Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

(1) Thread: Liz Cheney is telling the truth and she speaks for many of us.

Here's a speech she gave today.

https://twitter.com/RobbieGramer/status/1364277077583749121

(2) On 1/6 Trump falsely accused Pence of lacking courage.

In reality he showed immense courage, and so did every LEO who put him or herself in harm's way, particularly Officer Eugene Goodman who acted as a decoy to lure part of the mob away from the Senate chamber.

(3) I spent 4 years & 4 months supporting, defending & boosting the Trump campaign, presidency, & agenda.

After 11/3/20 my trust in the presidency eroded week by week. In mid and late December I went on record 4 times on Twitter warning folk to avoid the 1/6 rally entirely.

(4) IMO there is a false narrative about the Capitol riot that millions of Trump supporters are buying.

It's easy to pull it apart just with simple logic about how American government works and how large public protests are managed by LEOs in the US.

(5) There are many angles the supporters of Liz Cheney can take to prove the arguments made about 1/6.

I'm happy to discuss my views with anyone who approaches a conversation about it in good faith. My DMs are open.

Bad faith approaches don't work with me.

(6) In her foreign policy speech today Cheney said: "I've worked in my career in many countries around the world where they do not have peaceful transfers of power, where violence determines who rules. That almost happened here, in the United States on January 6."

(7) One reply to that tweet said: "It didn’t almost happen. It is absurd to claim that dozens of larping rioters would have somehow crowned a new President by acclimation via physical occupation of a building. ... Stop the melodrama."

(8) Read that quote again. Do you see the logical fallacy in it?

Cheney: It almost happened.
Random: No, everyone knew it was "just pretend."

(9) The only people claiming that only a few dozen were rioting & that the USCP should have just let them do it, are Trump apologists.

Everyone else, on the left AND the right can see how large the numbers were, & that no one should have been able to even cross the police line.

(10) The stated purpose of the protest outside the Capitol was to intimidate those inside who were voting on each state's elector ballots.

You can see that in Trump's tweets for weeks preceding 1/6, his speech that day & the words of his allies like Flynn, Wood, Powell & Stone.

(11) That's what I warned about in Dec. That even if it remained a peaceful protest, it would still be seen as a counterproductive intimidation attempt.

I also warned about the high chance it would switch from protest to riot.

Everyone could see that probability. Incl. Trump.

(12) Unfortunately the Democrats botched their impeachment attempt in a number of ways, I think deliberately.

Actual legal scholars like Jonathan Turley explained this before the Senate trial:

jonathanturley.org/2021/02/12/did…

(13) I say unfortunately bc of the wider impacts of the impeachment attempt, not necessarily because I think it should have succeeded.

It was an unforced error by the Ds, which gave the Trump defenders some crumbs to use while we wait for criminal investigations to conclude.

(14) And I'm not looking to see any former president end up behind bars, which would only inflame the situation further.

If Trump does end up facing criminal prosecution for his actions and omissions related to 1/6 (including beforehand) then:

(15) I think that if he is convicted of crimes that carry a potential custodial sentence, then a wise judge would enter the convictions into the record then decline to imprison him. And if not, then ANY president of the day would be wise to issue a pardon, like Nixon received.

(16) Like many Americans, I hate that Nixon retained his freedom while his allies got locked up, but I believe there are sound reasons for what President Ford did.

Trump's allies, if convicted, will probably be locked up. As they should, if the US is to be a nation of laws.

(17) So, back to the logical fallacy in tweet (7) above.

Trump's stated outcome from asking people to come to DC, then to march to the Capitol (knowing plenty were already there) was to intimidate lawmakers into rejecting the elector ballots & sending them back to the states.

(18) That intent was abundantly clear and on record from Trump, and his allies who promoted, funded, and in some cases took part in the events that transpired.

Some of the excuses I've seen Trump defenders using since 1/6 are incredible. Too many to list here for now.

(19) Trump asserted that Pence had the power to delay certification of the elector ballots. He did not.

Where did Trump get this "legal theory"?

In most of the reporting of this matter, Jenna Ellis fronts the theory, but it wasn't hers. It was this guy's: Lawyer John Eastman:

(20) John Eastman is criticized for many things, but IMO the worst is that he convinced Trump there'd be a way for Pence to reject the states' elector ballots, delaying certification of the election.

From there, Trump got the idea that Pence was a coward if he didn't do it.

(21) Some further background:

eg justthenews.com/politics-polic…

eg msn.com/en-us/news/pol…

eg law.com/nationallawjou…

The below quote is from: reuters.com/article/us-usa…

(22) In the normal course of events, we all accept that a crime of attempted assault is still a crime, even if the assault didn't happen or was extremely unlikely to happen.

The accused tried to do it, and wanted to do it.

That's usually enough for most people, right?

(23) The rioters weren't planning to "crown a president by acclamation," they tried to intimidate elected officials, in the building that is the HQ of the most important branch of the federal government. The exec branch derives its authority from the legislative branch.

(24) No matter how many LARPers or "provocateurs" the Trump defenders identify, a not insignificant number of the (so far) arrested rioters were avowed Trump supporters. Like Brandon Straka, Joseph Biggs, & Ali Alexander.

IIRC, Biggs was at Trump's election 2016 watch party.

(25) The rioters succeeded, for a few hours, bc the joint session had to be suspended & folk evacuated. Standard procedure when anyone breaches security and has not yet been apprehended and removed.

If you want to claim that no one should have been scared, you're clueless.

(26) Along with lawmakers, there were staff at all levels, LEOs (who were poorly equipped & were openly targeted) and visitors to the Capitol that day.

Those who were scared had every right to be.

Where was Trump? It took ~2 hours for him to respond to events he knew about.

(27) I said on Twitter in Dec 2020 that if the protest turned into a riot, not even Trump would have been able to call them off. That's why promoting the protest march/rally was so unwise.

I hadn't factored in that he wouldn't even try to call them off in a normal timeframe.

(28) Liz Cheney isn't calling for Republicans to move beyond Trump because she "was always a RINO." She's bravely standing up to him on behalf of the many people (like me) who want us to be honest, so we can oppose the Dems.

To me, Trump is the actual RINO in all of this.