First Trump tweeted about how it was all up to Mike Pence not to let him down.
Then he gave a speech to the crowd telling them it all depended on Mike Pence doing his bidding, even as he knew that Pence wouldn't.
Then he told the mob to go to the capitol to watch to see who was on their side
At the capitol someone in the mob erected what appears to be a functional gallows.
They stormed the Capitol. Once inside many were heard to be actively looking for Mike Pence in order to kill him.
Some in the crowd chanted "HANG MIKE PENCE"
And to top it all off AFTER THE CROWD HAD BREACHED THE CAPITOL, perhaps the very moment they were asking aloud where Pence was, and chanting "HANG MIKE PENCE", Trump ***sent out a tweet attacking Mike Pence.***
Donald Trump put his own Vice President's life in danger. It's as clear as day, and it's wild to me that Republican politicians are just gonna shrug that off.
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In the almost 10 years I've hosted a cable news show, I've had a lot of occassion (unfortunately) to cover massive acts of violence from mass shootings to terrorist attacks to large scale protests that have turned violent.
In *each and every case* - no matter what jurisdiction, from the largest city to the tiniest rural county, local law enforcement gives some kind of media briefing after the event is over. Often these happen in middle of the night or wee hours of the morning.
Often they're repeated multiple times a day to give updated information: how many police officers were killed or hurt, how many civilians were killed or hurt, how many people are hospitalized, who has been apprehended, and who is still at large, and what suspects are being sought
People should be clear on what happened. The reason, the number one reason, there wasn’t a deal sooner, with a higher price tag, was that Trump *completely* ignored the entirety of the negotiations.1/x
It was always clear he could get a deal at a number closer to Pelosi’s if he actually cared and wanted to lean on Senate R’s. But he didn’t! Because he didn’t care. And post-election he has spent literally all of his political capital attempting to overturn American democracy
On that task he has been quite focused! There’s no official too low-level to lobby! So why did he just decide to suddenly pay attention? I think the Occam’s razor is *to screw McConnell*.
@NateSilver538 It’s been laid out in a bunch of places pretty plainly and turns on a Kennedy in Bush v Gore opinion (not the holding, crucaillu) that the constitution gives to the state legislatures the exclusive ability to choose electors.
@NateSilver538 This combined with both state law and the Electoral College Act’s provision of what to do if states fail to make a selection was gonna be the plan if the margins were thin enough. Cast doub on the integrity of a batch of possibly deciding ballots, then the state leg
@NateSilver538 Say that essentially there’s no way to trust that vote, ergo “failed to make a selection” and then award electors directly and give it a shot at SCOTUS.
Remember, Atlas has repeatedly said we don't *want* to stop the virus from spreading, in fact we want it to spread! And then, his argument went, we'll protect vulnerable populations (those in long-term care facilities, those with co-morbidities). But guess what happened.
This was all perfectly obvious to everyone. Literally no country has allowed the virus to spread and succeeded in protecting its vulnerable populations from death and severe illness. No one! Countries either control the virus or their people die en masse. That's it.
Let me take a run at this in a less snarky fashion. I think there are some people inside the GOP who are genuinely pushing towards a new consensus on monetary/fiscal policy that views tight labor markets as a good thing that policymakers should aim for. This is good!
These folks have, obviously, *enormous* instutional opponents, both ideological and economic. (Capital tends to like slack labor markets). I truly want them to win and the only way out of disaster in a divided government is *for them to win*.
BUT
Today's announcement on Judy Shelton suggests the institutional GOP will do what it always does and go back to pushing austerity and tight money in order to sabotage a Democratic president, even if it means screwing the same working class it *says* it no proudly reps.
I think it's more more likely we're not going to have lockdowns and instead policy-makers will just let the hospitals melt down and lots of lots of people will die uneccesarily.
It's already happening in some places (South Dakota, El Paso). People will die in ER waiting rooms before they can be treated and people will die at home alone before they even make it to the hospital. Death upon death upon death. An ocean of it before us.
There's a notion that many around the President have, and has fairly wide purchase that "it is what it is." Nothing to be done. Well that's a loser's ideology. If you want to be a winner, if you want to Make America Great then for the love of God save your people.