Disgraced former White House adviser Steve Bannon may have sealed his own legal fate today when he admitted on his “War Room” podcast that he helped plot the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol which led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer.
On his show Wednesday, Bannon played a clip of Peril authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa explaining how the Capitol riot had been planned prior to the event, with Costa saying during an appearance on MSNBC:
After he played the clip, Bannon remarked:
Gee, Steve, why would those people think that? Probably because Trump, Fox News, Newsmax, One America News, and other right-wing outlets repeated that lie over and over again until it took hold among those who couldn’t accept that the majority of the American people had rejected the failures of Trump and were ready to kick him to the curb.
Bannon then tried to cover his ass by suggesting that the Biden administration was imploding:
Maybe Bannon can content himself with that fact when he’s put in handcuffs and charged with sedition and conspiracy to commit murder.
On Saturday, a couple hundred protesters showed up at the “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C. The crowd was reportedly so sparse that media and police outnumbered the people there to show their support for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, many of whom are still in custody and facing years in prison.
Most notably absent at the rally were Congressional Republicans, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), both of whom have said they think the Jan. 6 rioters are being treated unfairly.
The absence of the elected GOP members was certainly noticed by the rallygoers, according to the right-wing Washington Times:
“Where’s McCarthy? Where’s McConnell? They’re all useless,” one demonstrator in the crowd yelled.
Steve Merkel of Baltimore who attended the rally called Republicans “cowards,” and said it was wrong that no one came out to support nonviolent offenders charged over the riot.
Merkel added:
What’s this? Trouble in right-wing insurrectionist paradise? Sure sounds that way.
As Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) later remarked, the pathetic turnout and lack of any elected Republicans in attendance suggests that the Cult of Trump may be dissipating:
Let’s hope so, because Trump and his minions are clearly a national security threat to the United States.
Though they try to keep their disagreements behind closed doors most of the time, there’s a civil war taking place inside the Republican Party, with once faction representing the pragmatic but conservative view that’s traditional for the GOP and the other eagerly making common cause with domestic terror groups and insisting Donald Trump must be allowed to serve as president for as long as he wants.
In other words, it’s the pre-Trump GOP vs. the Neo-Fascist GOP.
One of the most controversial of the new Republicans is Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL), a man who seems to believe that it’s perfectly acceptable that he dated underage girls and took them across state lines for the purposes of having sex with them. For that, Gaetz is now facing life in prison if he’s indicted and convicted.
But there are also some Republicans who try to walk the line between the old GOP and the new version of the party. People like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), who spoke with Donald Trump on the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and is worried details of that call will be provided to the House Select Committee investigating the riots.
Such was the topic for Gaetz on his podcast, Firebrand, and he noted that “McCarthy doesn’t have strong reactions to things. It’s not his style. Following the targeting of our members, he surprised and said this.”:
And yet, Gaetz then took a very real cheap shot at McCarthy:
So McCarthy can’t be trusted because he won’t punish Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger? That means there’s a very real war taking place inside the GOP and they’re aiming their guns at each other. It’s a circular firing squad, and that won’t end well for Republicans.
How should we respond to this? We should applaud with glee and hope for more. The sooner the Trump-infested GOP destroys itself, the better for this country.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is one of the most disgusting people to ever serve in Congress, and it now looks like he’s caught in a no-win situation that could leave both him and his idol, former President Donald Trump, facing criminal charges, according to a former top FBI official.
Frank Figliuzzi is the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he says things are about to get much worse for Jordan.
Appearing on “Deadline: White House,” Figliuzzi was asked about the fact that Jordan cannot recall how many times he spoke with Trump on the day of the Capitol insurrection. Figliuzzi replied:
That, Figliuzzi noted, is a nightmare for Trump, and it also implicates Jordan as part of a larger conspiracy that could result in federal criminal charges:
If we’re lucky, both Jordan and Trump will be destroyed for whatever roles they played in the Jan. 6 riots. And both of them deserve to be charged, tried, and found guilty of sedition and inciting an insurrection. Let the chips fall where they may.
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (R) doesn’t believe that everyone who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 deserves to be punished or charged with a crime because many of them are clearly being “persecuted” and the Biden administration is “targeting” them.
In an interview with HuffPost, Cruz had this to say about the fact that hundreds of Capitol insurrectionists are now facing serious legal jeopardy for their illegal actions:
And if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump it’s ass every time it jumped, Ted.
“As it turns out, Cruz’s sentiments are now increasingly common among those who remain loyal to failed, one-term former President Donald Trump:
“Some allies of former President Donald Trump are upset that protesters who didn’t assault police officers are being charged with misdemeanor offenses, the same type of charges they’d face had they been arrested at any protest inside the Capitol. Demonstrations are banned within the Capitol complex, and even an errant laugh during a congressional hearing can get you led out of the room in flex cuffs.”
So if you stand up during a congressional hearing and speak out of turn, you can be carted off and charged, but if you riot and enter the Capitol, take a shit in the hallways, and rub your feces on the walls, that’s no biggie, according to Cruz and other Trump faithful who seem to think the rules apply to everyone but them.
What happened on Jan. 6 was a crime. Plain and simple. And it has to be treated as such. If it isn’t, we’re inviting it to happen again and be even rose the next time.