Michael Cohen warned us. Two years before the January 6 insurrection, former US president Donald Trump’s one-time fixer testified to the House Oversight Committee about his former boss: “I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
Cohen is not Nostradamus. But his prediction was spot on. He knew Trump better than most.
Now America knows too. The January 6 Committee held its seventh public hearing on Tuesday, with direct testimony that confirmed Trump was informed repeatedly by his advisers, administration officials and campaign staff that he had lost the 2020 presidential election. He knew there was no evidence that the result was rigged or stolen. Despite this, he refused to concede. Instead, he attempted a coup d’état.
The contours of his attack have long been apparent. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy put it bluntly in the immediate aftermath: “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell also condemned Trump on the Senate floor: “There is no question, none, that president Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet earth.”
Yesterday the committee outlined Trump’s actions between December 14, 2020, the day electoral college delegates voted 306-232 to confirm Joe Biden as the next president, and January 6, 2021, when Congress assembled to count those votes.
The evidence centred on a critical White House meeting on December 18, 2020. Described as the most “unhinged” meeting of Trump’s administration, it began with Trump, his long-time confidant Rudy Giuliani, former national security adviser lieutenant-general Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell, and Patrick Byrne, founder of internet retailer Overstock.com. (Byrne had previously been forced to resign as CEO and chairman of the company after an affair with Maria Butina, convicted spy and now member of the State Duma representing Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.) No White House staff were in the room at first.
This quartet presented Trump with a draft executive order instructing the secretary of Defence to seize voting machines, and to appoint Powell as special counsel to investigate the election.
While they were pressing their case, White House counsel Pat Cipollone learnt of the meeting. He bolted to the Oval Office with deputy counsel Eric Herschmann and staff secretary Derek Lyons. Over the ensuing hours, amid shouting and insults, the White House officials vehemently rejected allegations that the election was fraudulent. Cipollone shot down their claims with a simple question: “Where is the evidence?” They had none, because there was none. He told the plotters: “At some point you have to put up, or shut up.”
Trump heard every word.
When the meeting ended after midnight, Trump was left alone. Then he pressed the button. At 1.42am he tweeted “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” As multiple witnesses have testified, backed up by emails, text messages, and videos, this was the spark that summoned the mob.
Later that day Alex Jones, a bombastic conspiracy theorist, and other far-right provocateurs went into overdrive. Jones urged listeners of his Infowars podcast to assemble in Washington DC on January 6. “Where were you when history called?” he demanded. Ali Alexander, associate of Roger Stone and organiser of Stop the Steal, registered the internet domain name wildprotest.com. YouTuber Salty Cracker rejoiced: “Red wave, bitch! There’s gonna be a red wedding going down Jan. 6,” referencing a violent murder scene in the Game of Thrones TV series. Thousands more joined in their clamour.
The rest, as they say, is history. They came, they fought, they failed. Trump failed.
Eighteen months on, the Gordian knot of Trump’s treason can appear hard to unravel. But the January 6 Committee’s investigations have pulled it apart thread by thread.
First, Trump lost the election, and he knew he lost. Everyone who worked for him knew he lost. They told him, and now they have told us.
Second, Trump refused to accept his defeat. Just as Cohen had warned. Trump had no intention of leaving office.
Third, Trump tried every trick he could to remain in power. He filed dozens of legal challenges. He harassed state and federal election officials. He pressured Department of Justice leadership. He sought to install toadies who would do his bidding. He oversaw the submission of fake electoral votes to Congress. He demanded his vice-president obstruct the official count. He conspired with congressmen to refuse to certify the election. He relentlessly poisoned his supporters with the big lie. And he directed his armed paramilitaries to storm the Capitol at the head of a mob to overthrow the government.
He did everything except prepare for the peaceful transition of power.
As Representative Jamie Raskin said: “the Watergate break-in was like a cub scout meeting compared to this assault on our people and institutions.”
These are the facts. The January 6 Committee, and the hundreds of witnesses who have spoken under oath, have laid them bare. Only those unencumbered by truth can continue to deny them.
