of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, but that involved a limited number of operatives and it came nowhere to the level of January 6.
One of the many agreements made by the Founding Fathers during the Constitutional Convention was how a President would be selected. It was one of the major points of contention between the Delegates which threatened to derail the 1787 ratification of the Constitution. Without an agreement the collaboration of the Constitutional Convention would have ended in chaos. Delegates were divided into two schools as to how the Articles of the Constitution would guide this process. This was because there were States that had much larger populations and wealth than other States. Some States’ Delegates believed States with larger populations should have more influence in Congress and thereby more voice in government, such as selecting a president; other smaller States sough a voice equal to the larger States. As part of the Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, Delegates finally agreed on a system of selecting the president by an Electoral College.
Electoral College—Semantics and Role
Many Americans do not fully appreciate the detail of how a president is actually selected. It is a strange archaic system compared to other democratic processes in existence today but in 1787, there weren’t many democratic systems in existence to model and designing the government of the new U.S. Republic was necessarily by consensus. And there were strong feelings and much fear among the Delegates about how to prevent a king-like personality from rising to power. They feared the fragile fledgling government could easily devolve back into a leader state, like the Crown of England from which they had divested. Their interest was to create a balance of power between three branches and creating an agreeable process of selecting an Executive was a major concern.
The Electoral College was first outlined in Section 1 of Article Two of the Constitution. It was amended in 1804 because the process originally laid out was unviable with a major flaw. It permitted the possibility of a President and Vice President to be selected from opposing parties. This result caused great difficulty in governance in 1800 because it took 36 Electoral College votes to decide the President and Vice President and they were both from different parties and had differing opinions on legislative matters. They realized a change was needed. So in 1804 they reconfigured the Electoral College process just before the election and agreed to amend the Constitution with the 12th Amendment. It affords the creation of the ‘ticket’ concept where both President and Vice President come from the same party.
It was eventually agreed that the Electoral College would be a group of presidential and vice presidential electors appointed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. The 12th Amendment of the Constitution provided that the number of electoral votes each State would have is the number of Senators (set at 2 per State) plus its number of Representatives in each State (based on population with 250,000 residents equal to one Representative). The number of Representatives was based on the size of the population of each State. Each state would apply their own legal procedures determined by its legislature, to determine who would be the Electors to cast votes. The State Electors could not be the actual Senators or Representatives of each State in order to prevent lame duck electors from being influenced or coerced to vote a certain way. So the congressional delegation would total 535 electors in the 50 states. The Twenty-third Amendment ratified in 1961, granted the federal District of Columbiathree electors, bringing the total number of electors to 538. Reaching a majority of these at 270 votes would determine the winner of the presidential election. Territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no votes in the Electoral College.
The Multi-Stage Process—The Electoral College is a Process Not a Location
Stage one: In October, the Archivist of the U.S. (located at the National Archives and Records Administration) (NARA) sends instructions to and notifies each State Governor to appoint electors. The electors form the Electoral College and are the actual electors of the President.
On the first Tuesday of November, the people vote in a national election. This event gets all the national news attention. This election the first Tuesday is November 6, 2024. But it is not the criteria for selecting the president and this is where many misunderstand the function and purpose of the Electoral College.
Stage two: After election day and all the popular votes have been tallied, the Governor of each State prepares the Certificate of Ascertainment. This is the list of electors at the State level which will vote for the candidate. After the Governor of each State submits the names to the National Archives, each Electoral College member meets in the State Legislature to cast their votes. This meeting takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. In this year’s election the respective States Electors will meet to vote on December 16, 2024. In 2020 this was the pressure point at which Trump’s co-conspirators tried to insert false Electors in seven States.
Stage three: The electors formally meet in Washington DC on January 6 to formally cast their votes. It is actually possible for a candidate to win an ‘inverted’ election by winning the vote of the electors but by losing the popular vote of the people as happened most recently in 2016 (Clinton v. Trump) where Clinton won by 2.8 million popular votes overall but lost the in the Electoral vote tally 227-304). This happened in 2000 (Gore v. Bush where Gore won by 500,000 popular votes overall but lost in the Electoral vote tally 266-271). Other inverted elections occurred in the 1824, 1876, and in the 1888 elections. In these elections the Electoral College results opposed the collective will of the population and show that an inverted result is not unique to this century. In 2020 this is the infamous day Trump exhorted his followers to raid the U.S. Capitol.
Contingency Election
The 12th Amendment provides that a Contingency Election be held for selection of a president and vice president in the unlikely event that the Electoral College fails to fulfill its role: either to reach a 270 majority for any candidate or that the Electoral College vote is tied. In such a scenario the States would then consolidate their Electors into a single voice and cast that vote, each State having one vote; the majority of such a vote would determine the winner of the election.
This happened in the 1824 presidential election during which John Quincy Adams was selected by a Contingency Election vote on the first attempt and defeated Andrew Jackson. The general population went through great pains over this outcome because it had voted in majority for Andrew Jackson, and as a result in 1828, Andrew Jackson won in a landslide based on the popular vote.
This election, such a scenario would in effect, totally throw out the voices of every citizen who voted because it would toll the popular vote just like it did in 1824. In the present day, the country finds itself in an extremely contentious political environment with two parties pitted against each other in a manner not seen since the Civil War. It does not help matters that Trump and others in his party have stated, in effect, that they will not unconditionally accept the results of the election they are fair, leaving open the question as to whether or not they would accept the election results; saying unless they are fair. Democrats have openly stated they would unconditionally accept the results of the election.
There are numerous scenarios in which conditions leading to a Contingency Election could play out. At Madison Square Garden on Sunday, October 27, Trump said during his speech that he and House Speaker Mike Johnson had a “Little Secret” and that “we will tell you what it is when the race is over.” That statement could be interpreted to mean they had an agreement to win the election no matter what the popular vote results were. In the case of a disputed Electoral vote the could force a Contingency Election if one of the States in which there was a dispute delayed the certification of Electoral votes past the December 16 deadline. There are presently 26 States which have Republican Legislatures and 27 States which have Republican Governors. Any of these States having an Electoral vote result contested could be the basis for a Contingency Election under the 12th Amendment.
The key for a democratic system to work is this: party participation must be intentional as much it is obligated. Participants must act in good faith. With Trump openly discussing a secret agreement and not acknowledging that he will unconditionally accept the results of the election in the case of a close race, which all indicators show it is, there is certain to be a difficult and contentious period following November 6 in the Legislature and in the Courts, in which the president is eventually selected.
Setting The Stage of Democratic Discontent—Misinformation and Fear
The 2 months between election day and January 6 saw Washington DC boarded up like a Gulf Coast Beach community before a category-five hurricane. Part of this was due to residual business closures after the Corona Virus Pandemic of 2019. And we covered this story previously. However, many offices and stores which had opened up in the year that followed the Coronavirus Pandemic boarded up again in the 2 months before January 6 because far right extremist group protests were planning violent actions targeting Black Lives Matter Plaza and the DC community.
There were two major extremist “Stop the Steal” protests targeting Washington DC: One was held on November 14 and another on December 12.
Trump flamed the “Stolen Election” narrative whenever he could and he affirmed among his base of support that the election was unfair and “rigged.” This undermined public trust in the election system among his base. He called for several ’Stop the Steal’ actions in Washington DC; one on November 14, 2020 and another on December 12. The J6 Stop the Steal rally was the last of these but also involved pulling in as many of the general public as could be bused into Washington DC.
These rallies were not for political sake, but were organized with intent to later march through the streets after dark and search for “Antifa” and violently confront them. They led to civil conflict in Washington DC unlike anything seen since the Vietnam War as large groups of extremists roamed through Washington DC and harassed residents, marched through neighborhoods with their Proud Boy fags, their confederate flags and issued threats to attack counter-protesters—and they did. On December 12, 2020, Enrique Tarrio and Joe Bigg, leaders of the Proud Boys, led a mob of hundreds who attacked and damaged venerable church property and attacked DC citizens. Proud Boy Groups and Oath Keepers had descended on DC in response to Trump’s urging. During a debate with Joe Biden on September 29, 2020, Tramp said of Proud Boys, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” signaling them to get ready for action—and they did. In that statement he also blamed “Antifa”, saying “But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.”
We published this video of the night of December 12, 2020 during which Proud Boy groups rallied at Freedom Square and then marched in military files through Washington DC, after their “Stop the Steal” rally, chanting “F— Antifa.” Later that night they mobilized in full force and their actions resulted in many injuries and property damage at venerable historic churches.
Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and other extremist groups from surrounding states from as far North as New York and as far South as Florida took part in these actions and they were warm-ups for what was to come on January 6.
The mainstream media largely ignored these protests and with the exception of some limited coverage by independent media, protests flew underneath coverage of mainstream newscasts. But the local DC activist communities were aware of them and mounted large counter protests, resulting in clashes when groups of Proud Boys came and marched in the streets after their rally at Freedom Plaza. As night fell they broke into groups and roamed through neighborhoods in search of victims. Some of the groups actually marched in files like military units searching for a perceived enemy in a jungle, carrying extremist flags, and chanting “F— Antifa.”
Again maintain media ignored this threat. The DC Metropolitan Police mobilized but stood on streets in pseudo-bureaucratic lines allowing Proud Boys free access to maneuver through back alleys where they strategized. That was until reports in mainstream media finally circulated that hundreds of Proud Boy extremists mobbed and vandalized the property at the venerable Asbury United Methodist Church, and burned its Black Lives Matter sign in the street at 11th and K. Incidentally this lack of significant deterrence by police was the same posture that led to the breach at the U.S. Capitol—video of that day reflected police standing idly as extremists and insurrectionists walked right into the U.S. Capitol like a tour group on a Sunday visit.
The mayhem continued that night at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 15th and M Streets NW, which was also vandalized when its Black Lives Matter sign was torn down by Proud Boys and stomped upon in the street. It was the church that held the funeral of Frederick Douglas, whose home was in Anacostia, MD. This church has been in existence since the Civil War and this also struck a particular chord in the mainstream media.
Vandalism was also reported at Luther Memorial Place Memorial Church, a church on Vermont Street that has been in existence since 1873, to “heal the wounds of the Civil War.” It was not known who damaged the sign at Luther Memorial Place Memorial Church but it was replaced and in the following days, volunteers stood watch outside the church to protect the sign which was prominently displayed on its lawn.
For their role in these December 12, 2020 church attacks Proud Boy organizer Enrique Tarrio was tried and sentenced to 6 months in jail during a criminal trial. A Civil Court adjudged $1.03 million in civil damages for the church against the Proud Boy Organization LLC, as well as Joseph R. Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, and two others for their roles in the church vandalism.
The fallout from December 12 mob attacks of venerable churches in DC did little to stop Trump’s false narrative of a rigged or stolen election, however the church vandalism incidents did hit the news cycle at its heart, but by then it was too little, too late. The slings and bows were set for the stones and arrows that would fly on January 6.
Trump continued fanning the narrative of a stollen election up to the moment several thousand breached barricades and climbed the parapet at the Western Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The scaffolding for the inauguration was already built and largely completed but it gave insurrectionists easy access to the unprotected elevated entrances near the rotunda.
January 6–Trump’s Failed Speech—The Terrible ’What Ifs” That Almost Came To Be
On December 19, 2020, just 17 days before the count of the Electors, Trump tweeted “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th, be there, will be wild!” This tweet prompted the actions that were to come on January 6. Proud Boy groups immediately began to chatter on social media and planned to mobilize.
The insurrectionists expected Trump to jointly accompany them to the U.S. Capitol, and once inside, they would siege the Legislature and stop the Legislative counting of the States Elector votes by force. They assaulted hundreds of U.S. Capitol police and broke windows and doors to gain access. Once inside they were confused about the layout of the building and were disorganized. They confronted staff and Congress retreated in fear for their lives to the safety of a bunker built in the early 2000s. The bunker was completed in 2008 as part of the underground visitor center which is 2/3 the size of the U.S. Capitol itself. This bunker was the last line defense at the physical layer of security that kept insurrectionist from achieving their goal of getting to Mike Pence.
Insurrectionists battled police for 187 minutes from the time Trump’s speech ended on the Ellipse at 1:10 pm until he sent a video message at 4:47 pm telling his mob to stand down. Only then were police able to begin gaining the upper hand. But what if Trump had accomplished the five minute drive from the White House to the Capitol. He wouldn’t have needed to enter the building. He would have needed only to be nearby to direct his mob to go in—just knowing he was there with them would have emboldened them even more to continue occupying the U.S. Capitol and further delay the Electoral vote count. The presence of Trump could have made the storming of the Capitol a considerably more volatile environment. In such an environment a Electoral College vote certification would likely not have been completed for an indefinite period.
Trump’s driver in the SUV played a role in resisting Trump’s attempt to seize the wheel to force him to drive to the Capitol after his speech. He specifically disputed this claim, however given the atmosphere of lies around Trump, this rebuttal may or may not actually be true. No other part of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony during the January 6 Select Committee interviews has been publicly disputed by Trump’s former driver. Hutchinson was the Aide to Trumps Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.
During the U.S. Capitol assault Police Officer Eugene Goodman singlehandedly diverted insurrectionists from the U.S. Senate chambers. Had he not been where he was and had the presence of mind it is like the mob would have reached Senator Chambers. He later escorted Senator Mitt Romney, an oppositional figure to Trump, away from the mob and as a result Senator Romney barely escaped to the bunker. This moment was another close encounter that could have changed the outcome of January 6.
Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the Senate for the certification of the Electoral vote count. At 2:24 pm, Trump tweeted “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution….” Minutes after he tweeted this statement the insurrection mob began beating down doors and breaking windows. But what if Mike Pence had not certified the results. The entire certification process would have been in limbo for an indefinite period. As it was, the certification was not completed until 3:34 am on January 7, 2020, over 12 hours after the voting count was to begin.
It is doubtful Trump could have reversed the outcome in a way that all 50 states would fail to recognize their Electoral certificates, but he really only needed one State to fail in its duty to throw the process into chaos.
The violence was deadly, shocking, and law enforcement was unprepared and did not expect violence to rise to the level to which insurrectionists assaulted them. A published report shows that guns were seized from some of the insurgents before and after the battle, and one during the battle as well. In addition, the insurgents were armed with a wide variety of weapons short of firearms, including tasers, poles, bear spray, and knives.
Multiple people used bear mace against police during the attack and this was recorded on video and reported by many sources including members of the Capitol Police who were attacked. At least one carried dozens of plastic ties which are used by police to handcuff members of Congress. He was subsequently convicted for trespassing into the U.S. Capitol.
The fighting was also unabated for hours and brutal. Some military veterans among the police who had seen war said this was worse than any battle they had ever served in. AP News quoted Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards as calling the attack a “war scene” and saying “There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. I was slipping in people’s blood.”
Yet only one person was shot (Ashli Babbat) and several other shots were reported to have been discharged inside the Capitol that struck no one.
According to the AP, the person who placed the bombs at both DNC and RNC headquarters has never been found.
Another published report on the January 6 committee hearings reported that D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges was crushed in a doorway, and was lucky to survive. He recounted afterwards that the reason he and other officers held their fire was that if the situation turned into a firefight they would lose, and this was a fight they could not afford to lose. He feared that there were more bombs, didn’t know how many guns the insurgents had, and even considered the risk that the sounds of shooting were the signal to detonate any such bombs.
With this level of violence and brutality it is a wonder that the insurrection did not succeed outright. However it did demonstrate the fervor to which the thousands, some estimates place at 20,000, were dedicated to Trump.
The climax of the battle and probably the decisive point was the shooting of Ashli Babbat. Tragically it was this loss of a life, a person mesmerized by the sway of MAGA Trumpism that saved many others.
Aftermath and Way Forward
On October 18, 2024, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan released Jack Smith’s 165 presentation along with nearly 1900 pages of evidence in Trump’s election interference case, with much of the evidence redacted (blacked out). It is evident in Jack Smith’s submission of evidence that the January 6 coup conspiracy was much more organized and orchestrated than previously known. The full investigation of the events of that day has not been released but the intent was clear: overturn a democratically elected president.
Had they succeeded we would not know what we know today. Jack Smith would not have been appointed as Special Prosecutor and Trump would have been reelected, and probably the last president to serve under this Republic Rep .
He has since not ceased in attempts to undermine the 2020 election and worse, many in the present version of the GOP have joined by silence in his dispiriting methods and attempts to retake the Presidency.
Trump’s presidential campaign has been waged with bigotry, threats, vulgarity, and intimidation of those who oppose him. Each day sees a new low in his campaign and in the language he uses against others who oppose him.
As a result, the U.S. political landscape has devolved into a seeming ancient Roman gladiator fight to the finish. Several of his former conservative cabinet members, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Miley have described Trump’s talking points as authoritarian and General Mark Miley labeled him “fascist to the core.”
Trump has revisited talking points of Adolf Hitler in openly describing immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” ridiculing and threatening political opponents with violence, and minimizing minorities such as the Trans, Latino, Haitian, and Puerto Rican communities.
The political future of the U.S. is unrecognizable under a dark cloud no matter who may win the 2024 presidential election. In a scenario of a GOP loss this election cycle, future power will eventually shift towards the newly born Trumpian GOP as elections shift and weakened parties regain power as they inevitably do at some point in the future.
Now it will be up to the people to mobilize against the rising current of fascism.
In our next and final part III of this series we discuss how ordinary citizens can legally and successfully mobilize against fascism, extremism, and a political landscape that no one seems to understand.
Part III: How to legally fight fascism in your community here.
Other references:
Discussion of Jack Smith 185 page evidence filing in DC election fraud case:
youtube
Link to “the enemy within” by Trump
Trump dissembles democratic guardrails with fascist talk.
12th Amendment explained.
